A Bold Stroke for a Wife - Centlivre, Susannah

Clean, tight, unmarked; a few pages had corner turned; some comments in margins in ink on a few pages; This is perhaps the finest example of Centlivre's masterful plotting of comic intrigue. The soldier Fainwell and Anne Lovely are in love, but their path to the altar is blocked by her guardians, each of whom has a different view of what sort of husband would make the right match. Fainwell resorts to disguises tailored to suit each of the guardians, who together form a gallery of social types. The play thus provides a wide range of opportunity for Centlivre to satirize Tory respectability, religious propriety and capitalist speculative greed - and to give voice to her won strongly Whig views, emphasising cooperation and tolerance: 'Tis liberty of choice that sweetens life.' Yet in the end it is Centlivre's comic muse that give enduring life to the play as one of the most entertaining of 18th century comedies.
Good
Soft cover
Broadview Press
1995
Peterborough, ON