"For want of Clelia": Re-placing the Maternal Body in The Twin-Rivals
In his preface to the 1702 comedy The Twin-Rivals, George Farquhar speculates that the play failed in part because Clelia, the pregnant woman for whom the midwife-bawd in the play attempts to secure a husband, never actually appears onstage; he claims that spectators found "the Design . . . def...
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| Published in: | Comparative drama 2008-12, Vol.42 (4), p.481-504 |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | eng |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | In his preface to the 1702 comedy The Twin-Rivals, George Farquhar speculates that the play failed in part because Clelia, the pregnant woman for whom the midwife-bawd in the play attempts to secure a husband, never actually appears onstage; he claims that spectators found "the Design . . . defective for want of Clelia's Appearance in the Scene" (Preface 500).1 While the midwife, Mother Midnight, is a central character in this play, mothers and midwives were both notably absent from the period's comedies in general2 - an omission which stands in stark contrast to the sometimes quite lively debates of which they were the subject in die culture at large. [...] the play ends as it had begun, with the pregnant woman seeking a gullible father for her illegitimate child. |
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| ISSN: | 0010-4078 1936-1637 1936-1637 |