The Relapse

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.