The play begins with the narrator addressing the Queen, claiming that the play is written for her and that her purpose for to present the image of a strong and independent woman.
In the first act, Scene I, Saville and Courtall meet at the Lincoln’s Inn. Courtall tells Saville about five women he encountered at the inn, related to him, who had come to the city in hopes of finding a good husband for themselves. Saville asks Courtall to tell him the latest news since he was away for the past two months and Courtall begins by claiming that the women wanted to impose a bill to allow every man to take two wives.
Saville claims he is there to meet with his friend, Doricourt who returned from Rome to get married to a woman named Miss Hardy, whom he never met.
The scene ends when the servant enters telling Saville that Doricourt left the inn and so Saville rushes after him.
The first scene has the purpose of presenting the historical context in which the action takes place. The action takes place during the time when the Americans were fighting for independence and thus many men were deployed in the United States, leaving the country devoid of men. In that time, a woman’s purpose in life was to get married and start a family. Since there was a shortage of men, many women become worried they will pass their prime and will remain unmarried. While the women in those times did not tried to pass bills to legalize polygamy, this does transmit the idea that the women were borderline desperate to find a good match.
Men had a certain different image on marriage. While women saw marriage as a symbol for safety, men saw marriage as being the end of their happiness and this id highlighted by Saville’s claim that Doricourt will have to give up everything that makes him stand out after he gets married.
The next scene takes place at Doricourt’s hall where Crownquill, a writer for a type of gossip column comes and tries to bribe the Porter to tell him gossips about Doricourt. The Porter eventually agrees to sell his master when Crownquill offers him money. Saville also enters but he is mistaken by one of the French servants as being a poor Englishman and he is thus treated as one by the French servant. The Porter tells the servant who Saville is and the French servant apologizes and takes Saville away.
The second scene presents the servants and how the behave when their masters are not around. While the masters would have wanted to believe they are respected and loved by their servants, the truth is that the masters were mocked by their servants behind their back and that the servants often made money on the side by selling their masters’ secrets to the existing tabloids of the time.
In the third scene Sacille and Doricourt meet and talk about the women Doricourt is to marry, Letitia. Doricourt admits he was not impressed by the lady who appeared to him as being too modest and not interesting enough. The reason why Doricourt did not found her attractive is because she did not managed to stir his interest in him and thus Doricourt believed that Letitia was not interested in him. Doricourt had the opportunity to meet with women from all over the world and as a result he compares Letitia with those women he once knew.
The third scene ends with Doricourt admitting that even though he does not find Letitia to be interesting, he would still marry her because he does no believe any other women who are not born British deserve or have enough qualities to make a good wife.
This scene is used to reveal the way in which the British saw the rest of the world as well. Saville and Doricourt both claim that the British are not good servants because they are too smart but do not hesitate to call the French of the German natural born servants. When it comes to women, the British women are not as interesting as the foreign women but still the British men would chose them just because they are British. This shows just how highly the British men thought of themselves and how the saw the British women.
In the next scene, Letitia talks with Mrs. Racket and she presents a slightly more different version of what happened. Letitia described Doricourt as being uninterested in her, of acting distant and this affected her because she is in love with him. Letitia refuses to marry him because she claims she can never be with a man who is indifferent to her but Mrs. Racket tries to convince her to give the relationship a chance.
This advice shows that for the women of the time, loving someone was not as important as making sure the person in question is a good match. For the women of the time, it was more important to be financially stable than be happy and thus Mrs. Racket urges Letitia to do as many others had done before her.
Letitia refuses however and comes with a different plan. She knows that it is almost impossible to transform indifference into love but it is much easier to transform content into love and thus she decided to make herself as unpleasant as she can be, in an attempt to make Doricourt like her. Even though Mrs. Racket does not agree with her, she decides to help her.
In the second act another relationship is presented, this time between Sir George and Frances, who are married. Sir George is extremely jealous and he decides to keep Frances hidden, as not to risk having her heart being stolen by someone else. When Doricourt visits him, George is reluctant to let him meet his wife because he is afraid Frances will be charmed by him.
The reason why Frances is so obedient is because she was raised in such a manner and kept separated from the modern society. Thus, after she got married to George, she refused to do anything without his consent or without having him at her side. Two women change her opinion when they reveal the truth about her husband.
Mrs. Racket and Mrs. Ogle come to visit Frances and when she refuses to go in public without him they tell her how George let one of birds fly away because he thought Frances was giving manifesting too much affection towards the bird. This made Frances realize just how oppressive her husband is and this feeling is intensified by his arrival and by his attempt to emotionally manipulate her into refusing to go without him. Frances does not let herself be affected by this and she goes out with the other two ladies.
The ladies go to an auction and there Frances is noticed by Courtall who tries to get her attention. Frances’s inability to react in such a situation is made visible here because she does not know how to interpret Courtall’s praises and takes them as being sexual advantages. This shows that Frances, while she was a beautiful woman, knew nothing about the real world and was affected by the time she was kept separated from it.
