Eighteenth-Century Women Dramatists Book

The Innocent Mistress by Mary Pix is one of the plays we have to read for my English Lit module this term. Pix is an eighteenth century dramatist, and was selected because she is a woman. Seriously. The department though they should show us what women from that century were capable of (as far as playwrights go), and they chose her.

I wish they hadn't. My God, she's a bore. Here are my shortcomings: I don't like plays that name characters with similar-sounding names, I don't like plays that are unclear about their purpose. She does both. I found myself flicking back to the characters page constantly, trying to figure out who she was talking about. I know that's my own short attention span, but come on. There are plenty of plays and novels that I follow without issue.

The play is about a several love affairs in characters who are almost all aristocrats. The characters you are meant to sympathize with (Sir Charles and Bellinda) just come off as silly and somewhat mindless, and the "light relief comedy" characters irritate more than necessary. As much as I love theatre ' and I love it, a lot ' I have found that, for the most part, despite hopelessly wishing I were different: I can't visualize plays very well. Sometimes I can, when they're written brilliantly and once in a blue moon I'll read a play that'll make want to put on a production. But for the most part, I'm happy enough being tucked into a cushioned velvet seat waiting for the curtains to be drawn.

This module has consisted entirely of plays (and we still have a few to go). I wish we could've had a student production of each of them ' it would've made learning this module much more enjoyable. As it stands, though, while I appreciate what we're being fed, I grumble at having to eat it. Bad metaphor, true sentiment.