american conservatory theater presents...characters, cast, and synopsis of the rivals the premiere...

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by richard brinsley sheridan directed by lillian groag geary theater march 23april 23, 2006 WORDS ON PLAYS prepared by elizabeth brodersen publications editor jessica werner contributing editor michael paller resident dramaturg margot melcon publications assistant a.c.t. is supported in part by grants from the Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund and the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art. The Rivals AMERICAN CONSERVATORY THEATER Carey Perloff, Artistic Director Heather Kitchen, Executive Director PRESENTS © 2006 AMERICAN CONSERVATORY THEATER, A NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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Page 1: AMERICAN CONSERVATORY THEATER PRESENTS...characters, cast, and synopsis of THE RIVALS The premiere production of The Rivals opened January 17, 1775, at Covent Garden Theatre in London

by richard brinsley sheridandirected by lillian groaggeary theatermarch 23–april 23, 2006

WORDS ON PLAYS prepared by

elizabeth brodersenpublications editor

jessica wernercontributing editor

michael pallerresident dramaturg

margot melconpublications assistant

a.c.t. is supported in part by grants from theGrants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fundand the National Endowment for the Arts, whichbelieves that a great nation deserves great art.

The Rivals

A M E R I C A N C O N S E R VAT O R Y T H E AT E R

Carey Perloff, Artistic Director Heather Kitchen, Executive Director

P R E S E N T S

© 2006 AMERICAN CONSERVATORY THEATER, A NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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table of contents

1. Characters, Cast, and Synopsis of The Rivals

6. A Note from the Directorby Lillian Groag

7. The Rivals: Meet and Greet

14. A Brief Biography of Richard Brinsley Sheridan

15. Sheridan in Americaby Michael Paller

21. On Bathby Michael Paller

28. The Cult of Sensibilityby Michael Paller

32. Sheridan’s Duels: The Deadly Seriousness behind The Rivalsby Michael Paller

40. The Rivals: Historical Context

41. A Rivals Glossary

49. Questions to Consider

50. For Further Information . . .

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characters, cast, and synopsis of THE RIVALSThe premiere production of The Rivals opened January 17, 1775, at Covent GardenTheatre in London.

characters and castthomas, Sir Anthony’s coachman Mark D. Watsonfag, Jack’s servant T. Edward Websterlydia languish, a provincial lady René Augesenlucy, Lydia’s maid Claire Brownelljulia melville, Lydia’s friend Stacy Ross

and Sir Anthony’s wardmrs. malaprop, Lydia’s Aunt Jill Tannersir anthony absolute, a baronet Charles Deancaptain jack absolute, his son Anthony Fuscofaulkland, Jack’s friend Gregory Wallacebob acres, Jack’s friend, a country squire Dan Hiatt errand boy Ann Farrarsir lucius o’trigger, an Irish gentleman Andy Murraydavid, Bob Acre’s servant Jud Williford

the settingBath, England, in the late 18th century.

synopsis

Act i. scene one. Two old friends, both servants, happen upon each other on astreet in Bath. Fag, servant to Captain Jack Absolute (who is masquerading as a poor

Ensign Beverley for the sake of a love affair), catches up with Thomas, coachman to SirAnthony Absolute, Jack’s father and a wealthy baronet, thereby introducing the charactersand setting up the story to date: Jack is in love with the wealthy young Miss LydiaLanguish, who desperately desires to elope with her impoverished beau, Ensign Beverley.Lydia is vacationing in Bath with her domineering and bizarrely misspoken aunt, Mrs.Malaprop.

scene two. Lucy, Lydia’s maid, returns to her mistress’s dressing room in Mrs.Malaprop’s lodgings from a trip to the local circulating libraries, laden with romantic

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novels for her mistress. Lydia wants a love affair as romantic and dramatic as those of theheroines in the romance stories she devours. Although wealthy in her own right, Lydiastands to lose her fortune if she marries a man of whom her aunt does not approve beforeshe comes of age; Lydia is not interested, however, in any man who would be willing towait for her money before marrying her – hence Jack Absolute’s impersonation of a ficti-tious young man (Beverley) with a lesser title and little income.

