SOURCE: Warner, Kerstin P. “Otway's View of the Political Scene (1679-1683): Emerging Political Awareness.” In Thomas Otway, pp. 31-57. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1982.

In the following essay, Warner interprets Otway's writings as responses to the political unrest in Restoration England.

We have seen that there was a good deal of interest in the personal details of Otway's life, yet comparatively little attention has been paid him as a critic and observer of the political scene. In this chapter we will deal selectively with this side of the poet's work, in order to present his view of the series of social and political crises of the Restoration.

The Poet's Complaint of His Muse is autobiographical to the point at which Reason lifts “the veil of Dotage” from the Bard's eyes and shows him his Muse as she truly is, “a rampant, tawdry Quean.” The last figure in her degenerate train...