SOURCE: Rogers, Katharine M. “Masculine and Feminine Values in Restoration Drama: The Distinctive Power of Venice Preserved.” Texas Studies in Literature and Language 27, no. 4 (winter 1985): 390-404.

In the following essay, Rogers argues that Venice Preserv'd is one of the only plays of the period that realistically balances the values and motivations of its male and female characters.

The serious drama of the Restoration offers stimulating intellectual debates (such as Almahide's with Almanzor on the possibility of suppressing passion, in John Dryden's I Conquest of Granada, V.ii) and inspiring displays of manly friendship (such as the reconciliation between Antony and Ventidius in his All for Love, I). It can magnificently dramatize the values which concern or have traditionally been ascribed to men—reason, abstract ideals such as honor and patriotism, assertion of one's rights, friendship, and group loyalties. But its presentation of feminine values—sensitivity, tenderness, love, family...