The Man of Mode

New Edition

George Etherege, Michael Neill

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781474289535
• eBook ISBN: 9781474289528
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism in Drama
• Index: Literature

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

ACT 1

[SCENE: DORIMANT’s house]

A dressing room: a table covered with a toilet, clothes laid ready.

Enter DORIMANT in his gown and slippers, with a note in his hand made up, repeating verses.

DORIMANT

‘Now for some ages had the pride of Spain,

Made the sun shine on half the world in vain.’

Then looking on the note.

‘For Mistress Loveit.’ What a dull insipid thing is a billet-doux written in cold blood, after the heat of the business is over! It is 5 a tax upon good nature which I have here been labouring to pay, and have done it, but with as much regret as ever fanatic paid the Royal Aid, or church duties. ’Twill have the same fate, I know, that all my notes to her have had of late: ’twill not be thought kind enough. Faith, women are i’the right when they 10 jealously examine our letters, for in them we always first discover our decay of passion. – Hey! – Who waits? –

Enter HANDY

HANDY

Sir –

DORIMANT

Call a footman.

HANDY

None of ’em are come yet.

DORIMANT

15 Dogs! Will they ever lie snoring a-bed till noon?

HANDY

’Tis all one, sir: if they’re up, you indulge ’em so, they’re ever poaching after whores all the morning.

DORIMANT

Take notice, henceforward who’s wanting in his duty, the next clap he gets, he shall rot for an example. What vermin are those 20 chattering without?

HANDY

Foggy Nan, the orange woman, and Swearing Tom, the shoemaker.

DORIMANT

Go, call in that overgrown jade with the flasket of guts before her: fruit is refreshing in a morning.

Exit HANDY

‘It is not that I love you less

25 Than when before your feet I lay – ’

Enter ORANGE-WOMAN

How now double-tripe, what news do you bring?

ORANGE-WOMAN

News! Here’s the best fruit has come to town t’year. Gad,

I was up before four o’clock this morning, and bought all the choice i’the market.

DORIMANT

30 The nasty refuse of your shop.

ORANGE-WOMAN

You need not make mouths at it: I assure you ’tis all culled ware.

DORIMANT

The citizens buy better on a holiday in their walk to Tot’nam.

ORANGE-WOMAN

Good or bad, ’tis all one; I never knew you commend anything. Lord! would the ladies had heard you talk of ’em as I have done! 35 Here –

Sets down the fruit

– bid your man give me an angel.

DORIMANT

Give the bawd her fruit again.

ORANGE-WOMAN

Well, on my conscience, there never was the like of you! God’s my life, I had almost forgot to tell you: there is a young gentlewoman 40 lately come to town with her mother, that is so taken with you –

DORIMANT

Is she handsome?

ORANGE-WOMAN

Nay, gad, there are few finer women, I tell you but so, and a hugeous fortune they say. Here, eat this peach, it comes from 45 the stone; ’tis better than any Newington you’ve tasted.

DORIMANT (taking the peach)

This fine woman, I’ll lay my life, is some awkward ill-fashioned country toad, who, not having ab...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Series
• Title Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• List of Illustrations
• Introduction
• A Note on the Text
• Resources and Annotated Bibliography
• Abbreviations
• The Man of Mode
• Dedication
• Dramatis Personae
• Prologue
• The Text
• Epilogue
• Notes
• APPENDIX A: Dr Staggins’s Settings of Dorimant’s Song and Sir Carr Scroope’s Song
• APPENDIX B: The Bullie’s Song
• Copyright