The Rover

I'm going to start this blog out very bluntly....I was not a fan of The Rover at all, and for many reasons.

First of all, it was like reading a soap opera. I felt like I was reading The Days of our Lives of 18th cent drama. All the men wanted was sex, half of the women were whores, and the fighting and confusion and everything else just aided to the soap opera-ness of it.

Right from the beginning I was shocked at how graphic the play was. In 1.2 there is a point where Willmore is very graphically talking about how he wants to basically get with any woman that looks decent.
"Pray where do these roses grow? I would fain plant them in a bed of mine." Lines 84-86 (12)
"A pox of fear: I'll be baked with thee between a pair of sheets (and that's thy proper still), so I might but strew such roses over me, and under me. Fair one, would you would give me leave to gather at your bush this idle month; I would go near to make somebody smell of it all the year after." Lines 88-92 (12)

There are more lines just in this act that allude to very horny men looking for a piece of ass (pardon my wording here, but there is no better way to phrase it than this). This seems to be a recurring theme throughout the play. The men fight over women, pursue the wrong women, try to rape women they think are whores (mainly Blunt), and do anything, including pledging themselves for a free piece with no intent to stay tru to that pledge (Willmore and Angelina). The men even throw themselves at the "pure" girls, Hellena and Florinda, for a chance to "ruin" them discretely, causing Don Pedro to be constantly worried about his sisters maintaining their vrgin status (which is one of the reasons Hellena is destined to become a nun and Flroinda has to get married to somebody very soon).

All in all, the lesson, or moral of the story seems that whores are bad news and get you into trouble and getting with a good girl the right way seems to provide less troubles. I'm not even sure all that can be said considering all the trouble Belvile has to go through for Florinda.

Not knowing much about the social climate of the time, I can only critique what appears to me to be a very shallow plot line that is meant as pure pleasure and entertainment for the time.