City Heiress

THE CITY HEIRESS: A COMEDY
By Aphra Behn
First Produced in 1686
RESTORATION DRAMA
The City Heiress was first produced at the Duke’s Theatre, Dorset Garden, in 1682. Although the play conforms to the general rules of Restoration comedy, it also keeps Behn’s own highly Royalist political point of view. The play concerns the “seditious knight” Sir Timothy Treat-all and his Tory nephew Tom Wilding both vying for the affections of Charlot, the eponymous city (London) heiress. Treat-all keeps an open house for all of those who oppose the king, and he has disinherited Wilding.
Wilding launches a complex scheme to triumph over Treat-all. First, he introduces his mistress to Treat-all as Charlot, allowing Treat-all to woo her. This allows him to court the real Charlot himself, and it allows his mistress to move up to a wealthy knight. Then, during a staged entertainment, Wilding assumes a disguise and pretends to be a Polish nobleman. He offers Treat-all the throne of Poland. The greedy Treat-all accepts. Then, Wilding arranges for a burglary, where he and Treat-all both end up bound, and the burglars take all of Treat-all’s papers. The burglars are Wilding’s confidantes, and the papers contain evidence of Treat-all’s treason. Wilding thereby marries Charlot, Treat-all marries Wilding’s former mistress, and Treat-all is forced by blackmail to treat Wilding well and to leave him his estates.