In what might be interpreted as a fortunate aporia in William Congreve's The Double Dealer, Sir Paul Plyant expresses his horror at what he believes to be the discovery of an illicit relationship between Careless and his wife. Calling Careless “a Judas Maccabeus and Iscariot both,” he thanks Providence for the disclosure. He also thanks Providence, when Careless and Lady Plyant gull him into believing what the audience knows to be false— that the relationship between Lady Plyant and Careless has been entirely innocent. I want to argue in this chapter that Sir Paul's inability to differentiate between a betrayal for the sake of evil (Judas Iscariot) and righteous behavior (Judas Maccabeus)— to distinguish between good actions and bad, between traitors and honest men— is central to characterization and content in Congreve's comedy.

It is a work dominated by Maskwell, who intends to bring about a revolution in the families of the Touchwoods, the Plyants, and the Froths, to cheat Mellefont of his inheritance, and to carry off Cynthia, the woman to whom Mellefont is engaged. That Maskwell adds a dark tone to Congreve's comedy has long been recognized. What I want to emphasize here is the degree to which The Double Dealer, dominated as it is by a sense of betrayal, may owe some of its apparently unusual characterization less to aesthetic experimentation and more to the political spirit of the early years of the 1690s in which it was composed and performed.

That its characterization seemed unusual is obvious enough. Jeremy Collier later singled it out for a particularly vicious attack, noting, “There are but Four Ladies in this Play, and three of the biggest of them are Whores.” Dryden's comment on what had to be considered merely a moderate success for the playwright he was to proclaim as a worthy successor to Shakespeare took in the audience's reaction to both Collier's “Whores” and their three gullible mates. “The women thinke he has exposd their Bitchery too much; & the Gentlemen, are offended with him; for the discovery of their follyes: & the way of their Intrigues, under the ‘notion of Friendship to their Ladyes Husbands.’ “