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Steward Springlove joins a band of beggars, followed by his employer’s daughters and their suitors, who seek freedom from conventional life. Their adventures and a play-within-the-play reveal hidden family ties and an old injustice, leading to reconciliation and restored property.
Debauched young gentleman George Careless hopes to regain his wealthy uncle’s favor while pursuing his uncle’s wife, his mistress Phebe and a rich widow. A misdirected pair of letters and a series of sexual deceptions expose his schemes; the resolution arranges a future for Phebe and pairs Careless with the equally contrary widow Mistress Crostill.
A physician and a theatrical troupe stage an imagined upside-down England to cure Peregrine Joyless of his obsession with travel and help address his family’s marital distress. Their improvised play-within-the-play turns into a social satire as Peregrine takes control and tries to reform the Antipodes.
London merchant Master Crasy, facing bankruptcy and betrayal by debtors, feigns departure while remaining in the city in disguise. He joins forces with confidence tricksters to recover his money, manipulate suitors pursuing his wife, and restore his fortune and reputation through a tangle of deceptions.
Country gentleman Sir Andrew seeks wealth and favor at court while his daughter Charissa resists a marriage to the gambling, supposedly mad Sir Ferdinando. Three projectors tempt Andrew with absurd schemes; Frederick helps expose Ferdinando's feigned madness, and the play ends with marriages and a masque.
Landowner Sir Humphrey Dryground and usurer Vermine arrange a marriage to settle financial troubles, while both their families pursue unwanted matches and schemes. In disguise, Dryground opens a London ordinary and stages a raffle to restore the ruined Brookall’s fortune; interwoven deceptions eventually reveal the lovers’ identities and unite the families.
A Restoration adaptation of Brome’s comedy of sexual intrigue, following George Careless’s overlapping affairs and deceptions; Behn’s version expands the bedroom scene in which the play’s schemes are exposed.
In London, two families’ children pursue love and revenge while usurer Quicksands hides his new bride Millicent in Moorish disguise. Intrigues, mistaken identities, and a failed revenge plot ultimately reunite the young couples and expose the play’s mock marriage.
In Lancashire during the 1633 witchcraft panic, supernatural disturbances overturn social order in local households. A sisterhood of witches disrupts a wedding, bewilders and humiliates the men, and attacks a mill; after evidence implicates the wife of the skeptical Master Generous, the women are arrested and the households are restored.
In Thessaly, Princess Eudina must choose between twin brothers Philargus and Philocles while the ambitious Stratocles plots to take the throne. The twins sacrifice their own prospects for one another, thwarting the plot; a concealed birth reveals their true identities, allowing Philocles to inherit and Eudina to marry Philargus. A comic subplot mirrors the courtship conflict.
After merchant Matchill disowns his spendthrift half-brother Strigood, Strigood recruits Matchill’s apprentice Cash and the merchant’s displaced daughter Gabriella into a sham academy teaching fashionable accomplishments. The scheme entangles two families in mistaken identities, attempted exploitation and cross-generational marriage plots before their children’s true identities are revealed and couples are properly matched.
Sir Philip Luckless mistakenly believes a letter from the northern Constance is from his former lover and marries wealthy widow Audrey Fitchow. Intrigue, disguises and a wedding masque expose the confusion and lead to a divorce, the proper match between Luckless and Constance, and comic pairings for the other characters.
In Venice, two young couples seek to escape arranged marriages. Fabritio’s search for Victoria intersects with the courtesan Novella’s disguise, while Flavia and Francisco plot to elope; servants and senators’ schemes culminate in a maze of mistaken identities and the couples’ reunions.
In Sicily, King Gonzago imprisons the loyal general Sforza, takes Sforza’s daughter Alinda as his mistress, and falsely accuses Queen Eulalia of adultery. Exiled Eulalia aids the countryside while courtly rivalries, attempted murders and rebellions eventually bring the king to repent and restore her.
Saxon queen Bertha’s arranged marriage to Northumbrian king Osrick is disrupted when he falls in love with Mildred. Through mistaken identity, Anthynus is taken for Osrick and marries Bertha, while his scheming brother Offa plots against their family. The brothers’ crimes are exposed, Segebert is restored, and Osrick is free to marry Mildred.
Neighbors Touchwood and Striker are justices whose long feud obstructs the love between their heirs, Sam and Annabelle. Sam and his friends conspire to overcome the feud while other schemes at the fashionable asparagus garden target a naïve countryman. The tangled plots end with the young couple’s marriage, an old family secret reconciling the rivals, and the frauds exposed.
Richard Brome's Caroline comedy satirizes the real-estate development of Covent Garden and Inigo Jones, using a realistic London setting, a justice of the peace, an architect, disguised lovers and a group of hooligans called the Brothers of the Blade.
