John Dryden Four Comedies Author:L. A. Beaurline (Editor), Fredson Bowers (Editor) Contents: — Secret Love, Sir Martin Mar-All, An Evening's Love, Marriage a-la-Mode — In the two tragicomedies included in the present volume, Secret Love and Marriage a-la-Mode, Dryden experiments with a combination of two sorts of plots. Setting in parallel action the rake-hell witty couple and the serious romantic lovers... more », the low and the high, the bawdy and the solemn, he causes them to modify each other in brilliant counterpoise. It was in Secret Love, a neglected masterpiece of the stage, that Nell Gwyn made her reputation as the intelligent and witty Florimell.
Sir Martin Mar-All, Dryden's popular farce, and An Evening's Love, a kind of sexual fantasy, illustrate his talents in unmixed comedy.« less