ESOP - A Comedy

by John Vanbrugh

From the Prologue: Gallants, we never yet produc'd a Player With greater Fears than this we act to-day; Barren of all the Graces of the Stage, Barren of all that entertains this Age. No Hero, no Romance, no Plot, no Shew, No Rape, no Bawdy, no Intrigue, no Beau: There's nothing in't with which we use to please ye; With downright dull Instruction w'are to tease ye; The Stage turns Pulpit, and the World's so fickle, The Player-House in a Whim turns Conventicle. But Preaching here must prove a hungry Trade; The Patentees will find so, I'm afraid: For tho' with heavenly Zeal you all abound, As by your Lives and Morals may be found; Tho' every Female here o'erflows with Grace, And chaste Diana's written in her Face; Tho' Maids renounce the Sweets of Fornication, And one lewd Wife's not left in all the Nation; Tho' Men grow true, and the foul Fiend defy; Tho' Tradesmen cheat no more, nor Lawyers lye; Tho' not one Spot be found on Levi's Tribe, Nor one soft Courtier that will touch a Bribe; Yet in the midst of such religious Days, Sermons have never borne the Price of Plays.

106 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1697

About the author

Sir John Vanbrugh was an English architect and dramatist, perhaps best known as the designer of Blenheim Palace. He wrote two argumentative and outspoken Restoration comedies, The Relapse (1696) and The Provoked Wife (1697), which have become enduring stage favourites but originally occasioned much controversy.

Vanbrugh was in many senses a radical throughout his life. As a young man and a committed Whig, he was part of the scheme to overthrow James II, put William III on the throne and protect English parliamentary democracy, dangerous undertakings which landed him in the dreaded Bastille of Paris as a political prisoner. In his career as a playwright, he offended many sections of Restoration and 18th-century society, not only by the sexual explicitness of his plays, but also by their messages in defence of women's rights in marriage. He was attacked on both counts, and was one of the prime targets of Jeremy Collier's Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage. In his architectural career, he created what came to be known as English Baroque. His architectural work was as bold and daring as his early political activism and marriage-themed plays, and jarred conservative opinions on the subject.