In the second scene of Act 1, Willmore metaphorically refers to the women around him as roses. As referenced in the stage directions, a number of women "dressed like courtesans, with papers pinned on their breasts, and baskets of flowers in their hands" have just come on stage. The Englishmen discuss the women, and Willmore tries to get their attention:
WILLMORE Kind, and obliging to inform us – Pray where do these roses grow? I would fain plant some of ’em in a bed of mine.
WOMAN Beware such roses, sir.
WILLMORE A pox of fear: I’ll be baked with thee between a pair of sheets, and that’s thy proper still; so I might but strew such roses over me, and under me – fair one, would you would give me leave to gather at your bush this idle month; I would go near to make somebody smell of it all the year after.
In this scene, Willmore uses an extended gardening metaphor to express that he wants to sleep with the women on stage. When he says that he wants to plant the roses in his bed, he does not mean that he wants to plant roses in a flower bed, but that he wants to have sex with the women dressed as courtesans. There is similar innuendo at play when he says that he wants to strew roses over and under himself, when he asks to gather at the woman's bush, and when he says he will make someone smell of it for a year.
Because of Carnival, it remains ambiguous whether these metaphorical roses are actually courtesans. The stage directions reinforce this ambiguity, merely stating that the women who come on stage are "dressed as courtesans." Tuned into this ambiguity, Belvile tells the men that "They are, or would have you think they’re courtesans." He seems to be the only member of his group who is aware of the precariousness of the Carnival setting from the outset of the play.
The uncertainty of the metaphorical roses' identities foreshadows the men's difficulty with gleaning the identities of the women around them. Over the course of the following acts, Blunt thinks he's met his future wife but is just being duped by a clever prostitute, Belvile repeatedly interacts with Florinda without knowing it is her, and Willmore is kept in the dark about Hellena's wealth and social standing thanks to her disguises.
Throughout the play, women use the courtesan costume to move around the city and Carnival festivities freely. The only main female character whose identity is never concealed or misunderstood is Angelica. As a famous prostitute, she doesn't need to conceal her identity. On the contrary—she hangs her portrait out for the men of Naples to know and want her. While dressing up as a courtesan can give women a temporary sense of freedom and power, The Rover underlines the vulnerability that prostitutes are subjected to in a misogynistic world that is organized around strict socioeconomic hierarchies.
In the first scene of Act 2, Angelica and Moretta stand on the balcony and gaze out at the men who gaze at Angelica's portrait. Angelica expresses her opinion that all men are inconstant, and that she is therefore "resolved that nothing but gold shall charm [her] heart." Moretta responds with approval, metaphorically comparing love to a disease:
I’m glad on’t; ’tis only interest that women of our profession ought to consider: though I wonder what has kept you from that general disease of our sex so long, I mean that of being in love.
Having been a prostitute herself, Moretta knows how a woman in Angelica's position should best protect herself. She says that the interest of money is the only one that "women of [their] profession ought to consider," going on to express surprise at Angelica's immunity against the disease of love up until this point. This line foreshadows Angelica's imminent and unfortunate romantic attachment to Willmore. In addition, it offers a counterargument to the masculine perspective on love and lovemaking that the audience so frequently receives from the male characters.
Throughout the play, Willmore, Blunt, and Frederick use food, combat, and maritime metaphors to express their views on romance and sex when they are among themselves. By contrast, when women are in the company of women, they often compare love to anguish and illness. Whereas the male characters tend to compare love to activities that involve vigor and deliberate action, several of the female characters seem to see love as something that happens to them. Unlike the young Cavaliers, who are exhilarated by the possibilities of romantic and sexual conquest, Moretta is disillusioned by the vulnerable position in which love puts women and—above all—prostitutes.
