Collection No. [#] The Belle’s Stratagem, by Hannah Cowley
1. Publication details
Author: Cowley, Hannah
Author dates: 1743-1809
Title: The Belle’s Stratagem
First played: 1780
First published: 1781. 79p.
C18th availability: Available from ECCO (1781)
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Modern availability: Available from LION (1997)
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2. Genre / subgenre: Comedy
3. Trend(s):
4. Brief Synopsis
Act I.
Saville and Courtall meet in Lincoln’s Inn. Courtall has been squiring five awkward
country cousins around London, making sure that no one he knows has seen him. Saville
is waiting to meet his friend Doricourt, who has just returned from Rome. The ladies of
the town are creating styles based on his clothing, and he is extremely popular. However,
he is engaged to be married to Miss Hardy, Saville reveals. The match has been arranged
by their parents. Doricourt has not seen Miss Hardy since they were little children.
Saville realizes he is late for his meeting with Doricourt, and Courtall flees his cousins.
Crowquil arrives at Doricourt’s and speaks to his porter: he wants the porter to help him
write an account of Doricourt’s life abroad. Saville arrives, and is seen into Doricourt’s
house by his French servant. They discuss Doricourt’s practice of keeping French
servants. Doricourt has seen Miss Hardy: she is beautiful and modest, but he feels she
lacks the flirtatiousness and joie de vivre of French and Italian women. Nevertheless, he
has no objection to his duty to marry her. At Hardy’s, Villers enters to find Flutter
reading on a sofa. Mrs. Rackit enters: they discuss Miss Hardy’s visit to her suitor and
Frances Touchwood’s husband who is so jealous he let her beloved pet bird go free.
Lettitia Hardy enters, and Villers and Flutter leave. Lettitia is in love with Doricourt;
although many young men have lavished her with praise, Doricourt seemed indifferent to
her charms at their first meeting. Hardy enters and is unpleasantly surprised at Lettitia’s
revelation that Doricourt is not very interested in her. Lettitia is resolved to be less
pleasant to Doricourt at their next meeting so that he is not indifferent, but repulsed by
her, so as to produce a complete inversion of his feelings.
Act II.
Sir George Touchwood meets with Doricourt; the latter cannot believe that Sir George is
married. The paranoid Sir George is reluctant to let the much younger Doricourt meet
with his wife, but Doricourt catches on and insists that he be allowed to stay for a meal.
Mrs. Rackit and Miss Ogle arrive. Lady Frances enters; she has been detained by her
conversation with Doricourt. Mrs. Rackit and Miss Ogle mock her countrified upbringing
and her attachment to her husband, and encourage her to come out into town with them
for a few hours. Sir George is devastated. Flutter enters and reveals that Sir George let
out his wife’s bird in a fit of jealousy, to Lady Frances’ horror. Sir George is very angry
and tells her to go into the town. Lady Frances is torn, but realizes that if she capitulates,
she will forever be compelled to remain with Sir George. Lady Frances and Mrs. Rackit
go to an auction, where some gentlemen speak with them. Silvertongue, an auctioneer,
presents various models of cities that are to be sold. Courtall enters and is enraptured with
Lady Frances.
Act III.
Lettitia is resolved to act awkwardly to put off Doricourt. He visits her at home, and she
refuses to look at him, asks him inane questions, and makes inappropriate (although
innocent) comments about past admirers. Hardy enters and is angry with her. Doricourt
expresses his disenchantment to Mrs. Rackit; he is resolved to go to Bath to escape his
appalling fiancée, but Mrs. Rackit convinces him to stay for the masquerade taking place
that evening. At Courtall’s, three gentlemen are tipsy; they soon leave. Saville and
Courtall have both been in love with Lady Frances; they drink to her. Courtall plans to
seduce her at the masquerade: he asks a servant to go to the shop where Sir George
intends to get his costume. More concerned about decorum and honour, Saville discovers
this plan, and pays the servant double to report to him first. Villers tells Sir George that
Lady Frances still loves him, and did not enjoy her morning in town. Sir George and
Lady Frances plan to go to the masquerade together, where they will not be mocked for
enjoying one another’s company. Sir George will be a pink domino trimmed with blue.
Act IV.
At the masquerade, Lettitia flirts with the masked men and dances a minuet with one.
Doricourt is attracted to her and wonders who she is. Hardy arrives as Isaac Mendoza,
and banters with the crowd. Lady Frances loves the masquerade; Sir George tells her that
the initial enchantment will soon wear thin. Saville enters with Kitty, a masked woman
dressed like Lady Frances, who will distract Courtall from his real object by
impersonating her. Doricourt looks for the mysterious lady; she sings. They flirt, and
Doricourt attempts to remove her mask, but she flees in time. Saville frightens Lady
Frances, and she seeks Sir George to comfort her. Courtall appears in Sir George’s dress
and demands that they leave immediately. Saville replaces Lady Frances with Kitty, who
goes with Courtall. Doricourt and Lettitia discuss what the mysterious lady would do if
she were married (her fantasy includes dancing on the shores of lake Ontario). Doricourt
confesses his love and again attempts to catch her, but she tells him to expect her to
reveal her identity tomorrow and flees. Flutter suggests that she is mistress of several
men of the town; Doricourt is enraged. Hardy reveals that she is his own daughter, but
Doricourt refuses to believe it. Angered, Hardy is resolved to participate in Letty’s plot.
