SOURCE: Holland, Peter. “Durfey's Revisions of The Richmond Heiress.” Archiv für das Studium der Neueren Sprachen und Literaturen 216 (1979): 116-20.

In the following essay, Holland notes that a revised version of Durfey's The Richmond Heiress, one that eliminated much of the satirical force of the original, demonstrates the diminishing appeal of satiric comedy in the 1690s.

Thomas Durfey's The Richmond Heiress was first performed in April 1693; it was not a success. Dryden wrote to Walsh on 9 May:

Durfey has brought another farce upon the Stage: but his luck left him: it was suffered but foure dayes; and then kickd off for ever. Yet his Second Act, was wonderfully diverting; … The rest was woefull stuff, & concluded with Catcalls; of which the noble Dukes of Richmond and St Albans were chief managers …¹

Normally the play would have been expected to have sunk for ever but Durfey, whose opinion of his...