Beau's Duel, or A Soldier for the Ladies

A comedy, this was Centlivre's second play, first presented in 1702, and in her prologue she has made a big deal of the fact that this play has been written by a woman. The title tells you what we have here: We have Dueling Suitors for the affections of a young Lady and her heiress cousin, and we have Soldiers "from Conquest back return'd with Laurels Crown'd,where from the Fair, their just Rewards they found". Add in the Lady's Father, a former Mistress, a Fop, and a Fortune-Hunter, and it's ti