ABSTRACT
For playwrights, the 1688–1689 Revolution seems to have been a kind of liberation: new plays poured forth over the following, taking the drama away from the Restoration celebration of the Cavalier cause and the untrammelled self-indulgence of the rakish victors to something altogether knottier and more problematic. The theatre of the 1690s is thus no longer the hedonistic playground of a merry monarch and his supporters; it is a platform for debating ideas and especially social and personal power relations. The 1690s proved to be one of the most exciting for playwrighting also because several women writers appeared. Delariviere manley first play, The Lost Lover failed because, she said, it was the victim of anti-woman prejudice: she did not utterly condemn the erring heroine. Mary pix first plays, Ibrahim, the Thirteenth, The Spanish Wives and The Innocent Mistress, followed quickly upon each other.
