The Rover - Summary

The Rover - Act I

The Rover | Introduction

The Rover, published and first produced in 1677, was Aphra Behn's most successful play. The original full title, The Rover, or The Banish 'd Cavaliers, indicates that the play was a tribute to the formerly exiled cavalier and newly reinstated king, Charles II. The Rover is a dark comedy that mixes themes of prostitution and rape with comic buffoonery. The play expresses its author's objections to the vulnerability of women in Restoration society. Perhaps ironically, it also appeals to the prurient interests of the audience by putting women in morally compromising situations. Based loosely on her contemporary Thomas Killigrew's 1564 Thomaso, or The Wanderer (1664), Behn's play is leaner, less lewd, and more profound. The plot follows the fortunes of opposing lovers, one a woman of quality masquerading as a courtesan and one a wandering rake whose philandering days end when he falls in love with her. Several near-rapes and the tragic case of a jilted courtesan, another character in the play, balance the comic treatment of sexual politics in the seventeenth century. The rover of the title is either Willmore, an exiled English sea captain on shore leave to enjoy the carnival, or Hellena, a young woman hoping to experience life and love before being committed to a convent by her brother. These two rovers meet and fall in love amid witty debates and sexual maneuvering. Willmore has many parallels to Charles II, whose exploits during his twenty-year banishment from England were well known. Charles II enjoyed the play so much that he commissioned a private viewing of it.

Plot

Behn's work should always be read with an eye toward her contemporary political world. She was a Royalist, and her works frequently treat Puritans roughly. The subtitle "Banish'd Cavaliers" is a reference to the world of exile that the Cavalier forces experienced during the English Interregnum. Behn based her play on Thomas Killigrew's Thomaso, or The Wanderer (1664). It features multiple plots, dealing with the amorous adventures of a group of Englishmen in Naples at Carnival time. The "rover" of the play's title is Willmore, a rake and naval captain, who falls in love with a young woman named Hellena, who has set out to experience love before her brother sends her to a convent. Complications arise when Angellica Bianca, a famous courtesan who falls in love with Willmore, swears revenge on him for his betrayal. In another plot, Hellena's sister Florinda attempts to marry her true love, Colonel Belvile, rather than the man her brother has selected. The third major plot of the play deals with the provincial Blunt, who becomes convinced that a girl has fallen in love with him but is humiliated when she turns out to be a prostitute and a thief.

Contemporary  feminist scholars often focus on the play's many instances of women vulnerable to rape,  and the tragic results of Angellica's being jilted by Willmore. They see in these plot elements a protest against the powerlessness of women in Behn's time.

Willmore (who may have been a parallel to Charles II or John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester) proved to be an extremely popular character, and four years later Behn wrote a sequel to the play. King Charles II was himself a fan of The Rover, and received a private showing of the play.

The Rover Summary

Prologue

The prologue in rhyming couplets portends a play that is not just ''good conversation'', as conventional plays present, but is full of "wit" and "deboches" [debauches], as is life.

Act I

Scene 1

Hellena, a young woman about to enter a convent, questions her sister Florinda about whom she loves. Florinda admits she loves Belvile, an English colonel, but her father is determined that she marry the elderly Don Vincentio (who never actually appears in the play). Further complicating matters, Florinda's brother, Don Pedro, wants Florinda to marry his friend Don Antonio. Don Pedro enters with Stephano (his servant) and Callis (the sisters' governess). Pedro encourages Florinda to follow their father's wishes and marry Don Vincentio. Florinda refuses and Hellena supports her. This pleases Pedro, who says that he has a means for Florinda to escape that marriage... by marrying Don Antonio the very next day. Pedro exits and Florinda and Hellena convince Callis to let them disguise themselves and go to Carnival.

Scene 2
Three Englishmen, Belvile, Blunt, and Frederick, are walking in the town. Belvile is melancholic because Don Pedro has forbidden him to marry Florinda, favoring Antonio instead. Willmore, who has just arrived in Naples, enters and greets his friends. The Englishmen prepare for a night of love and feasting. Women dressed as courtesans enter and Willmore flirts with one of them, while Belvile snipes at him with references to venereal diseases.

Florinda, Hellena, and Valeria (their cousin) enter dressed like Gypsies, and promise to tell the men's fortunes. Willmore and Hellena flirt with one another; Hellena reveals she is destined to be a nun, to which Willmore replies "There's no sinner like a young saint." Hellena agrees to meet Willmore again later, presumably for a sexual liaison; he swears to love only her. Meanwhile, Lucetta, a "jilting wench," begins to seduce Blunt. Florinda reads Belvile's palm and begins to set up a meeting with him when she sees her brother approaching. She hastily gives him a letter and runs off with Hellena and Valeria. Pedro merely passes by.

Florinda's letter contains instructions for Belvile to come to her garden at ten that night and carry her off. Blunt sneaks off with Lucetta. The other men, who think of Blunt as a foolish provincial, realize that he has all their money with him, and hope that he does not come to harm. Frederick informs his friends of a new courtesan in Naples: Angellica Bianca.