The Rover or The Banish'd Cavaliers is a play in two parts that is written by the English author Aphra Behn.

It is a revision of Thomas Killigrew's play Thomaso, or The Wanderer (1664), and features multiple plot lines, dealing with the amorous adventures of a group of Englishmen and women in Naples at Carnival time.

According to Restoration poet John Dryden, it "lacks the manly vitality of Killigrew's play, but shows greater refinement of expression."

"[1] ¤ In the original 1677 production, Anne Marshall played Angellica Bianca and Elizabeth Barry was Hellena.

Sisters Hellena and Florinda's fates have been decided for them by the men in their life, mainly their brother and father.

The women, not approving of these plans, dress up for Carnival in an attempt to avoid their chosen fates.

Belville, Blunt, Frederick, and Willmore are also enjoying Carnival when they run into Florinda, Hellena, and Valeria (their cousin).

The Englishmen are astounded by her beauty, but leave when they realise they do not have the money to buy her—one thousand crowns a month.

Angellica asks Willmore to speak with her inside as she was initially very excited and impressed by him.

Belville recognizes Florinda's picture in the locket and resolves to rescue her that night, with Willmore and Frederick's help.

Pedro enters, masked, and reveals that he will be fighting Antonio, relieving some of Florinda's fears.

The action redeems him in Pedro's eyes, so he gives his sister to the man he believes to be Antonio, demanding that they get married at once.

Angellica enters with her servants Moretta and Sebastian, furious that Willmore loves Hellena.

She tells a story about a young girl who fell in love and was left standing at the altar because her lover came to Angellica.

Angellica is moved by the story, Willmore is only excited and impatient to find out who the woman in question is.

He turns to Angellica and starts describing Hellena as a Gypsy, ugly, a monkey, etc.

She is saved when Valeria arrives and persuades Pedro to leave by telling him that Callis knows where Florinda is hiding.

Belville, Florinda, Valeria, and Frederick exit to get married; Blunt goes off to see a tailor.

Hellena enters, still in boy's clothes, and banters with Willmore, who wants to sleep with her but doesn't want to marry her.

They learn of Willmore and Hellena's engagement and Pedro approves, tired of fearing for his sister's honour (virginity).

Having famously worked as a spy for Charles II against the Dutch, Behn lost her meagre income when the king refused to pay her expenses.

The Rover premiered in 1677 to such great success that Behn wrote a sequel that was produced in 1681.

An extraordinarily popular example of Restoration comedy, the play earned an extended run, enabling Behn to make a fair income from it, receiving the proceeds from the box office every third night.

Willmore (who may have been a parallel to Charles II or John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester) proved to be an extremely popular character, and four years later Behn wrote a sequel to the play.

King Charles II was himself a fan of The Rover, and received a private showing of the play.

[1] The play was later adapted by Mr. John Phillip Kemble in 1790 in a production called Love in Many Masks.

The final cut of Kemble's piece saw most of the plot that was pertaining to sex, removed.

[3] Behn has been credited with an improvement in Killigrew's "indulgent and inert" dialogue in the third act of the play.

[1] Derek Hughes and Janet Todd critiqued the play in The Cambridge Companion to Aphra Behn.

[4] Despite adaptations by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1986 (Swan Theatre) and 1987 (Mermaid Theatre in London), where the play's setting was altered to take place in the West Indies, most performances of the script in the past 25 years have been by experimental or smaller troupes.