View source for The Rover by Aphra Behn

Comedy by Aphra Behn first performed 1677 at the Dorset Garden Theatre in London. Subtitle ''The Banish ‘d [[Cavaliers]]''. 


The play is set in Naples (then under Spanish rule) during the time of the [[Commonwealth]] regime. A group of Spaniards meets a group of exiled [[Cavaliers|Royalists]] from England, among them the eponymous Rover Willmore. 

Two sisters, Hellena and Florinda, escape from their strict father's and brother's control and enjoy the world of carnival in Naples. Florinda loves the honourable English Cavalier Belvile, and Hellena is searching for pleasure and trouble, which she soon finds in Willmore. Belville, Willmore, Frederick, and Blunt encounter Angellica Bianca, a well-known courtesan, whose fees are too expensive for Willmore. Willmore tries to convince Angellica to sleep with him for free and she agrees because she has fallen in love with him. When she has found out that she was betrayed by Willmore, she threatens to kill him. In the meantime, Willmore and then Blunt nearly rape Florinda on two different occasions, both times unsuccessfully. In the end, Florinda and Belvile get married and Willmore and Hellena exchange vows of love.


== Sources ==

Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum, 1642-1660. Eds. C H Firth, and R S Rait. London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1911. British History Online. Web. 16 January 2019. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/acts-ordinances-interregnum.

Anderson, Misty G. "Aphra Behn, The Rover." http://web.utk.edu/~misty/Behnhandout.html.

Pacheco, Anita. “Rape and the Female Subject in Aphra Behn's ''The Rover''.” ''ELH'' 65 (1998): 323-345.

http://pages.uoregon.edu/sschuman/102roversummary.html

www.dorsetgardenstrust.co.uk