Alright I’m undecided about this one. On the one hand, all of the characters have a great deal of strength, on the other, Willmore tells Florinda that she’s asking to be raped by having pretty eyes. Good points of this play were Hellena of course, Angellica to a lesser degree, Belvile, and kind of Pedro. Oh and Blunt because he’s too funny to be left out. Hellena enchanted me in the strength she displayed by going against her father and brother’s orders, by pursuing Willmore, and by wrapping him around her little finger. She was also very frustrating however as she falls so nicely into the madonna/whore category by forsaking the vocation of a Nun and, to her brother, Heaven, in order to go about in men’s clothing and jump into bed with a debauched rake! Florinda was more appealing in this respect but she still excused Willmore’s repeated rape attempts and he shouldn’t have gotten off with an “OhYou!” At the very least, Belvile should have given him a few good punches. I liked Don Pedro both for his name and for the way he just easily accepts everything at the end of it. He starts to get angry but in the end just shrugs his shoulders and celebrates. Blunt was kind of annoying with his constant “Shearlikins” but after crawling around half-naked and cursing the Spanish Habit and his tempered hatred of women (not sure why I find that funny) he’s too funny to be hated. I think that overall I like this play. It has it’s bad parts yes but I think one of the big reasons that I’m upset about Willmore and Florinda and Hellena is that a woman wrote it. It’s expected of the men because of the times and so on and so forth but that she would betray her own kind that way is infuriating. So I’ll just go with the idea that the play fell from the sky and its author is unknown and like it. 
Better late than never, here is my blog on Dryden’s tragicomedy. I adored Doralice and Melantha, though Melantha was as annoying as she was funny… similar to poor mrs. Pinchwife in The CountryWife, at least the actress portraying her. I was disappointed that the lengthy build-up of Doralice and Palamede was easily cut short by determining that since he had a wet dream about Melantha and Rodphil likes her, he might as well stick with his wife and desperately loves her. I still hope that if she happens to outlive Rodophil and he happens to outlive Melantha, they’ll get together. And Palamede was so much better than Rodophil! Yes, he was false and thought more with his nether regions than his brain but Rodophil was the one that was malicious about his affair, as when he convinced Melantha, dressed as a boy, to stay and flirt in front of Palamede because it was fun to cheat him right in front of him without him knowing. Did Palamede do this? No! And as for the other young gallant who falls into the tragic portion of the play, Leonidas was sweet if a bit melodramatic. If he was a girl, he’d be the type to burst into tears when he got a run in his hose. But that’s beside the point, Palmyra did very little to deserve him. The entire time that he’s a prince she’s going on and on about how much he deserves it and if she were a princess and he a peasant she would refuse to give him up as well. Lies! The second she gets a chance she chooses glory over love and the one time that she decides to betray the loyalty she feels she owes her usupring parent of a day, she swoons! She can’t even announce that Leonidas is the rightful king or actively betray him but has to faint and be carried off. And then poor Amalthea is left to a convent where she’ll pray only of him. she made me not like him. He knows that she loves him and clearly she is more deserving as she was willing to forsake her fortune and potentially her life by helping him while Palmyra wouldn’t even ask for him to stay in court. I liked tha play quite a bit overall though. Another good option for next year’s play!
