Behn's The Rover was a very successful adaptation of a very unsuccessful closet drama by Thomas Killigrew called Thomaso, parts I and II. Killigrew's rambling play gets turned into a fairly tight piece of entertainment, debuting in 1677 with an all-star cast that included Nel Gwyn, the most prominent of Charles II's mistresses, as the courtesan Angellica Bianca. The play reflects glowingly on cavaliers who were loyal to the crown during the Civil Wars and represents their plight as expatriate patriots who embody monarchical values through their personal attractions and inalienable erotic pull. In spite of claims of immoral content (which one could easily make about most comedies in the Restoration), Behn's play fared better than those of her bawdy contemporaries. Late eighteenth-century revivals of The Rover probably used a bowdlerized script, but the play continued to hold some interest from a more prudish audience than its original.
Plot Summary: Two sisters, Hellena (the bad one) and Florinda (the sweet one) are in Italy at carnival time. Hellena is supposed to go to a convent to consolidate the family fortunes, and Florinda is destined (thanks to her father) to be married off to the rich old merchant Don Vincentio, but brother Pedro tries to get her to marry his friend Antonio for his own gain, neither of which seem like good ideas. Florinda is in love with the Englishman Bellvile, and Hellena is looking for fun and trouble, which she soon finds in Willmore, the Rover. Willmore, Belville, Frederick, and Blunt are all expatriate royalists, impoverished by supporting Charles II (except for Blunt, who is suspiciously wealthy and therefore politically suspect). They all encounter Angellica Bianca, the famous courtesan, whose fees are too high for Willmore. But she crumbles under the assault of his tremendous sexual appeal and "gives it away" for love, only to find herself betrayed. Furious, she threatens to kill him, but cannot go through with her play. Meanwhile, Willmore and then Blunt nearly rape Florinda on two different occasions, illustrating how fragile her position is as a virtuous woman. Hellenaís bolder and more sexually forthright approach to her social circulation proves safer in the end, since she can hide behind an assumed identity (the gypsy) and use her verbal wit to spar with Willmore about sex.