A Comparison of Centlivre's A Bold Stroke for a Wife and Cowley's A Bold Stroke for a Husband: Themes, Allusions and Settings in Two Comedies by Women

比對仙特麗芙《追妻大膽行》與考莉《求夫大膽行》：兩齣女性喜劇中主題、典故與背景

張源勤(Yuan-Chin Chang)

《屏東教育大學學報-人文社會類》 34期 (2010/03) Pp. 1-19

摘要

本文檢視蘇珊娜．仙特麗芙《追妻大膽行》與漢娜．考莉之回應劇《求夫大膽行》兩劇情節與主題之異同。就晚期復辟時代與晚期十八世紀英國女性戲劇而言，某些可能導致其獨有特質之外在社會因素也於本文中討論。本文結論為， 表面上兩劇在角色及語氣上頗為相似，但只有在詳加檢視劇本後，方可發現復辟時代與奧古斯都戲劇間本質上不同之處。仙特麗芙之劇作紮根於晚期復辟時代初興之寫實主義，考莉之劇作更像是一則充滿異國情調的童話故事，令人聯想起伊莉莎白時代身份錯亂之喜劇，不過兩劇卻都展現出一種微妙的平衡，這是十八世紀女性劇作家所必須努力維持，以使其作品在面對男性政治與道德檢驗之下， 得以順利出版及演出。

關鍵字

鬧劇 ； 喜劇 ； 復辟時代 ； 偽裝 ； 刻板印象

並列摘要

This article examines the similarities and differences on plots and themes between Susanna Centlivre's A Bold Stroke for a Wife, and Hannah Cowley's answer play, A Bold Stroke for a Husband. The article looks at some of the external social factors that might lead to such characteristic qualities in late Restoration plays and late eighteenth century women writing for the English stage. The paper concludes that, while it appears on the surface that the two plays are quite similar in character and tone, many essential differences between Restoration and Augustan drama can be found once the texts of the plays are examined more closely. While Centlivre's play is anchored in the rough emerging realism of the late Restoration world, and Cowley's is more an exotic fairy tale reminiscent of Elizabethan mistaken identity comedies, both plays illustrate the delicate balancing act a woman playwright of the eighteenth century had to maintain in order to have her work published and performed in the face of male political and moral censorship.

並列關鍵字

farce ； comedy ； Restoration ； disguise ； stereotype

參考文獻

Bellinger, Martha Fletcher. (1927) A short history of the theatre. New York: Henry Holt and Company

Bevis, Richard(1997).Canon, pedagogy, prospectus: redesigning 'Restoration and eighteen-century English drama'.Comparative Drama.31(1),178-191.

Bowyer, John Wilson(1952).The Celebrated Mrs. Centlivre.Durham, NC:Duke UP.

Cafarelli, Annette Wheeler(1996).What will Mrs. Grundy say? women and comedy.Criticism.38(1),69-84.

Centlivre, Susanna. (1829) A bold stroke for a wife. Edinburgh: Stirling & Kenney