Arguably the most perfectly poised of Restoration wit comedies, The Man of Mode is a finished exercise in dramatic sprezzatura, or nonchalance, matching the beguiling 'easiness' and 'complaisance' of its central character. The play's imaginative brilliance depends upon its author's ability to hint at the dark abyss of passion and emotional violence at whose edge the modish denizens of the town perform their graceful ballet. Its seemingly casual construction and wanton breaches of comic decorum mask a ferocious artistic control designed to upset the complacency of the audience's moral, social and aesthetic assumptions by luring them into sympathy for a character whose dangerous 'wildness' they ought to deplore. It is at once among the funniest and the most unsettling of comedies in English.
The full, modernized play text is accompanied by incisive commentary notes, while its engaging introduction unpacks the complexity of the Restoration's political and theatrical context, analyses the play's performance history (including Nicholas Hytner's 2007 modern-dress version) and demonstrates Etherege's linguistic finesse. This edition is supplemented by a plot summary and an annotated bibliography.
The New Mermaids plays offer:
· Modernized versions of the play text edited to the highest textual standards
· Fully annotated student editions with obscure words explained and critical, contextual and staging insight provided on each page
· Full Introductions analyzing context, themes, author background and stage history
Sir George Etherege (1634-91) was the first major Restoration playwright and the creator of the English comedy of manners. His nickname, Easy Etherege, reflects his idle way of life and studiedly insouciant manner. Etherege's first play, much influenced by Molière, was the tragicomedy The Comical Revenge; or, Love in a Tub, which was produced in 1664 at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre and took £1,000 in one month. The tragic main plot (including a duel and suicide) was in verse, while the farcical subplot (including the imprisonment of a French valet for impertinence) was in prose. In 1668 Etherege's She Would if She Could, considered the first pure comedy of manners in English, was produced at Lincoln's Inn Fields. His The Man of Mode, featuring the character Sir Fopling Flutter, the Prince of Fops, was performed with great success in 1676 at the Dorset Garden Theatre. The witty character of Dorimant was said to be based on the Earl of Rochester and that of Bellair on Etherege himself. In 1668 Etherege was sent to Turkey as secretary to the ambassador, returning three years later to take up the life of a man-about-town in London. In 1676 he was involved in a riot in which one person was killed. He married a wealthy widow, Mary Arnold, and was knighted in 1680. From 1685 until 1689 he was an envoy of James II in Regensburg but apparently took a nonchalant attitude to his duties. He was equally casual about his marriage; he had affairs with a number of actresses and is said to have had a daughter (who died young) by Elizabeth Barry. He eventually followed James II to Paris and died there a Jacobite exile.
Michael Neillis Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Auckland. He is the author of Issues of Death(1997) and Putting History to the Question (2000). He has edited Anthony and Cleopatra (1994) and Othello (2006) for the Oxford Shakespeare, Middleton and Rowley's The Changeling (2006) for New Mermaids, Massinger's The Renegado (2010) for Arden Early Modern Drama, and Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy (2013) for Norton Critical editions. He is currently preparing Webster's The Duchess of Malfi for Norton, and co-editing The Oxford Handbook to Shakespearean Tragedy (with David Schalkwyk).