Lydia reveals to her friend Julia that her aunt has confined her to her rooms after discov-ering Lydia’s secret passion for Beverley. Julia is in love with Jack’s friend Faulkland, butLydia believes Faulkland is too possessive of Julia. Mrs. Malaprop and Sir Anthony Absoluteenter and instruct Lydia to forget Beverley. When she refuses, Mrs. Malaprop sends her toher room, whereupon the elder pair agree that severity is the best way to treat a child. SirAnthony wants his own son (Captain Jack Absolute) to marry Lydia, and he suggests lock-ing Lydia in her room without dinner for a few days to enforce her compliance. Mrs.Malaprop, her speeches thick with misused, pretentious words, agrees to an initial encounterbetween the young people, for she would like to be freed of her niece so she can pursue herown affair with Sir Lucius O’Trigger. All exit but Lucy, who tallies up the many rewards shehas earned by acting as a go-between and informer for the various sets of lovers.

Act ii. scene one. At Captain Absolute’s lodging, Fag lets Jack (who is dressed asEnsign Beverley) know that Jack’s

father is in Bath. Faulkland enters, and heand Jack discuss their love affairs. Jackaccuses Faulkland of being a ‘‘teasing, cap-tious, incorrigible lover’’ for constantlydoubting Julia’s loyalty and love. Bob Acres,one of Lydia’s spurned suitors, enters andpitches Faulkland into yet another fit ofjealous despair by relating how Julia hasentertained Bath society with her carefreesinging and dancing—obviously, Faulklandconcludes, she hasn’t missed him a whit,although they haven’t seen each other for awhile. Acres, a country bumpkin, brags toJack and Faulkland that he shall win Lydiaback from Ensign Beverley with his

Costume rendering for Faulkland by Beaver Bauer

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improved dress and hairstyle. Fag announces the arrival of Jack’s father, Sir Anthony, whoinforms Jack that he intends to give him a sizeable estate, but only if he agrees to acceptan arranged marriage. Jack declines politely, saying that his ‘‘heart is engaged to an angel.’’Sir Anthony leaves, fuming.

scene two. Lucy delivers a love letter to Sir Lucius O’Trigger. He believes the letteris from a new lady love, a certain “Delia,” whom he believes to be in fact Lydia. Lucy doesnot inform Sir Lucius that the letter’s real author is the much older Mrs. Malaprop. Beforegoing, Sir Lucius kisses Lucy. Fag arrives, and Sir Lucius leaves, humming. Lucy tells Fagabout Sir Anthony’s choice of a wife for Jack: Lydia Languish. Fag goes off gleefully toinform his master of the good news.

Act iii. scene one. Now that Jack knows he is being “forced” to marry the girl heloves, he pretends to repent his disrespectful behavior toward his father, feigns the

obedience of a dutiful son, and wins his father’s shocked approval.scene two. In Julia’s receiving room, Faulkland confronts Julia with his paranoid

fears and jealousy, and, after several attempts at reassurance, she exits in tears. Too late,Faulkland recognizes his folly.

scene three. In Mrs. Malaprop’s lodgings, Captain Absolute presents himself toLydia’s aunt, who does not guess his dual identity as Ensign Beverley. She shows him

Beverley’s letter to Lydia, and he feigns disgustat his supposed rival’s rude remarks about thevigilant old aunt. When Mrs. Malaprop thenspies on Jack’s supposed first meeting withLydia, she fails to recognize Lydia’s delight atseeing her lover in the ‘‘disguise’’ of his trueidentity. Lydia infuriates her aunt by continuingto profess her love for Beverley, in plain hearingof Jack Absolute, who calmly pretends not to bejealous of his other self.

scene four. In Acres’s lodgings, SirLucius interrupts Acres capering about in newclothes, practicing his dance lessons. Sir Luciusinforms Acres that he has lost Lydia to EnsignBeverley and manages to convince Acres tochallenge Beverley to a duel, to defend his

Costume rendering for Bob Acres by Beaver Bauer

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honor and to ‘‘prevent any misunderstanding.’’ Acres does not realize that this Beverley isnone other than his friend Jack Absolute. Sir Lucius helps Acres write a letter challengingBeverley to fight, but claims to have another duel to attend and so cannot deliver the noteon his friend’s behalf.

