The plot revolves around Bevil Junior who, though promised to a young women by his father, has fallen in love with another. On his wedding day he discovers his friend Myrtle loves the young woman he is to marry, and he becomes consumed with jealousy.
Steele states in his Preface that he very intentionally wrote the play around a crucial “dueling” scene, attempting to nudge his audience towards more restrained and refined behavior, hoping that “it may have some effect upon the Goths and Vandals that frequent the theaters.” Whether it did or not is debated, but it certainly affected the nature of English comedy for decades to follow.
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