Plays by Sir John Vanbrugh, Volume Two

About

The second volume of Vanbrugh's plays continues his late Restoration comic work, including The Confederacy (1705) and further pieces showing his range within the genre. Vanbrugh's comedies are somewhat more morally comfortable than Congreve's or Wycherley's — his sympathy for characters trapped in bad situations gives them a human warmth the period's more cynical comedy often lacks. As an architect he thought in terms of structure; his plots are well-built if not always as brilliantly finished as his contemporaries'.