Act iv. scene one. Acres’s servant David tries to deflate his master’s enthusiasm forthe fight with a healthy dose of reality, but Acres remains steadfast. Jack Absolute

arrives and offers his support but refuses to act as Acres’s second, which, of course, wouldbe impossible since he is also Acres’s opponent, Beverley. Jack promises to warn Beverleythat ‘‘Fighting Bob’’ is in a ‘‘devouring rage.’’

scene two. Back at Mrs. Malaprop’s lodgings, Lydia refuses to give any encourage-ment to Captain Absolute and insists that she will remain true to her beloved Beverley.Suddenly, Sir Anthony arrives with Jack in tow. Their arrival is a volatile situation, forLydia still does not know that Jack is also Beverley. Jack approaches Lydia, who sits in ahuff with her face turned away from him. At first Jack does not speak, and then tries tomodify his voice to an awkward croak, which infuriates his father. Finally, he reveals him-self to a shocked Lydia, insisting that the man before her is Beverley. At first, Mrs.Malaprop and Sir Anthony consider Lydia mad. Lydia sulks in realization that the twomen are one and the same, which means no dramatic elopement or disinheritance; herromantic bubble has burst. Jack’s bubble has burst, as well, since Mrs. Malaprop realizesthat it was Jack who called her an ‘‘old weather-beaten she dragon.” Sir Anthony marvelsat his son’s roguish ingenuity and sings and dances in delight.

Jack realizes that Lydia, still brooding over the death of her romantic dream, has notjoined in the general celebration. She lashes out at him for deceiving her and begins to sob.Mrs. Malaprop thinks the couple is ‘‘billing and cooing,’’ and Sir Anthony mistakes Lydia’stears as evidence of his son’s impatient blood, a trait, he proudly says, that runs in theirfamily.

scene three. On the North Parade, Sir Lucius provokes a quarrel with Jack, who isin a foul mood after Lydia’s rejection. He agrees to duel with Sir Lucius at the same loca-tion that Acres plans to duel with Jack that evening. Faulkland arrives as Sir Lucius exits.A servant delivers a letter from Julia asking Faulkland to meet her right away, and Jackchastises his friend for failing to understand he’s being given a second chance. Jack is correct: Faulkland decides to test Julia’s sincerity yet again, using the duel as a ruse.

Act v. scene one. Faulkland confronts Julia in her rooms, claiming that he has toleave the country to preserve his life. True to her loyal, loving nature, Julia agrees to

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go with him, without even knowing the nature of the threat. Overwhelmed by herresponse, Faulkland forgets to depart, admits the ruse, and enrages Julia for trifling withher sincerity. She now sees that he will never be capable of confidence in love, so she leaveshim, professing never to love again. Faulkland finally truly understands the error of hisconstant doubts, and he sinks in remorse.

Faulkland exits as Lydia and Lucy enter, followed by Julia. Lydia bemoans the death ofher romantic dreams, but Julia responds by telling her sad story and advising Lydia not tobe so foolish as to throw away the true love of a good man. Lydia seems ready to acceptthe new, albeit less romantic, terms of her love affair with Absolute. Suddenly, Mrs.Malaprop, David, and Fag arrive, hoping to stop the duel in time, although Mrs.Malaprop’s circuitous style of speaking delays their message being understood by the twoyoung ladies. Eventually, all is clear, and they exit to find the field of battle.

scene two. On the South Parade, Jack bumps into Sir Anthony, the last person hewants to see when he is on his way to a duel. His nervousness nearly gives him away, butwhen his sword falls from under his coat, Jack manages to convince his father that heintends to scare Lydia with a romantic threat of suicide if she will not accept him. Jackescapes, just as David arrives. David tells Sir Anthony about the impending duels, and theydepart in haste to try and interrupt the proceedings.

scene three. At King’s-Mead-Fields, Acres and Sir Lucius discuss (with buffoonishineptitude) the best shooting distance and stance for effective dueling. Faulkland and Jack

arrive, and Sir Lucius assumes that Faulkland isBeverley, since he, of course, already knows Jackas Jack. Jack informs Acres of Beverley’s trueidentity; Acres, in great relief, promises to bearhis disappointment (at losing the opportunity toduel) “like a Christian,” while Sir Lucius andJack nearly come to blows before the group ofconcerned ladies and parents appear. Lydiainforms Sir Lucius that she is not his “Delia”—who, to Sir Lucius’s chagrin, is revealed to beMrs. Malaprop. The mystery of identities nowrevealed, the antagonists put aside their differ-ences and the couples make up—Jack withLydia and Faulkland with Julia. All dance.

