The Letter Writers

The Letter Writers Or, a New Way to Keep a Wife at Home is a play by Henry Fielding and was first performed on 24 March 1731 at Haymarket with its companion piece The Tragedy of Tragedies. It is about two merchants who strive to keep their wives faithful. Their efforts are unsuccessful, however, until they catch the man who their wives are cheating with.

The play, a farce dealing with sex and adultery, was a failure. While Fielding avoided the traditional cliches of the genre, he lost the moral purpose. Critics disagree over the quality of the play, but most agree that the missing moral purpose is the key failure of the play.

The Letter Writers Or, a New Way to Keep a Wife at Home, a three-act farcical play, was first mentioned in the 12 February 1731 Daily Post, which announced that the play would start in March. It first ran on 24 March 1731, and it ran for four nights as a companion piece with The Tragedy of Tragedies. It failed as a play, and The Welsh Opera replaced The Letter Writers as the companion piece to The Tragedy of Tragedies on 22 April 1731.

It was advertised for print in the 23 March Daily Post and first printed 24 March for opening night. It was printed by James Roberts with John Watts, even though only Roberts's name appeared on any of the notices, on the same day as The Tragedy of Tragedies. There is a difference in quality between the printed version of The Letter-Writers and other plays, including The Tragedy of Tragedies. The play was printed with less care and includes many mistakes in the text along with other errors.

Cast list according to the original printed billing:

The play revolves around two old merchants named Mr Wisdom and Mr Softly. Each has a young wife and the two men are afraid that their wives will run off with other men. They determine to send a threatening letter to the other's wife to scare them into staying. The letters do not work, and Mrs Softly spends her time pursuing men about town while Mrs Wisdom stays at home with Rakel, an officer. While with Rakel, Mrs Wisdom is almost caught by Mr Wisdom but she is able to sneak him into a closet. Mrs Softly does not have a closet, and she is caught with Rakel by her husband. After great lengths, she is able to convince him that she was not intimate with Rakel; Rakel pretends to be a criminal and Risque helps reinforce the lie. However, she is later discovered with Rakel by Mrs Wisdom after Commons, a friend of Rakel's, comes in drunk and reveals where Rakel was hiding.

The theme of the play is dealing with sex and adultery. However, Fielding ignores many traditional cliches that are part of the sex-comedy farce, which causes him to lose out on emphasising any moral purpose. Instead, Fielding avoids morality and the play instead forgives characters, such as Risque, who don't seem to deserve forgiveness through the play. In this play, along with The Temple Beau, Rape Upon Rape, and The Grub-Street Opera, Fielding relies on letters to further the plot.

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