Courtall brings Kitty to his home; still pretending to be Lady Frances, she is shocked
when he reveals his identity. They are interrupted by Saville and others, who demand to
take a peep at the lady. She is revealed to be Kitty Willis, to Courtall’s consternation and
general amusement.
Act V.
The next morning, Villers suggests that Miss Hardy not undeceive Daricourt until they
are married. Villers has all the documents ready, so that the marriage may take place
before nightfall. Hardy is to feign illness and demand to see the match before he dies.
Villers and Mrs. Rackit express a mutual affection. Hardy doesn’t like pretending to die
before his time. Doricourt asks Saville about George Jennet’s mistress; he is angry that
the woman he loves is kept by other men. Doricourt decides to pretend to be mad to avoid
having to marry Miss Hardy. Sir George and Lady Frances are relieved to hear that
Courtall has fled to France. Mrs. Rackit enters to announce that Doricourt’s madness has
wrecked the plan to marry him to Miss Hardy that evening. When Mrs. Rackit explains
the deception at the masquerade to Saville, he reveals that Doricourt has feigned madness
to avoid marrying Miss Hardy, but when the masked belle’s identity is revealed, he will
be overcome with joy. Miss Ogle, Mrs. Racket, Sir George and Lady Frances gather at
the Hardys’. Hardy is pretending to be deathly ill; his final request is that Doricourt
should not marry his daughter. He has demanded to see Doricourt even though the latter
is rumoured to be mad; Doricourt goes to see him in a straight waistcoat. His friends
mock his faked madness and ask to know the truth. Sir George offers Saville his sister’s
hand in thanks for saving Lady Frances from Courtall. In Hardy’s sick-room, Doricourt
has agreed to marry Lettitia. The mysterious masked woman appears just as Doricourt
leaves the sick-room, much to his consternation. She reveals that she is not a kept woman,
and that Doricourt’s treachery has destroyed her. She leaves. Doricourt is furious, nearly
cutting Flutter’s throat for suggesting that his beloved is a lord’s mistress. Hardy runs out
of the room and tells the company that he has feigned illness to get Doricourt to marry
Lettitia. The woman reveals her identity, and Doricourt is overjoyed. He concludes the
play by praising English women’s virtue of modesty.
5. Secondary commentary
5a. de la Mahotière, Mary. ‘Cowley , Hannah (1743–1809)’, Oxford Dictionary of
National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. Oxford Dictionary of
National Biography. 26 May 2008. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/6500
Hannah Cowley's next play, The Belle's Stratagem (Covent Garden, 22 February 1780),
dedicated to Queen Charlotte, again underlines the lack of wisdom of arranged marriages,
in its tale of Letitia and her promised suitor, Doricourt, recently returned from the grand
tour, and full of disdain for her lack of worldliness. The heroine's manner of winning his
admiration through a series of misleading disguises and a final revelation of her grace and
beauty at a masked ball made this play Hannah Cowley's masterpiece. It was immensely
popular with actors and actresses.
6. Overview of varieties / dialects
7. Variety: Servants’ dialect
7a. Sample of dialect
[page 5]
Porter. Oh hoh, I Begin to smoak you now; what, you are the fellow that tyes folkes nose
to nose in your sixpenny cuts, that never met any where else.
7b.1 Orthography: “tyes” “folks”
7b.2 Grammar: “you are the fellow that”
7b.3 Vocabulary: “Oh hoh” “smoak”
7c. Dialect area represented
7d. Density of dialect representation
7e. Location of dialect
7f. Characteristics of dialect speakers: servant
7g. Consistency of representation
7. Variety: French servant
7a. Sample of dialect:
Page 7 ]
French. Monsieur Saville, je suis mort de peur, ten tousand pardons, excusez mon erreur,
and permit me to conduct to Mons. Doricourt; he be too happy, avoize vor.
7b.1 Orthography: “ten tousand”
7b.2 Grammar
7b.3 Vocabulary: Franglais: “je suis mort de peur”; “excusez mon erreur” ; “avoize vor”
( ?)
7c. Dialect area represented:
7d. Density of dialect representation
7e. Location of dialect
7f. Characteristics of dialect speakers: French servant in England
7g. Consistency of representation
7. Variety: Lettitia (acting foolishly to repulse Doricourt)
7a. Sample of dialect:
Let.
My father will undo the whole;
(aside)
laws, papa, how can you think he can take me for a fool, when every body knows I beat
the potecary at conundrums last Christmas time; an did'nt I make a string of names all in
riddles for the lady's diary. There was a little river and a great house, [150] that was
Newcastle; there was what a lamb says, and three letters---that was ba! and k e r, Baker!