Costume rendering for Sir Anthony Absolute by Beaver Bauer

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a note from the directorby lillian groag

All good plays have to do with the conduct of life, and they last because the funda-mental problems of existence don’t change.

For some two hundred years now we have prized the English comedies of the centurybetween the Restoration and the last Georges for a glittering artifice that we have, perhapstoo hastily, called “artificiality,” since our deeply earnest and laconic times have bred animplicit distrust of florid language. We seem to have similar reservations regarding poly-syllabic leaders. It is as if expression that is precise and articulate were inherently suspect—true emotion and therefore Truth Itself being assumed to reside exclusively with theinarticulate, and all products of the mind appearing chilly propositions compared to theeffusions of what it pleases us to call The Heart. In fact the heart is a muscle that pumpsblood, and we can now identify specific sections of the brain in which particular “emotions”originate. Is it because of this basic distrust of words, coupled with the assumption thatpeople in wigs sporting fans and walking sticks could not possibly have anything to dowith us, that we now traditionally approach these comedies with caution and diminishedexpectation?

I contend that The Rivals addresses us regarding the question of how to love as urgentlyas it did two centuries ago, and that the conflict between the illusion of Romance and thewarning signs of common sense in the interests of the longevity of the couple is as vividnow as it was then. Lydia believes that Love conquers all adversity; Faulkland, in the fogof a severe Tristan Complex, would like his beloved to become himself, thereby obliterat-ing intrinsic human separateness; Mrs. Malaprop hopes Love will restore lost youth; BobAcres expects it to give him “style” and courage. And yet, even in the throes of terminalabsurdity, not one of Sheridan’s characters appears petty, mean-hearted, or small.

It is said that at the core of British humor can be found the brilliant Irishmen whoshaped it: Congreve, Farquhar, Sheridan, Beckett, Wilde, Shaw. Who can not hear thestirrings of Gwendolen, Lady Bracknell, and that “other Jack” in Lydia Languish, Mrs.Malaprop, and Captain Absolute?

The Rivals, wise as it is delicious, celebrates and announces the wit, incisive thought,and sharp satire hidden beneath this dazzling tradition. It’s not the flick of the fan—essen-tial as it is to the shape of this world—that elicits laughter and the movement of the heart;it’s the turn of the spectacular, illuminating word.

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THE RIVALS: meet and greetComments made to the actors on the first day of rehearsal at a.c.t., February 21, 2006.

director lillian groagI think these plays have fallen somehow into disrepute, from Restoration comedy toGeorgian comedy a hundred years later. We tend to think of them as these brittle, artifi-cial linguistic creations. But The Rivals is full of love and heat and, like all good plays,addresses the conduct of life. How shall we live? And, more specifically in this play, Howshall we love? Like all wonderful writers, Sheridan’s ambiguous at the end. Good play-wrights give you no answers.

Lydia, Faulkland, and, to a certain extent, poor Mrs. Malaprop all believe that love con-quers all, that love can overcome even poverty and sadness and death. Faulkland would liketo merge, to be one with his beloved Julia—he suffers from the Tristan complex, when you

The Circus, Bath (1773), by John Robert Cozens. © Victoria Art Gallery, Bath, and North East Somerset Council / The BridgemanArt Library.

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feel as though you breathe and think and feel exactly as your beloved does. Well, of course,that’s nonsense. Separation is what we’re all condemned to, to exist isolated within our ownskins for our entire lives. And then there are the characters who belong in the late 18th cen-tury. They are the children of the Age of Reason, Jack and Julia, who see everything froma perspective that propels the social world forward. The world clearly could not functionif we all loved like Lydia and Faulkland—you’d go to Walgreen’s for an envelope and findthe assistant slitting her wrists in the aisle because her beloved doesn’t love her and shecan’t love anybody else. Lydia and Faulkland, and Mrs. Malaprop in a different way, arebrought into the fold and taught to love in a way society approves. When that happens,however, I think there’s a sense that something golden has been lost.

