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::''For the collection of drolls by Francis Kirkman, see:'' ''The Wits'' (Drolls) ''The Wits'' is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy by Sir William Davenant. It was licensed for performance by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, on 19 January 1634; it was staged by the King's Men at the Blackfriars Theatre. It was first published in quarto by Richard Meighen in 1636. A number of critics have considered it "Davenant's most successful and influential comedy."〔Michael V. DePorte, in: ''The Later Jacobean and Caroline Dramatists: A Survey and Bibliography of Recent Studies in English Renaissance Drama'', Terence P. Logan and Denzell S. Smith, eds., Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska Press, 1978; pp. 198.〕 Herbert was initially unhappy with ''The Wits'', particularly on account of its oaths and explicit language; the influential courtier Endymion Porter interceded with King Charles I to tolerate and allow the play, which then proved popular at Court.〔Joseph Quincy Adams, Jr., ed., ''The Dramatic Records of Sir Henry Herbert'', New Haven, 1917; reprinted New York, Benjamin Blom, 1963; pp. 22, 59.〕 Davenant would eventually become an effective courtier himself;〔Deborah C. Payne, "Patronage and the Dramatic Marketplace under Charles I and II," ''Yearbook of English Studies'', Vol. 21 Special Number (1991), pp. 137–52.〕 the 1636 edition contains Davenant's dedication of the play to Porter, and a commendatory poem by Thomas Carew. ''The Wits'' has been seen as anticipating aspects of Restoration comedy, especially in its "strong, unsentimental, witty heroine" — "Lady Ample represents the Restoration ideal of a woman being the equal to a man in all respects."〔Howard S. Collins, quoted in Logan and Smith, p. 198.〕 When Davenant became manager of the newly organized Duke's Company at the beginning of the Restoration era, one of the first plays he produced was ''The Wits'' (1661), with Thomas Betterton in the lead role. ''The Wits'' was republished in 1665, in an octavo volume that also included ''The Platonick Lovers''. In a revised form, ''The Wits'' was included in the edition of Davenant's collected works issued by Henry Herringman in 1673. ==Source== In plotting ''The Wits'', Davenant depended upon a play of the previous generation, Middleton and Rowley's ''Wit at Several Weapons''. The common story involved two male relatives, an older and a younger. The older fancies himself a "wit;" he controls the family fortune through the rules of primogeniture, and denies his younger relative any funds. The younger man, impoverished but truly clever, manipulates and cheats the other, until the older man has to concede that the younger has triumphed in a contest of wit, and allows him an income. Davenant's two brothers, the Elder Pallatine and the Younger Pallatine, are versions of Sir Perfidious Oldcraft and Wittypate Oldcraft in the Middleton/Rowley play. Both comedies also feature an old guardian who tries to arrange an undesirable marriage for the pretty young woman who is his ward; the old guardian must be fooled and outmaneuvered by the play's youngsters for a happy ending. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Wits」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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