ABSTRACT
Vanbrugh, more famous as the architect of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard than as a dramatist, was born in 1664, served in the army as a young man and spent some time as a prisoner in the Bastille, where he is said to have sketched some scenes which developed later into The Provok’d Wife. All his plays were written between 1695 and 1705. They included adaptations from Molière and other French dramatists, and one of Fletcher’s The Pilgrim. The only one of these of any importance is the brilliant anglicisation of Dancourt’s Les Bourgeoises à la Mode, entitled The Confederacy. Vanbrugh’s original plays are few in number. Besides The Provok’d Wife, there is only The Relapse, a sequel to Colley Cibber’s Love’s Last Shift, and four acts of A Journey to London which Cibber completed as The Provoked Husband.