I think I’d prefer to be loved by Faulkland, myself, because he would die if I left him.Isn’t that wonderful? Now that’s love! Unlike Jack, who says that, if things don’t work outwith Lydia, he would be very sorry, but he knows he would find someone else to love. Likemost of us do. Whereas Faulkland says to him, “You may be able to love again, but I can’t.This is it.” There is something sad about what’s lost at the end. It shouldn’t be too painful,but there should be a little regret about the loss of the idealism of two people who love notwisely but too well. They really do love well. They love the way the movies tell us to love:passionately and recklessly. But a world populated by Lydias and Faulklands would bemad. Can you imagine? You go knock on your boss’s door and she’s lying on the floor tak-ing oxygen because her husband was cruel to her that morning. We can’t live like that.Nevertheless, something wonderful is regretfully given up at the end.

I decided to set the production in Gainsborough’s time [painter Thomas Gainsbor-ough, 1727–88], not only because it is period appropriate, but because it is the beginning ofthe Romantic movement. In about 20 to 30 years, you have Byron and Napoleon andChateaubriand, these incredible Romantic figures, and ten years after that the Brontës andHeathcliff and Catherine. And Gainsborough gave us all these incredible paintings ofthese women, slightly disheveled, who all look like they’re about to take flight. As thoughthey were helium borne, just a breath away from taking off.

scenic designer donald eastmanThe set is based on a crescent shape, a familiar structure in Georgian architecture—Bathwas largely built in the mid 18th century. We’ve been evolving the look of the set fromsomething very architectural and detailed and three dimensional, to actually taking advan-tage of the great scenic artist we have at A.C.T., Demarest Campbell, who can paint any-thing. It’s all going to be painted like a perfect 18th-century painting. The buildings willhave shadow and pale color. It will be like a three-dimensional watercolor, sitting on a clas-

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sic stage floor, wooden boards in a classic stage pattern. So there will be this fabulous arti-ficial piece of architecture sitting on a real stage floor. A chandelier hangs above the wholepiece, strangely hovering at the center of this town, of this arc of architecture, which letsus pay homage to the theater, while also paying homage to the fact that it is artifice. TheGeorgian theater stage was basically a wood proscenium with a door on the right and adoor on the left, a chair in the center, and a painted drop, with the actors fighting to bedown center. In a way, we’re paying homage to that, and the chandelier just tops it off.When you look at the setting, it is a perfect picture of people in the middle of this big ovalof architecture, but the interesting thing is, when you get near it, you realize that the four-story building in the back is actually just twelve feet tall. So the set design plays with theidea that it’s just a framework for the play to take place in front of.

The interiors are very actor driven. In contrast to the exterior, which is an homage topainting and craft and watercolor, the interiors actually have architectural detail. They’revery monochromatic, and they really are a canvas for the actors. The stage is slightly raked,

Scenic backdrop for the set of The Rivals, designed by Donald Eastman

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a gentle, half-inch rake, but there’s only a seven-inch step at the apron. The challenge indesigning these rooms was trying to figure out the milieu of these people, how everyonewas differentiated from each other, within Bath society. Social distinctions were much lessmarked in Bath than in conventional British society, and everyone was just renting a room,so truly everyone’s room was fabulous. Every time we reveal another room, it will be sim-ply set with just the right amount of furniture and not overdressed. The furniture will begold leaf and covered in real color. So we’ll see the red room, or the green room, or the yel-low room, without a great amount of detail.

