The Works of Aphra Behn, Volume IV

This volume collects four stage plays that range from domestic comedy to satirical and adventurous drama. One play centers on a hypochondriacal, overly indulgent husband whose obsession complicates his young wife's clandestine affair, generating mistaken identities, matchmaking schemes and comic exposure of fops and social pretension. Other pieces alternate courtly love plots, sharp comedy of manners about marriage and gender, and grimmer scenes of conflict and rebellion. Across the plays the writing blends witty dialogue, disguise and farce with moral ambiguity about desire, reputation and social ambition, presented in standard scene-and-act stage form.