The Careless Husband

Written by	Colley Cibber
Date premiered	7 December 1704
Place premiered	Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London
Original language	English
Genre	Restoration Comedy

The Carless Husband is a comedy play by the English writer Colley Cibber. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on 7 December 1704.^[1] The original cast featured Cibber as Lord Foppington, George Powell as Lord Morelove, Robert Wilks as Sir Charles Easy, Anne Oldfield as Lady Betty Modish, Frances Maria Knight as Lady Easy, Henrietta Moore as Lady Graveairs and Jane Lucas as Mrs Edging.^[2] It has been described as Cibber's most successful play, and provided a vehicle for his popular foppish Lord Foppington personae.^[3]

Bibliography

Frank, Marcie. The Novel Stage: Narrative Form from the Restoration to Jane Austen. Rutgers University Press, 2020.
McGirr, Elaine M. Partial Histories: A Reappraisal of Colley Cibber. Springer, 2016.
Van Lennep, W. The London Stage, 1660-1800: Volume Two, 1700-1729. Southern Illinois University Press, 1960.

v t e Colley Cibber
Plays	Love's Last Shift (1696) Woman's Wit (1697) Richard III (1699) Love Makes a Man (1700) She Would and She Would Not (1702) The Careless Husband (1704) The Double Gallant (1707) The Rival Fools (1709) The Non-Juror (1717) The Refusal (1721) Caesar in Egypt (1724) The Provoked Husband (1728) Love in a Riddle (1729)
Other	An Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber Poet Laureate Theatre Royal, Drury Lane Theophilus Cibber (Son) Susannah Maria Cibber (Daughter-in-law)

v t e Restoration comedy
Playwrights	Aphra Behn Susanna Centlivre Colley Cibber William Congreve John Dryden Thomas D'Urfey George Etherege George Farquhar Edward Howard James Howard Robert Howard Thomas Otway Charles Sedley Thomas Shadwell Thomas Southerne Richard Steele John Vanbrugh George Villiers William Wycherley
Notable plays	The Cutter of Coleman Street (1661) The Adventures of Five Hours (1663) The Comical Revenge (1664) The Mulberry-Garden (1668) She Would If She Could (1668) An Evening's Love (1668) Sir Solomon Single (1670) Love in a Wood (1671) The Rehearsal (1671) Epsom Wells (1672) Marriage à la mode (1672) The Country Wife (1675) Love in the Dark (1675) The Country Wit (1676) The Plain-Dealer (1676) The Man of Mode (1676) Tom Essence (1676) A Fond Husband (1677) Friendship in Fashion (1678) Squire Oldsapp (1678) Tunbridge Wells (1678) A True Widow (1678) The Woman Captain (1679) The London Cuckolds (1681) Sir Barnaby Whigg (1681) The Royalist (1682) City Politiques (1683) Dame Dobson (1683) A Commonwealth of Women (1685) Sir Courtly Nice (1685) Bellamira (1687) A Fool's Preferment (1688) The Squire of Alsatia (1688) Bury Fair (1689) The Fortune Hunters (1689) The English Friar (1690) Sir Anthony Love (1690) Love for Money (1691) The Wives Excuse (1691) Greenwich Park (1691) The Marriage-Hater Matched (1692) The Volunteers (1692) The Canterbury Guests (1694) The Married Beau (1694) Love for Love (1695) Love's Last Shift (1696) The Relapse (1696) The Campaigners (1698) Love and a Bottle (1698) The Constant Couple (1699) The Way of the World (1700) Sir Harry Wildair (1701) The Lying Lover (1703) The Careless Husband (1704) The Recruiting Officer (1706) The Beaux' Stratagem (1707)
Characters	Fop Spark Rake
Related people	Charles II Jeremy Collier Thomas Hobbes Marquis de Sade Molière James II and VII Georg Monck John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester
Related articles	Bedlam Chocolate houses Comedy of manners Court Dorset Garden Drury Lane Fleet Prison Hedonism The Libertine (1994) The Libertine (film) Libertinism Lincoln's Inn Fields Mode Restoration of Charles II Second Anglo-Dutch War Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage Wit

References

Bibliography