The State of Nature and the State Of War: A Reconsideration of The Man of Mode

THE STATE OF NATURE AND THE STATE OF WAR: A RECONSIDERATION OF THE MAN OF MODE PAUL C. DAVIES In The First Modem Comedies Norman Holland spoke of the traditional dispraise of Restoration comedy under the general heading "The Critical Failure.'" His book, together with Thomas H. Fujimura's, is a notable recent example of what we might call "The Critical Success" with regard to these dramatists.' By relating the play to the current literature of ideas they, along with Dale Underwood; have done much to refute L. C. Knights' view that Restoration comedy "has no significant relation with the best thought of the time.'" There seems, however, to be some difference of opinion about Etherege and, in particular, The Man of Mode. Underwood sees Dorimant as a libertine burning with a passion for conquest and power. Fujimura and Holland regard him more sympathetically and bring out the less sinister aspects of this "natural" man - his intelligence, wit, and charm. Both points of view are open to certain criticisms. Kathleen M. Lynch, John Hayman, and Leo Hughes have expressed cogent points of disagreement with Underwood.' The basic objection seems to be that Underwood translates his own uncertainty about Etherege into the familiar honorifics of the New Criticism, paradox, ambivalence, equivocation, and ambiguity . As for Fujimura and Holland, it may be said that in their anxiety to show that the play does embody unambiguous positives they have painted a rather too pleasing picture of Dorimant. This article is an attempt to reconsider the play by looking afresh at the characters and careers of Dorimant and Harriet. They represent the highest points of awareness in the play, and a true understanding of their relationship would seem to be crucial for understanding the work as a whole. Underwood's picture of Dorimant errs demonstrably on the side of darkness. He sees him too exclusively as the "libertine-Machiavel" and misreads the text to make it support this theory. For example, in sustaining his case that Dorimant has serious designs On Emilia he remarks "That he has found a 'little hope' was indicated in the opening scene." But Dorimant's remark that he has "little hope" of Emilia does not mean Volllme XXXIX, Nwmber 1, October 1969 54 PAUL C. DAVIES that he has "a little hope," or even "a 'little hope'" of her. Underwood goes on to say that "Emilia's change of mind concerning him presumably provides a basis of the hope." The misunderstanding of "little hope" is compounded by the omission of the fact that the "hope" speech occurs in r, i (202) and Emilia's "change of mind" in TIl, ii (225)." On other occasions Underwood overlooks the most obvious interpretation in favour of one that suggests ambiguity. For example, when Dorimant says to Harriet "But now my passion knows no bounds" (279), Underwood wonders 'Whether this unbounded passion is in reality One still of conquest and power or now of love." But the "bounds" referred to are those just mentioned by Harriet: 'What e're you say, I know all beyond High Park's a desart to you, and that no gallantry can draw you farther." The fact that Dorimant is prepared to go beyond what was hitherto "the utmost limit of his Love" and "make a journey into the Country" suggests his capitulation to Harriet and readiness to meet her tenns. He has met his match atlast; she is his equal in tenns of dissimulation , wit, irony, and self-command. Underwood's tenns of deSCription are not always consistent with his own theory of Dorimant. He writes that "While the course of his final intrigue calls into doubt the value of his previous convictions, it also questions the nature and value of his passion." "Convictions" seems hardly the right word for the attitudes of a character as ironical and self-aware as Dorimant, parricularlY with regard to Loveit and Bellinda. Indifference to convictions would appear to be a recognizable feature of Dorimant's "libertinism." At the same time there is in his conduct nO sense of rigid adherence to a creed. His behaviour is what comes naturally to a healthy, sceptical young man who has not "met his...