“Conocimiento sobre Autocuidado”

In order to compare the plays written by Davys, Centlivre, Haywood, and Pix, this thesis has studied; the setting; the opening and the ending of the play; who is in control; the level of solidarity and equality between women; the treatment of characters; the importance of money and marriage; gender inversion, and the use of masculine language.

According to McBurney, Schofield, and others Davys was innovative in setting her most successful play The Northern Heiress (1716) in the country. Centlivre‘s play The Busie Body, written in1709, is set in Lisbon, and Davys could have followed her example in setting her play outside London. Davys‘ play The Self Rival, written in 1725, is conventionally set in London, which might indicate that Davys became more traditional and congruous with her time, as she grew older.

Haywood‘s play A Wife to be Let (1723) is set in Salisbury which might indicate that she knew Davys or her work and therefore choose a setting outside London. Mary Pix wrote her play The Beau

Defeated in 1700, sixteen years before Davys wrote The Northern Heiress, and is traditionally set in London. As such, the conclusion that Davys was innovative in regards to the setting of her plays, is not all that clear- cut. McBurney states that Davys: ― has been praised for standing out against the popular drama of the time, introducing a positive rural setting and rural characters with their funny accents, in a time when the London setting, which her plays depict as negative, was still the measure of all things‖ (348- 349). Although Centlivre‘s The Busie Body, and Haywood‘s A Wife to be Let are both set outside London, the setting is not quite rural, and as such Davys might be seen as innovative.

The only play that features a women speaking in the first act is Pix‘s The Beau Defeated, although The Self Rival stages farther and daughter at the same time. All five plays have a man delivering their views at the end of the play indicating that men still have the last say. In that regard none of the female writers venture to change Restoration Comedy convention.

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One may conclude that, although women scheme against, and test their prospective partners in various ways throughout the five plays, they all end in marriage. In this respect Davys, Centlivre, Haywood, and Pix follow Restoration Comedy traditions, and the conventions of their time where marriage is the desired goal and women, as a consequence, give up their rights.

Apart from Pix‘s The Beau Defeated women from all classes show an unusual solidarity, and a devotion to aid there ‗sisters‘ in achieving their goals. In Restoration Comedy women rivalry and jealousy were more common. Besides solidarity their seems to be an equality between the upper class women and their female servants, the latter being usually portrayed in a less favourable and more ignorant fashion. One could state that the female servants in all five plays besides being loyal are also knowledgeable, resourceful, and insightful.

Fops, such as Bareface in The Northern Heiress or, Marplot in The Busie Body have a more prominent part, and are contrary to Restoration Comedy convention, treated more sympathetic, and with some compassion. In that way, Davys, Centlivre, Haywood, and Pix deviate from common convention, and portray fops with a more intricate character.

Davys appears innovative in three ways: women are in control, gender inversion is present, and women use masculine language. Especially in The Northern Heiress Isabella, and Louisa are in control throughout the whole play, scheming and testing as is common in Restoration Comedy, but taking it just a step further. Isabella, particularly, is a highly intelligent and rational young woman who uses strong, direct, and masculine language to achieve her own goals and the goals of others. Isabella shows that through presenting herself with masculine traits and masculine utterances it is possible to control her own situation and the circumstances surrounding her. Lady Greasy, though, portrayed as a rather ridiculous and coarse woman makes herself noticed through the use of her language which is usually connected with the common man. In The Self Rival, the women are less level headed and not as much in control as Schofield remarks by saying that Davys did not manage to live up to the promise

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With some reserve one might conclude, as this thesis only compares a few contemporary plays written by women, that Davys is innovative as regards to: her setting in The Northern Heiress is rural, women in The Northern Heiress are in control, her characters are less ridiculed, and are portrayed more sympathetic. Davys differs from Centlivre, Haywood, and Pix when she uses words that act on their own, and as such perform gender.

Mary Davys in In the preface to her Works, re- marked, ― The two Plays I leave to fight their own Bat- tles; and I shall say no more, than that I was never so vain, as to think they deserv'd a Place in the first Rank, or so humble, as to resign them to the last" ( The Grub Street Journal, Number 81, 1731).

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