SOURCE: “Love's Last Shift and Sentimental Comedy” in Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Theatre Research, Vol. 9, No. 1, 1970, pp. 11-23.

In this essay, Fone contends that not only the reformation in the final act of Love's Last Shift but also the consistent moral tone throughout the play confirms its status as the first sentimental comedy.

That Colley Cibber's Love's Last Shift is, historically, the first sentimental comedy has been so long accepted that it has become part of the common cant of literary history. Dissenting voices acknowledge its place even while asserting their reservations. Though some few critics claim that earlier plays exhibit sentimental elements, and though others insist that the play is not properly a sentimental comedy, yet the orthodox view still maintains the primacy of Love's Last Shift.

Here I would like to review the criticism of the play, the charges and countercharges, and finally, present an interpretation of...