In the final scene we leave town for the duel, and we’re bringing in a big painted back-drop that actually looks like a painting; you can see people in the classic English landscape.I was in upstate New York last year in Cooperstown, where Lillian and I tend to go everysummer for Glimmerglass Opera, and I found two great things in a box in front of a usedbookstore. One was a picture book of English landscape painting, and the other was a1920s edition of The Rivals. Don’t ask me why, but somehow between that book and thatscript, there’s the set. The interesting thing about the backdrop is that, once we bring it in,there is no way to get onstage. So for the final scene everyone will be entering from thehouse, which means that all of the characters will be coming up into this strange new place.And this scene will basically be footlights, so it really will all of a sudden have a uniquequality. We really will have left the place we’ve been for the last two hours and will cometo this wonderful new place, only to go back and reveal the big set at the end.

costume designer beaver bauerAs Lillian said, we started with the work of the wonderful Mr. Gainsborough. We wereinspired by these ladies who look like baroque pearls sitting in these wonderful paintings.We adored the women in their pale dresses and the men as darker strokes within the land-scape.

I’m also following a thread of the contemporary designer Vivienne Westwood, who veryfrequently riffs on British historical costumes, as well as the genius of fashion designerCharles James, who was quite wonderful. His work is very similar to our set, with palerooms and ladies in huge, lovely gowns. And I read this great article about the waters andthe pump-room in Bath; they actually used to get into the baths, as you can see in some ofthe caricatures, with their hats on.

We pictured Lydia lying on a divan eating bon bons and reading novels, waiting forlove. Mrs. Malaprop we imagined with lavender in her hair, dressed in a wonderful pale

OPPOSITE Costume rendering for Mrs. Malaprop by Beaver Bauer

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Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan, c. 1785–86, by Thomas Gainsborough. Mellon Collection, National Gallery of Art,Washington D.C. / The Bridgeman Art Library.

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chartreuse green. Gainsborough always had these ladies wrapped in gauzy tulle—whatgood it would do, I don’t know, but yards of gauzy tulle—and maybe when they go to theduel they will have big floppy hats and blowing gauze and parasols. Bob Acres rushes inwith his hair plastered down, oily and dirty, in leather pants, and then transforms into aslightly Keith Richards aesthetic. Faulkland is very romantic with a beautiful long, loosewig, dripping with scarves, hopefully velvet. Sir Lucius is fabulous in a tartan waistcoatwith a big red wig. Why not? I think [actor] Andy [Murray] can pull it off.

sound designer jake rodriguezThe great thing about working with Lillian is that she has such a connection with music.Music in her productions is never incidental or merely transitional, or background, or therejust to paint a period of time; it’s always central to telling the story. We’ll be discoveringthe musical vocabulary of this show in the rehearsal process, but I think we’re certain thatmusic will generally be a part of that connection between the head and the heart, makingsure that the story is grounded to its emotional core. We also talked about a few events inthe show that are not just transitional moments, but are big moments with music, whichwill help drive the story. I’m sure we’ll discover a few more, starting with music of theperiod, but not necessarily ending there. We may span beyond that. We’ll see where we go,but I think it will be a fun ride.

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a brief biography of richard brinsley sheridan

Richard Brinsely Sheridan(1751–1816) was born in

Dublin. His father was an actor,theater manager, and teacher ofelocution, his mother a writer ofsentimental novels. He waseducated at Harrow, where hequickly learned the disadvan-tages of a nonaristocratic, the-atrical, Irish-Protestant familybackground. Indeed, this her-itage was the fulcrum on whichhis life turned, even as it neverceased hindering him sociallyand politically. He marriedElizabeth Linley in 1773 after anadventurous courtship thatincluded two duels and anelopement—material that hefashioned into his first play, TheRivals, in 1775. The Duenna fol-lowed the same year. In 1776, hebecame part owner of theDrury Lane Theatre, which he

managed until 1809. There he staged The School for Scandal (1777), The Critic, and Pizarro(both 1779). In 1780, he was elected to Parliament, where he served until 1812, and the the-ater played an increasingly minor role in his life. As a Whig in an era of Tory politicaldominance, Sheridan was never in the majority and never served in the government.However, his unfailing defense of causes such as the American Revolution and Irish andCatholic emancipation resulted in a brilliant series of speeches that rarely have beenequaled in English political history.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan, by John Hoppner. Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia /Novosti / The Bridgeman Art Library.

