The Relapse

The Relapse, or, Virtue in Danger is a Restoration comedy from 1696 by John Vanbrugh, a sequel to Colley Cibber's notorious tear-jerker Love's Last Shift, or, Virtue Rewarded. In Cibber's Love's Last Shift, a free-living Restoration rake is brought to repentance and reform by the ruses of his wife, while in The Relapse, the rake succumbs again to temptation and has a new love affair. His virtuous wife is also subjected to a determined seduction attempt, but resists.

Related Topics:
The Relapse, or, Virtue in Danger - Restoration comedy - 1696 - John Vanbrugh - Sequel - Colley Cibber - Love's Last Shift, or, Virtue Rewarded - Restoration - Rake

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The Relapse première by the United Company took place in the midst of cutthroat company competition, which led to a desperate shortage of competent and suitable actors and turned the casting of the play into a prolonged managerial nightmare. Nevertheless, the performance which was eventually achieved in November, 1696, was a great success, and saved the United Company from bankrupcy.

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A minor fop part which the actor Cibber had written for himself to play was expanded by Vanbrugh into Lord Foppington, one of the classic comic parts of the British stage. Unlike Cibber's Love's Last Shift, never again performed after the 1690s, Vanbrugh's Relapse retained its appeal to audiences. In the 18th century, however, its tolerant attitude towards actual and attempted adultery became unacceptable, and the original play was for a century replaced by Richard Brinsley Sheridan's moralised version A Trip to Scarborough (1777). Vanbrugh's famously throwaway wit{{ref|wit}} and the consummate acting part of Lord Foppington, susceptible to many different interpretations, have made The Relapse one of the most popular Restoration comedies on the modern stage.

Related Topics:
Fop - Richard Brinsley Sheridan

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