ABSTRACT
Margaret Cavendish’s plays, in one way or another, examine the social mandate to marry. The Religious and The Matrimonial Trouble are no exception. Among the clearly stageable elements of The Religious are the extremely funny Odd-Humour scenes, which have potential for a good deal of physical humor revolving about the beloved chair. Like many of Cavendish’s plays, The Matrimonial Trouble has stage directions for props and blocking, suggesting that Cavendish might have intended the work to be performed. Although Angus Fletcher may be better known for writing tragicomedies than William Shakespeare, Cavendish’s The Religious more closely aligns itself with a Shakespearean play critics often label as a tragicomedy, Measure for Measure. The subplot of The Religious echoes strand of Renaissance drama: old comedy with its satiric edge and, even more specifically, Ben Jonson’s humours technique. The Matrimonial Trouble looks more toward Restoration drama than does The Religious, especially in its emphasis on cuckoldry, class, and the economic concerns of marriage.