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sheridan in americaby michael paller

Today, some tend to view Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s two major comedies, The Rivalsand The School for Scandal, as trivial affairs with the single purpose of providing audi-

ences with a couple of hours of carefree amusement. In his own day, however, Sheridan wasconsidered by many to be a dangerous revolutionary. His friend and admirer Lord Byronwas the one called “mad, bad, and dangerous to know,” but to Sheridan’s political oppo-nents the description fit Sheridan even better. In his 32 years as a member of Parliament,he championed, among other causes, the American and French Revolutions and Irish andCatholic emancipation. He was a democrat in an institution and country firmly run byaristocrats, and his background as the son of Protestant/Irish parents, one an actor and onea novelist, led him to view with a jaundiced eye the privileges and conventions of the elite.Indeed, on at least one occasion, Sheridan’s actions on behalf of the Catholic cause cameperilously close to landing him in jail on charges of treason.

So it is fitting that the story of the performance of his works in America is accompa-nied at almost every turn by revolts against authority. It begins long before Sheridan’s birthwith the overthrow of a monarch and features the outrage of a prime minister, theresourcefulness of London theater managers, the survival instinct of a company of actorsin colonial America, the condemnation of the Continental Congress, the appreciation of afuture president, the artistic ambitions of a Vermont jurist, and the thirst for freedom of ablack slave in Baltimore.

theater by any meansIn 1642, the Puritan-dominated Parliament overthrew the Stuart king Charles i and, intheir zeal to stamp out all forms of secular entertainment, tore down the country’s theatersand banned performances of plays. When the monarchy was restored in 1660, the newking, Charles ii, reestablished theatrical activity and supported with great enthusiasm theappearance of women on the English stage for the first time in history. (One of them, NellGwyn, retired from the stage in 1669 to become his mistress and bore him two children.)The Restoration theater was not the wide-open, hurly-burly affair the Elizabethan theaterhad been, however. Now it was tightly controlled; only two theaters were given royallicenses, or patents, to operate in London.

As the years passed, enforcement of the patents became lax. By 1733, there were at leastfour unlicensed and illegal theaters operating in London in addition to the two legal ones,

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the Covent Gardens and the Drury Lane. Worse, from the point of view of the govern-ment—which controlled the content of plays by controlling the theaters where they wereproduced—these unlicensed theaters were making a good deal of money by making a gooddeal of savage fun of the royal family (now headed by George ii and Queen Caroline) andthe prime minister. That prime minister, Robert Walpole, was growing outraged at beingmercilessly satirized in such works as John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera (1728) and HenryFielding’s The Historical Register for the Year 1736 (1737). In response to Fielding’s brutalsatire, Walpole pushed through Parliament what became known as the Licensing Act of1737. It had two important provisions: any stage work had to be approved by a censor beforeit could be performed, and the only place in London where plays could be legally per-formed was in the district of Westminster—meaning the Covent Garden and Drury Lanetheaters, which were the only playhouses in the district, and the holders of the two royalpatents. All other theaters would be shut down.

Interior of the Drury Lane Theatre (1808), by T. Rowlandson and A. C. Pugin.© Guildhall Library, City of London / The Bridgeman Art Library.

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This did not stop resourceful theater managers, however. Since the law applied to playsthat were produced for “gain, hire, or reward,” operators of illegal theaters charged audi-ences a fee for a cup of tea or chocolate, or an exhibition of pictures displayed before theshow, and presented their plays for free. Wriggling through loopholes like these, the mostinventive managers contrived to stay open for years. One such was Lewis Hallam, Sr.,manager of the Wells Theatre. In 1752, the law caught up with him, however, and the Wellswas closed. So Hallam and his family packed their bags and migrated to America. By 1763,the family, now called The American Company of Comedians, was performing up anddown the Eastern seaboard and, according to historian Kenneth Silverman, practicallymonopolizing the theater in the North American colonies.

