The Relapse is a Restoration comedy from 1696 written by John Vanbrugh. The play is a sequel to Colley Cibber’s Love’s Last Shift, or, The Fool in Fashion. In Love’s last Shift, a free-living Restoration rake is brought to repentance and reform by the ruses of his wife. In The Relapse, the rake succumbs again to temptation and has a new love affair.
About The Relapse in brief
The Relapse is a Restoration comedy from 1696 written by John Vanbrugh. The play is a sequel to Colley Cibber’s Love’s Last Shift, or, The Fool in Fashion. In Love’s last Shift, a free-living Restoration rake is brought to repentance and reform by the ruses of his wife. In The Relapse, the rake succumbs again to temptation and has a new love affair. In the 18th century, however, its tolerant attitude towards actual and attempted adultery gradually became unacceptable to public opinion. The original play was for a century replaced on the stage by Sheridan’s moralised version A Trip to Scarborough. On the modern stage, Therelapse has been established as one of the most popular Restoration comedies. It is valued for its light, throwaway wit and the consummate acting part of Lord Foppington, a burlesque character with a dark side. A minor part that was a hit with the première audience is the fop Sir Novelty Fashion, who flirts with all the women but is more interested in his own appearance and witticisms than the women in the play. In his autobiography he wrote that he thought a good portrait of the foppery in sex scenes then was a great portrait of himself later in life. He also said that he would like to write a biography of himself, in which he would describe himself as ‘a man of modest means’ and ‘a good man to be reckoned with’ But he also said: ‘I am not a man, I am a woman, and I am proud of both of those things.
I am not ashamed to say that I am neither a woman nor a man of any of those qualities, nor am I ashamed of either of them.’ He added: ‘If I were to write an autobiography, it would be one in which I would describe myself as a good woman and a good man, and not a bad one at the same time. That would be a good thing, wouldn’t it? That would make me feel better about myself and the world around me?’ He added that he was proud of the fact that he had been able to live his life to the full, even if he was not a good-looking man at the time. He said: ‘I am proud to be a woman and to have lived my life in a way that I have not always been.’ The play illustrates the opportunism at a moment in time before the change was assured. It also shows that the middle-class values of the nation tilted from the aristocracy towards the middle class after the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and middle- class values of religion, morality, and gender roles became more dominant, not least in attitudes to the stage. Such moments have not done the play any favours with modern critics. It has a kind of parallel structure to Love’sLast Shift: in the climactic scene of Cibbers’ play, Amanda’s virtue reforms her husband, and in the corresponding scene of The Relapses, it reforms her admirer Worthy.
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This page is based on the article The Relapse published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 04, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