7b.1 Orthography: “potecary” (apothecary), “an” (and); bad punctuation: “an did’nt (sic)
I make a string of names all in riddles for the lady’s diary” (no question mark)
7b.2 Grammar
7b.3 Vocabulary: “laws, papa” (slightly rude interjection)
7c. Dialect area represented
7d. Density of dialect representation
7e. Location of dialect
7f. Characteristics of dialect speakers: Pretending to be an idiot, Lettitia considers it
impressive that she can spell Baker.
7g. Consistency of representation: inconsistent; limited to this scene
7. Variety: Lettitia (a mysterious belle at the masquerade)
7a. Sample of dialect:
[page 53]
Let. You have chosen an odd situation for study; fashion and taste preside on this spot;
they throw their spells around you; ten thousand delights spring up at their command; and
you a stoick, a being without senses, are wrapt in reflections!
Dor. And you, the most charming being in the world, awake me to admiration! did you
come from the stars?
Let. Yes; and I shall reascend in a moment.
-[page 56]
Let. A woman! if my husband should be a churl, a fool, or a tyrant, I'd break his heart,
ruin his fortune, elope with the first pretty fellow that ask'd me, and return the contempt
of the world with scorn, whilst my feelings prey'd upon my life.
Dor. Amazing;
(aside)
what if you lov'd him, and he were worthy of your love?
Let. Why then, I'd be any thing and all; grave, gay, capricious; the soul of whim, the
spirit of variety; live with him in the eye of fashion, or in the shade of retirement; change
my country, my
[Page 57 ]
sex; feast with him in an Esquimaux hut, or a Persian pavilion; join him in the victorious
war dance [325] on the borders of lake Ontario, or sleep to the soft breathings of a flute,
in the cinnamon grove of Ceylon; dig with him in the mines of Golconda, or enter the
dangerous precincts of the Mogul's seraglio; cheat him of wishes, and overturn the
empire to restore the husband of my heart to the blessings of liberty and love!
7b.1 Orthography
7b.2 Grammar
7b.3 Vocabulary: elevated tone (“Ten thousand delights”; “I shall reascend”);
international understanding (Esquimaux, Persian, Ontario, Ceylon, Golconda)
7c. Dialect area represented
7d. Density of dialect representation
7e. Location of dialect
7f. Characteristics of dialect speakers: Lettitia is disguised at the masquerade ball. She is
intelligent, witty and independent.
7g. Consistency of representation: consistent at and after the masquerade ball (Act IV).
7. Variety: Doricourt
[page 65]
Dor.
You have hit it, elle est mon caprie; the mistress of lord George Jennet, is my caprice. Oh,
insufferable!
7a. Sample of dialect
7b.1 Orthography
7b.2 Grammar
7b.3 Vocabulary
7c. Dialect area represented
7d. Density of dialect representation
7e. Location of dialect
7f. Characteristics of dialect speakers: Doricourt has just returned from Europe, and
believes English ladies to be inferior to French and Italian women. This excerpt suggests
that the unknown belle at the masquerade is at the same level as his foreign mistresses.
7g. Consistency of representation: Doricourt inserts surprisingly little French into his
speech (compare with Buck in Foote’s The Englishman Return’d from Paris). However,
his mild use of French reinforces his tastes for foreign women.
8. Narrative comments on dialects and varieties
A bad pun:
[page 71]
Sir Geo. Well, here we are; but where's the knight of the woful countenance?
Mrs. Rack. Here soon, I hope; for a woful night it will be without him.
[Page 72 ]
Sir Geo. Oh fie! do you condescend to pun?
Mrs. Rack. Why not; it requires genius to make a good pun; some men of bright parts
can't reach it. I know a lawyer who writes them upon the back of his briefs, and says they
are of great use in a dry cause.
9. Other points of interest:
Doricourt’s opinions of nationality:
Dor. State, my dear Saville, state: Englishmen make the best soldiers, citizens, artizans,
and philosophers in the world, but the very worst footmen. I keep French fellows and
Germans, as the Romans kept slaves, because their own countrymen had minds too
enlarg'd and haughty to descend, with a grace, to the duties of such a station.
[Page 8 ]
Sav. [25] A good excuse for a bad practice.
Dor. On my honour, experience will convince you of its truth; a Frenchman neither hears,
sees, nor breaths, but as his master directs, and his whole system of conduct is comprized
in one short word, Obedience . An Englishman reasons, forms opinions, cogitates and
disputes; one is the mere creature of your will, the other a being, conscious of equal
importance in the universal scale with yourself, and is therefore your judge, whilst he
wears your livery, and decides on your actions, with the freedom of a censor.
Sir George Touchwood’s opinions of a London fine lady:
Sir Geo.
A being easily described, madam, as she is seen every where but in her own house; she
sleeps at home, but she lives all over the town. In her mind every sentiment gives place to
the lust of [200] conquest, and the vanity of being particular; the feelings of wife and
mother, are lost in the whirl of dissipation; if she continues virtuous 'tis by chance, and if
she preserves her husband from ruin, 'tis by her dexterity at the card-table. Such a woman
I take to be a perfect fine lady.
Note: field 7 is recursive; where several varieties are represented a separate record is
completed for each variety."