⁴¹ Rose Zimbardo sees The Libertine as a failed tragedy because ‘the scenes do not juxtapose ideas or figures in conceptual configurations, nor do they develop or explore character’ (124). Although Shadwell eschews the form and characterization of tragedy, he nonetheless sequences the play carefully. See Rose A. Zimbardo, A Mirror to Nature: Transformations in Drama and Aesthetics 1660–1732 (Lexington, Ky., 1986).