Tunbridge Wells (play)

1678 play

Tunbridge Wells

The play premiered at the Dorset Gardens Theatre

Written by| Thomas Rawlins
Date premiered| March 1678
Place premiered| Dorset Garden Theatre, London
Original language| English
Genre| Restoration comedy
Setting| Tunbridge Wells, present day

Tunbridge Wells; Or, A Day's Courtship is a 1678 comedy play generally attributed to the English writer Thomas Rawlins. It was originally staged at the Dorset Garden Theatre in London by the Duke's Company. The names of the original actors are not known.[1] It did not enjoy the same success as Rawlins' earlier work Tom Essence.

It takes place in the spa town Tunbridge Wells. There, a man-about-town, Owmuch, sets up a couple of London prostitutes posing as a rich widow and her maid, in the hope of collecting the courtship gifts offer by gentleman suitors. However, he sees a larger scam in tricking a foppish and idiotic baronet, Sir Lofty Vainman, into marrying her.[2]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Van Lennep p.268
2. ^ Canfield p.70

## Bibliography

[edit]

* Canfield, J. Douglas. Tricksters and Estates: On the Ideology of Restoration Comedy. University Press of Kentucky, 2014.
* Hembry, Phyllis May . The English Spa, 1560-1815: A Social History. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 1990.
* Van Lennep, W. The London Stage, 1660-1800: Volume One, 1660-1700. Southern Illinois University Press, 1960.

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Restoration comedy

Playwrights|

* Aphra Behn
* Susanna Centlivre
* Colley Cibber
* William Congreve
* John Dryden
* Thomas d'Urfey
* George Etherege
* George Farquhar
* Edward Howard
* James Howard
* Robert Howard
* Thomas Otway
* Charles Sedley
* Thomas Shadwell
* Thomas Southerne
* Richard Steele
* John Vanbrugh
* George Villiers
* William Wycherley

Notable plays|

* The Cutter of Coleman Street (1661)
* The Adventures of Five Hours (1663)
* The Comical Revenge (1664)
* The Mulberry-Garden (1668)
* She Would If She Could (1668)
* An Evening's Love (1668)
* Sir Solomon Single (1670)
* Love in a Wood (1671)
* The Rehearsal (1671)
* Epsom Wells (1672)
* Marriage à la mode (1672)
* The Country Wife (1675)
* Love in the Dark (1675)
* The Country Wit (1676)
* The Plain-Dealer (1676)
* The Man of Mode (1676)
* Tom Essence (1676)
* A Fond Husband (1677)
* Friendship in Fashion (1678)
* Squire Oldsapp (1678)
* Tunbridge Wells (1678)
* A True Widow (1678)
* The Woman Captain (1679)
* The London Cuckolds (1681)
* Sir Barnaby Whigg (1681)
* The Royalist (1682)
* City Politiques (1683)
* Dame Dobson (1683)
* A Commonwealth of Women (1685)
* Sir Courtly Nice (1685)
* Bellamira (1687)
* A Fool's Preferment (1688)
* The Squire of Alsatia (1688)
* Bury Fair (1689)
* The Fortune Hunters (1689)
* The English Friar (1690)
* Sir Anthony Love (1690)
* Love for Money (1691)
* The Wives Excuse (1691)
* Greenwich Park (1691)
* The Marriage-Hater Matched (1692)
* The Volunteers (1692)
* The Canterbury Guests (1694)
* The Married Beau (1694)
* Love for Love (1695)
* Love's Last Shift (1696)
* The Relapse (1696)
* The Campaigners (1698)
* Love and a Bottle (1698)
* The Constant Couple (1699)
* The Way of the World (1700)
* Sir Harry Wildair (1701)
* The Lying Lover (1703)
* The Careless Husband (1704)
* The Recruiting Officer (1706)
* The Beaux' Stratagem (1707)

Characters|

* Fop
* Spark
* Rake

Related people|

* Charles II
* Jeremy Collier
* Thomas Hobbes
* Marquis de Sade
* Molière
* James II and VII
* Georg Monck
* John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

Related articles|

* Bedlam
* Chocolate houses
* Comedy of manners
* Court
* Dorset Garden
* Drury Lane
* Fleet Prison
* Hedonism
* The Libertine (1994)
* The Libertine (film)
* Libertinism
* Lincoln's Inn Fields
* Mode
* Restoration of Charles II
* Second Anglo-Dutch War
* Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage
* Wit

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