Marriage and its discontents lie at the heart of Restoration comedy. In all four of the great plays gathered here, a married woman confronts her would-be seducer. Each dramatist, however, totally reinterprets the situation. Thomas Otway's The Soldier's Fortune converts adultery into political revenge. Nathaniel Lee's The Princess of Cleves offers a potent and perplexing portrait of a libertine in action at the sixteenth-century French court. John Dryden's Amphitryon, set in ancient Thebes, retells the story in which Jupiter lures the virtuous Alcmena into cuckolding her husband by a stratagem that throws into doubt the very nature of human identity. Thomas Southerne's The Wives' Excuse reinvents, for the new circumstances of the 1690s, the familiar Restoration plot of a wife spurred towards infidelity by her partner's failings. All of the plays have been newly edited and are presented with modernized spelling and punctuation.

Four Restoration Marriage Plays: The Soldier's Fortune; The Princess of Cleves ; Amphitryon; or The Two Sosias; The Wives' Excuse; or Cuckolds Make Themselves (The ^AWorld's Classics)

Literature & Fiction

Otway, Thomas

Dryden, John

Southerne, Thomas

Lee, Nathaniel

Dramas & Plays

Oxford University Press

Marriage and its discontents lie at the heart of Restoration comedy. In all four of the great plays collected here, a married woman confronts her would-be seducer. Each dramatist, however, reinterprets this situation in a novel way. Rich, inventive, and diverse, the plays demonstrate the vigor with which the institution of marriage was treated in the post-1660 playhouse.

Four Restoration Marriage Plays: The Soldier's Fortune; The Princess of Cleves; Amphitryon; or The Two Sosias; The Wives' Excuse; or Cuckolds Make Themselves (Oxford Drama Library)

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Thomas Otway

Biographies & Memoirs

Kessinger Publishing, LLC

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

History

BiblioBazaar

The story of Venice Preserved is partly founded upon St. Real s History of the Conspiracy of the Spaniards against the Republic of Venice, in 1618. Voltaire compares the author of this History to Sail us t; and pronounces it superior to the English tragedy an assertion, which, like many others from the same source, was the convenient sentence of an adroit but reckless ignorance. The merits of St. Real are undoubted! great; but Otways indebtedness to him is exceedingly slight; and it is rmarkable to see how ingeniously, from a few meagre historical details, the great dramatist has constructed one of the noblest imaginative works of which literature can boast. The names of nearly all the dramatis persons with the exception oEB elvidera, are taken from St. Real; bat their characters are Otway s, and his plot is almost wholly original. The true Pierre was a Norman corsair, who had accumulated a fortune by plundering ship? in the Mediterranean. He was eventually strangled on board his own ship by order of the Venetian Senate. Jqffier was of Provence, and appears to have engaged in the plot against the state from his friendship for Pierre, and the prospect of gain. History says nothing of his wrongs, or his love for the daughter of Pritdi; and he was shaken in his faith to the conspiracy, not by the tears of a woman, but. partly by nis detestation of the sanguinary speech of Renault (in which Otway follows the history), and partly from being struck with compunction during the spectacle of the Doge swedding the A driatic, when his imagination contrasted the public rejoicings with the desolation which was to follow.(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)About the Publisher Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology.Forgotten Books' Classic Reprint Serie

Otway - "Venice Preserved" (Regents Restoration Drama Series)

Kelsall, M.

Arnold

Venice Preserved

The story of "Venice Preserved" is partly founded upon St. Real's History of the Conspiracy of the Spaniards against the Republic of Venice, in 1618. Voltaire compares the author of this History to Sallust; and pronounces it superior to the English tragedy--an assertion, which, like many others from the same source, was the convenient sentence of an adroit but reckless ignorance. The merits of St. Real are undoubtedly great; but Otway's indebtedness to him is exceedingly slight; and it is remarkable to see how ingeniously, from a few meagre historical details, the great dramatist has constructed one of the noblest imaginative works of which literature can boast...

History & Criticism

University Of Nebraska Press

The Orphan (Regents Restoration Drama Series)

Univ of Nebraska Pr

The Regents Restoration Drama series provides soundly edited texts, in modern spelling, of the significant plays of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Each text is based on a fresh collation of the early authoritative editions. The textual notes record all substantive departures from the edition used as the copy-text. Variant substantive readings among contemporary editions are listed. Historical background, stage history, and literary and cultural information are included.

Venice Preserved (Regents Restoration Drama Series)

Humor & Entertainment

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Books by Otway, Thomas

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Otway, Thomas. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Four Restoration Marriage Plays: The Soldier's Fortune; The Princess of Cleves ; Amphitryon; or The Two Sosias; The Wives' Excuse; or Cuckolds Make Themselves (The ^AWorld's Classics)

Four Restoration Marriage Plays: The Soldier's Fortune; The Princess of Cleves; Amphitryon; or The Two Sosias; The Wives' Excuse; or Cuckolds Make Themselves (Oxford Drama Library)

Thomas Otway

Thomas Otway

Thomas Otway

Thomas Otway

Otway - "Venice Preserved" (Regents Restoration Drama Series)

Venice Preserved

The Orphan (Regents Restoration Drama Series)

Venice Preserved (Regents Restoration Drama Series)