This paper is an examination of Nathaniel Lee's comedy, The Princess of Cleves, first produced in late 1681 or early 1682 during the Restoration period of the British theater and adapted from Madame de La Fayette's novel of the same name, which was published in France in 1678 and was based on true events of the French court. Lee used the plot and characters of the novel (adding some of his own invention) to create a much bawdier, more satirical look at marriage, virtue, and hypocrisy in society than the novel attempted. His play is wildly entertaining but also quite disturbing in the portrait it paints of an immoral rake and the destruction - some of it tragic, much of it farcical - he wreaks in the lives and marriages of those around him.
In Lee's play, the central character is not the Princess of Cleves but the man she secretly loves, Duke Nemours, a man "built for whoring . . . black, sanguine, brawny; a Roman nose; long foot; and a stiff - calf of a leg" (1.1.89-91), as Lee has Saint-Andre describe him. Madame de La Fayette's portrait is more noble than Lee's. She calls him "nature's masterpiece among men" (3). Lee's character is more of a charming rogue; he proudly announces, "You sneak with [your obscenity] under your cloaks like tailors and barbers; and I, as a gentleman should do, walk with it in my hand" (2.3.36-37). His mistress and his secret fiancee is Marguerite, Princess of Jainville, but he is hardly a faithful lover. His current conquest is Tournon, a lady of the court of Queen Catherine de Medici.
She is well matched to the dashing scoundrel, for Tournon has been sent by the queen to break up Nemours' relationship with Marguerite; the queen wishes the princess as a wife for her son the dauphin and has charged Tournon with alienating Marguerite's affections by making her jealous. Nemours' promiscuity turns this into an easy task. He is an attractive figure with a roving eye, and Tournon takes advantage...