SOURCE: Holland, Norman N. “The Comical Revenge; or, Love in a Tub,” “She Wou'd If She Cou'd,” and “The Man of Mode; or, Sir Fopling Flutter.” In The First Modern Comedies: The Significance of Etherege, Wycherley and Congreve, pp. 20-7, 28-37, 86-95. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1959.

In the essays below, Holland analyzes the plot, main characters, themes, and structure of each of Etherege's comedies in an effort to trace his artistic maturation.

The Comical Revenge; Or, Love in a Tub

By March 1664 the theaters had been open for well over four years following the so-called dramatic interregnum. Yet scarcely a half-dozen new comedies had emerged to interrupt the revivals of Fletcher, Shakespeare, and Jonson that filled the stages, and none of these had caught the fancy of Restoration audiences enough to set a new style. There survived only Dryden's device of witty lovers from The Wild Gallant...