The Romantic critics, led by Charles Lamb, advanced the argument that the scenes portrayed in Restoration drama belonged to a kind of imaginary world having no relationship to reality. They did so by way of searching for a method of defending these plays against the charges of obscenity and immorality leveled against them by a variety of moralists who followed Jeremy Collier’s examination and condemnation of these works in 1698. As Jonas Barish has demonstrated, “anti- theatrical prejudice” has always accompanied stage productions; even J.- J. Rousseau had weighed in against stage performances in the middle of the eighteenth century. If many thought of the theater as objectionable in principle, how much more unacceptable were plays that dealt openly with sexuality and the details of contemporary life? The Romantic approach prevailed for a time, but it eventually brought with it the possibility of dismissing these plays on the grounds that they had no relevance to ordinary life. Such an attitude dominated the middle of the twentieth century and it has only been during the last thirty- five years that these plays have been regarded as seriously reflecting the Restoration experience. More particularly, critics have become aware of how thoroughly politics pervaded the drama of the time and how entirely the playwrights devoted themselves to political statements and attacks upon the attitudes of their opponents.

By now, almost all of William Congreve's plays have been subjected to political readings. Many years ago I suggested that his sole tragedy, The Mourning Bride, might be read in terms of a Whig allegory in which the old forces of repression are swept away by the triumph of the young lovers, and somewhat later, I argued that The Double Dealer was essentially about the survival of the English family over the conspiracies of “Jack” (Jacobite) Maskwell. Even more recently, Richard Braverman has maintained that The Way of the World embodies another Whiggish triumph— this time over another conspirator, Fainall, and his attempt to take over the wealth of Lady Wishfort. Much the same might be said for Love for Love, with the victory of the true lovers, Valentine and Angelica, over the Hobbist ideas of the tyrannical patriarch, Sir Sampson Legend.