The Plain Dealer

This is a later Restoration play, and not one of my favorites. I've read others by Wycherly, such as the Country Wife, that I remember liking much better than this one. It's the man tests woman by leaving her lots of money while he's gone to fight a war (or whatever) type of play. But it's a highly cynical twist on that typical formula. Everyone is corrupt, and everything goes wrong, quite quickly.

I initially liked the fact that it was a twist on this stock story, but I found it poorly written. I love the intricate, elaborate language of restoration comedies, but this play's writing is just tortured and confused. And, what's worse, neither witty nor funny. There are lots and lots of insults and sketches of various "types" that the hero, show more Manly, hates, but they're just the typical sorts of insults (lawyers are bloodsuckers and liars, woman are inconstant, courtiers are flatters, wits are simply insultmongers) you find anywhere, with no imagination to gild them.

And the twist itself (that Olivia, the tested woman) is just a money-hungry seducer just really doesn't strike me as a clever subversion of the genre. Wycherly adds a single decent woman to the play, in the form of the breeches part Fidelia, who follows Manly around as he moons over and tries to be revenged on, Olivia. She's such a poorly drawn character, however, that the miraculous "happy" ending does little to save the play from feeling mysogynistic and bitter. The subplot in which Manly's friend tries to blackmail a pettifogging widow into marrying him is even less likely to arouse any sort of sympathy, in my opinion.

I know, the Restoration was a cynical time, but the better plays at least have some sort of spark to them--wit, sparkling language...something. show less