The third act starts at Mr. Hardy’s house where Doricourt went to see Letitia who decided to put her plan in action and make Doricourt dislike her. She acts in an unladylike manner, criticizes him, implies he will mistreat her and makes fun of him while also implying she had a number of lovers. After Letitia exists the stage, Doricourt tells Mrs. Racket he will be leaving town. Mrs. Racket convinces him to stay, telling him to attend the masquerade party that will take place the following day. Before the scene ends, Hardy decides to go to the masquerade and put his own plan in action.
The second scene takes place at Courtall who is with Saville and other three friends. They have been drinking and Courtall invites them to go to his house and drink some more. The two talk about women and how the woman Saville loved got married. Then they talk about Frances and Saville is surprised to hear Courtall, a man interested in easy women, interested in someone who will never agree to be with him.
Courtall tells Saville about the encounter he had with Frances and claims he will try to talk with her at the ball once more. Saville leaves the stage when Courtall talks about his former love and Dick, his servant, enters. Courtall sends Dick to find is George will go to the ball and how he will dress, planning to deceive Frances by dressing in the same way as her husband.
The reason why Courtall becomes so keen of seducing Frances is not because he loves her, but because he sees her as a challenge. Courtall is told by almost everyone that he will not succeed in seducing Frances and this makes him want to do it even more. This proves that for men, protecting their ego is much more important than anything else.
In the third scene Saville stumbles upon Dick and asks him about what he is doing. The servant tells Saville about what he is doing, showing once more just how unreliable servants can be.
The fourth scene takes place at Sir George’s house where Villers criticizes George for making Frances cry. George is sure is happiness is over because he harbored the idea that if his wife were to see the outside world, she would become attracted by it to such an extent she will forget about him. Villers assures him this is not the case and in that moment Frances enters.
Frances tells George she hopes they can go together to the ball but George is scared how the other people will react. George knows many people mock them because they are always together and this shows just how shallow and eager to find flaws the society was.
Frances eventually convinces George to go, showing thus her power over him and a servant is summoned to go and make sure George has a costume. The servant also prepares himself to pass the details about the costume on to the servant in Courtall’s house.
The next act takes place at the ball and it begins with a man selling cures for the ailments of the time. The description of the cures is important because it also paints an accurate image of the time. Thus, the people from those times are presented as being unfaithful, greedy and the clergy as being hypocritical.
The main characters arrive at the ball and the last ones to arrive are Doricourt and Letitia. Doricourt does not recognize Letitia but she figures out who he is from the moment he enters the room so she starts dancing with another man to attract his attentions.
Saville enters as well, with a woman dressed just as Frances and he sends the woman to find Sir Geroge. Saville talks with Doricourt who wants to find the identity of the mysterious lady when George asks him about Letitia. Doricourt tells Saville that he is close to hating her before leaving to find who the mystery woman is. Doricourt becomes even more attracted when the woman starts singing and talking with Doricourt who falls in love with her almost immediately. Letitia refuses to reveal her face and at one point Doricourt tries to rip the mask from her face.
Letitia refuses to let him find her real identity but promises to show herself to him the following day.
This proved that Letitia’s plan worked. Doricourt was beginning to hate her and at the same time feel attracted to her without knowing. This attraction is so strong that it made him act almost irrationally, acting violent to some extent.
Another comic event takes place when Courtall tries to take Frances away. He is however followed by the costume wore by the woman who came with Saville and he takes her instead while Saville takes Frances to Sir George.
After Letitia leaves, Flutter tries to convince Doricourt that the woman was a prostitute who slept with almost every gentelman in the room. Mr. Hardy, unable to take this insult, tells Doricourt that the woman was Letitia.
The scene then changes and the woman and Courtall arrive at his home where he reveals his identity. Saville enters the room with other men and they expose the woman for who she is, making Courtall be embarrassed in front of the other men.
The fourth act is set at Hardy’s house where he talks with Villers about Doricourt and how he does not know what he wants from Letitia. Mrs. Racket and Letitia enter the room and Mr. Hardy tells them he will make sure Doricourt and Letitia are married that day. He tells Mrs. Racket to pretend to be dying and to ask for Doricourt to marry Letitia as his dying wish. The two women agree to go with the plan but they soon find that Doricourt became mad after being told that the woman he liked was a prostitute.
That night however, Mrs. Racket finds that Doricourt was pretending as well, trying to get out of the marriage. Hearing this, Mr. Hardy decides to go on with his plan to appear to be sick and when Doricourt comes to visit him, Mr. Hardy tells him to no longer marry his daughter.
In that moment, Letitia enters masked in the room and reveals her identity. The play ends with Doricourt agreeing to marry Letitia and with a comment made on the virtues of the English women.