Steward Springlove joins a band of beggars, followed by his employer’s daughters and their suitors, who seek freedom from conventional life. Their adventures and a play-within-the-play reveal hidden family ties and an old injustice, leading to reconciliation and restored property.
Debauched young gentleman George Careless hopes to regain his wealthy uncle’s favor while pursuing his uncle’s wife, his mistress Phebe and a rich widow. A misdirected pair of letters and a series of sexual deceptions expose his schemes; the resolution arranges a future for Phebe and pairs Careless with the equally contrary widow Mistress Crostill.
A physician and a theatrical troupe stage an imagined upside-down England to cure Peregrine Joyless of his obsession with travel and help address his family’s marital distress. Their improvised play-within-the-play turns into a social satire as Peregrine takes control and tries to reform the Antipodes.
London merchant Master Crasy, facing bankruptcy and betrayal by debtors, feigns departure while remaining in the city in disguise. He joins forces with confidence tricksters to recover his money, manipulate suitors pursuing his wife, and restore his fortune and reputation through a tangle of deceptions.
Country gentleman Sir Andrew seeks wealth and favor at court while his daughter Charissa resists a marriage to the gambling, supposedly mad Sir Ferdinando. Three projectors tempt Andrew with absurd schemes; Frederick helps expose Ferdinando's feigned madness, and the play ends with marriages and a masque.
Landowner Sir Humphrey Dryground and usurer Vermine arrange a marriage to settle financial troubles, while both their families pursue unwanted matches and schemes. In disguise, Dryground opens a London ordinary and stages a raffle to restore the ruined Brookall’s fortune; interwoven deceptions eventually reveal the lovers’ identities and unite the families.
A Restoration adaptation of Brome’s comedy of sexual intrigue, following George Careless’s overlapping affairs and deceptions; Behn’s version expands the bedroom scene in which the play’s schemes are exposed.
In London, two families’ children pursue love and revenge while usurer Quicksands hides his new bride Millicent in Moorish disguise. Intrigues, mistaken identities, and a failed revenge plot ultimately reunite the young couples and expose the play’s mock marriage.
In Lancashire during the 1633 witchcraft panic, supernatural disturbances overturn social order in local households. A sisterhood of witches disrupts a wedding, bewilders and humiliates the men, and attacks a mill; after evidence implicates the wife of the skeptical Master Generous, the women are arrested and the households are restored.
In Thessaly, Princess Eudina must choose between twin brothers Philargus and Philocles while the ambitious Stratocles plots to take the throne. The twins sacrifice their own prospects for one another, thwarting the plot; a concealed birth reveals their true identities, allowing Philocles to inherit and Eudina to marry Philargus. A comic subplot mirrors the courtship conflict.
After merchant Matchill disowns his spendthrift half-brother Strigood, Strigood recruits Matchill’s apprentice Cash and the merchant’s displaced daughter Gabriella into a sham academy teaching fashionable accomplishments. The scheme entangles two families in mistaken identities, attempted exploitation and cross-generational marriage plots before their children’s true identities are revealed and couples are properly matched.
Sir Philip Luckless mistakenly believes a letter from the northern Constance is from his former lover and marries wealthy widow Audrey Fitchow. Intrigue, disguises and a wedding masque expose the confusion and lead to a divorce, the proper match between Luckless and Constance, and comic pairings for the other characters.
In Venice, two young couples seek to escape arranged marriages. Fabritio’s search for Victoria intersects with the courtesan Novella’s disguise, while Flavia and Francisco plot to elope; servants and senators’ schemes culminate in a maze of mistaken identities and the couples’ reunions.
In Sicily, King Gonzago imprisons the loyal general Sforza, takes Sforza’s daughter Alinda as his mistress, and falsely accuses Queen Eulalia of adultery. Exiled Eulalia aids the countryside while courtly rivalries, attempted murders and rebellions eventually bring the king to repent and restore her.
Saxon queen Bertha’s arranged marriage to Northumbrian king Osrick is disrupted when he falls in love with Mildred. Through mistaken identity, Anthynus is taken for Osrick and marries Bertha, while his scheming brother Offa plots against their family. The brothers’ crimes are exposed, Segebert is restored, and Osrick is free to marry Mildred.
Neighbors Touchwood and Striker are justices whose long feud obstructs the love between their heirs, Sam and Annabelle. Sam and his friends conspire to overcome the feud while other schemes at the fashionable asparagus garden target a naïve countryman. The tangled plots end with the young couple’s marriage, an old family secret reconciling the rivals, and the frauds exposed.
Richard Brome's Caroline comedy satirizes the real-estate development of Covent Garden and Inigo Jones, using a realistic London setting, a justice of the peace, an architect, disguised lovers and a group of hooligans called the Brothers of the Blade.