Written in defiance of Jeremy Collier and the budding fashion for
sentimental drama, this late Restoration comedy exposes the reformed
rake Loveless to the temptations of London and the charms of a merry
widow, neither of which he is able to withstand. More memorable than
the straying husband, however, is Restoration comedy's ultimate
follower of fashion, Lord Foppington, who defends himself in the
Epilogue by observing that no highwayman or Jacobite was ever well
dressed. As the introduction to this edition argues, Sir John Vanbrugh
- dramatist, architect and member of the influential Kit Cat Club -
presents courtship and marriage not only with cynicism, but also with
moral bravery and social impudence; qualities not much in evidence in
his sentimental rivals.