Lying Lover: or, The Ladies' Friendship

Richard Steele's Lying Lover (1722) is a riotous comedy of errors that tears into the pretensions of eighteenth-century gentlemanhood. Young Bookwit arrives in London with all the advantages of wealth, education, and French flair, yet lacks the one quality that might save him: good sense. He pursues false romance, drinks to excess, and kills his friend in a duel, only to awaken in jail with no memory of how he got there. The play follows his chaotic descent through the town sizzles with satire directed at men who mistake libertinism for sophistication, and women who navigate a world designed to constrain them. Steele, writing in the aftermath of the Spectator essays, uses his wit to expose thePerformative nature of honor among the fashionable set, while weaving in the titular Ladies Friendship as a counterpoint to masculine folly. The play's enduring appeal lies in its gleeful demolition of toxic masculinity dressed up as gallantry, delivered with the period's signature blend of farce and social critique. For readers who relish Restoration comedy's sharp edge and eighteenth-century London's vibrant mess, this is a forgotten gem that still bites.