William Congreve, The Double Dealer

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The Double Dealer

premiered in November 1693, the same year as Congreve’s successful first play,

The Old Bachelor

. Like any hot new playwright flush from his recent success, Congreve hoped to push the boundaries of comedy—and in this case, outright satire—in his second play, which more than held a mirror up to his audience; it cracked them over the head with it. Not surprisingly, the play did not please and caused something of a scandal, which Congreve acknowledged in his dedication to Charles Mountague. Chiefly, the audience seems to have been shocked by the actions of the upper-class women, who exchange partners and beds with astonishing rapidity: “[the ladies] are concerned that I have represented some women vicious and affected: how can I help it? It is the business of a comic…

2112 words

Citation: Grasso, Joshua. "The Double Dealer". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 November 2018 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1038, accessed 29 March 2024.]

1038 The Double Dealer 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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