The Rover, or, the Banished Cavaliers

Increasingly Aphra Behn--the first woman professional writer--is also regarded as one of the most important seventeenth century writers. The Rover, her most famous and most accomplished play, is in many ways firmly in the tradition of Restoration drama; Willimore, the title character, is a rake and a libertine, and the comedy feeds on sexual inuendo, intrigue an unsettling depth. As Anne Russell points out in her introduction to this edition, there are three options for women in the society represented in The Rover: marriage, the convent, or prostitution. In this marriage economy the witty and pragmatic virgin Hellena learns how to survive, while the prostitute Angelica Bianca can retain her autonomy only so log as she remains free from romantic love. It seems that in this world women can be freed by the anonymity of disguise is the device that in many ways drives the plot towards marriage--from back cover.