Relationship of the play to its audience, original and modern context

Original Context:

The Restoration period was a time for comedies like The Innocent Mistress to thrive.  The Innocent Mistress has similar aspects to comedies of manner that were very popular during this time period. Comedies of manners poked fun at social norms of the time, more specifically the social norms of the upper class. Comedies of manner use language that is witty and has sexually suggestive references, which can be seen heavily throughout the script of The Innocent Mistress. Comedies of manners were popular because the audience at the time wanted plays that reflected their reality and other ethical and and social values that they are familiar with.  

It seems Mary Pix wrote this play to not directly attack her audience but gently make a joke of misogynist and cynical plays. She had eight female characters, which is big difference from other plays that usually only had two to four roles for women. Pix strays away from the common theme of seductive rake, a man of immoral conduct more specifically womanizing,  and helpless virgin or prostitute and instead gives the audience a helpless rake (Mr. Freeman), 'independent' wealthy women (Lady Beauclair), and men in unhappy marriages (Sir Charles). 

The Innocent Mistress by Mary Pix was meant to be enjoyable and funny for her audience during the Restoration Period. Restoration audiences were members of the elite upper class. This play does not seem like it was meant to teach a lesson, but maybe open a discussion on the views of women and the actions of men. This possible discussion is trying to be accomplished by reaching emotions with witty comments, complicated situations, and various other tactics that make the play enjoyable and somewhat relatable. Obviously, most of the people in the audience could not relate completely relate to the play, so there was some assumptions made by Pix but there was some aspects of the play that can be directly addressed to her upper class audience at the time. 

Modern Context

The Innocent Mistress is definitely harder to relate to in todays context. Actions and language that were acceptable in the 1690's are now frowned upon and far from the social norm. The script of this play can now be used for a more literary purpose, which is what we are reading this play for in our class. The discussion goes deeper than just roles of women and actions of men. It can now can be broaden to understanding why it was written the way it was during that time and compared to other comedic plays throughout the years. It is a little more difficult to get the comedic aspects of the play because of the style it was written in, but there is still some comedic parts of the play that can be picked up on by a modern audience. A modern audience may struggle with the interpreting the play not just because of the style it was written but also the large amount of characters in the play and the carious amount of relationships going on between the characters, especially with some of the character names being so similar. 

Citations:

http://punksandpoetesses.blogspot.com/2006/10/mary-pixs-innocent-mistress-welcome-to.html

Living Theatre A History of Theatre by Edwin Wilson and Alvin Goldfarb