A bold stroke for a wife

Author(s)

Bibliographic Information

A bold stroke for a wife

Susanna Centlivre ; edited by Nancy Copeland

(Broadview literary texts)

Broadview Press, c1995

Available at  / 2 libraries

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Note

Bibliography: p. 34-39

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Though critics and literary historians have always had to admit that Susanna Centlivre's comedies were extremely popular, they have tended to devote themselves to a search for evidence in them of supposed deficiencies of 'the female pen,' and to pay as much attention to the playwright's marriages and amorous liasons than to the plays themselves. Only in recent years has Centlivre come to be recognized quite straightforwardly as on of the most brilliant playwrights of her time. A Bold Stroke for a Wife 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 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 tolerance: 'tis liberty of choice that sweetens life.' Yet in the end it is Centlivre's comic muse that gives enduring life to the play as one of the most entertaining of eighteenth-century comedies.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Introduction Life, Career, and Reputation A Bold Stroke For A Wife Notes Bibliography A Note on the Text A Bold Stroke For A Wife Dedicaton Prologue Dramatis Personae Act I Act II Act III Act IV Act V Epilogue Textual Notes Appendix: Selected Documents Biography Criticism Stockjobbing

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Details

  • NCID
    BA85761224
  • ISBN
    • 9781551110219
  • Country Code
    uk
  • Title Language Code
    eng
  • Text Language Code
    eng
  • Place of Publication
    Petersborough, Ont. ; Cardiff
  • Pages/Volumes
    158 p.
  • Size
    22 cm
  • Classification
  • Parent Bibliography ID
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