Their success was not entirely a result of their abilities, which by most accounts weremodest. What they did possess was a remarkable ability to persevere, and for actors in colo-nial America, this was more valuable than talent. The descendants of the English Puritanswho had outlawed the theater in 1642 were now residing in the American colonies andwere determined to stamp it out here, too. Theater was popular in the South and in NewYork, but it found little encouragement elsewhere. In 1682, Pennsylvania passed a law call-ing for the public condemnation, fine, and imprisonment of anyone presenting plays, bull-baiting, cock-fighting, or other morally suspect practices. By 1750, Boston and other NewEngland cities had banned theater, and in 1774 the Continental Congress took time outfrom the looming crisis with Great Britain to make the prohibition general. The Congresspassed a law stating, in part:

We will, in our several stations, encourage frugality, economy, and industry,and promote agriculture, arts, and the manufactures of this country, especiallythat of wool; and will discountenance and discourage every species of extrav-agance and dissipation, especially all horse-racing, and all kinds of gaming,cock-fighting, exhibition of shews, plays, and other expensive diversions andentertainments.

By now, the American Company had improved its standards and built handsome bricktheaters in New York and Philadelphia, which it was suddenly unable to use. Faced withits new outlaw status, the American Company decamped to Kingston, Jamaica, where itproduced Sheridan’s The Duenna in 1779, The Rivals in 1780, and The School for Scandal in1781. These were the first professional productions of Sheridan in the New World.

As a vocal supporter of the American cause, Sheridan might have been amused had heknown that The School for Scandal had already been performed in New York by membersof the redcoat army that occupied the city during the war. Clinton’s Thespians, as they were

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known, produced Scandal in 1778, three years after its premiere at the Drury Lane inLondon. They produced it again in 1782, billing it—in a ploy Sheridan might have appre-ciated—as “never performed here.” The British evacuated New York a year later, but theSheridan tradition on the American mainland had just begun.

The American Company returned to North America in 1785, now under the directionof Lewis Hallam, Jr., and John Henry, who had studied with Sheridan’s father, Thomas,who was not only an actor but also an acclaimed teacher of elocution. In December 1785,the American Company produced the first civilian, professional production of The Schoolfor Scandal, in New York.

The troupe returned to Philadelphia during the Constitutional Convention in 1787,hoping that the large number of sophisticates in town would turn out to see them. Theaterwas still illegal in Philadelphia, so the company resorted to some of the same time-testedtactics that unlicensed theaters in London had used years earlier, announcing a “Concert”to be held at the “Opera House,” which was actually the Southwark Theatre, which theyhad built many years earlier. “Between the parts of the Concert,” the ads in the pressannounced, “will be introduced a comic LECTURE in five parts on the PERNICIOUSVICE OF SCANDAL . . . Written by R. B. Sheridan, esquire.” The five-part “lecture”was, of course, the five-act School for Scandal.

An Audience at Drury Lane Theatre, by Thomas Rowlandson. © Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, U.S.A. / TheBridgeman Art Library.

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a fan in washingtonLater that year, they repeated the production in New York for audiences that included, onmore than one occasion, George Washington. Washington had long been a fan of theAmerican Company, and had attended its performances often when it played Williamsburgbefore the war. General Washington’s frequent laugher during The School for Scandal in NewYork caused much distress to one of his companions, the more puritanically-mindedSenator William Maclay of Pennsylvania, who was outraged that the future presidentcould so enjoy “such an indecent representation.”

Royal Tyler, a Vermont lawyer, was also at one of those performances, and within weeks,he wrote a play called The Contrast. Its plot owed more than a little to The School forScandal, and in Act iii, Tyler’s chief comic character, the country bumpkin Jonathan, mis-takenly wanders into a New York theater to see a play called The School for Scandalization—and asks for his money back. Over the years, Tyler would write a handful of other playswhen not presiding, as chief justice, over the Vermont Supreme Court. In time, TheContrast would become known as the first play written by an American to be performedby a professional company in the United States.

The American Company also presented Robinson Crusoe or Harlequin Friday, an elabo-rate spectacle written by Sheridan’s wife, Elizabeth, with some assistance from him. Thecompany’s 1786 production was, as the advertisement said, “for the entertainment of theIndian Chiefs of the Oneida nation, now in this city.” The play’s first half followed thestory of Daniel Defoe’s novel; the second told of the adventures of his black servant Fridayand his love, Columbine, concluding with, as Sheridan’s most recent biographer, FintanO’Toole tells us, a “Grand Dance of Savages.” There is no record of the Oneida chiefs’reaction.

Sheridan’s revolutionary sympathies continued to reverberate in America in the 19thcentury. Ira Aldridge, an African-American actor who spent most of his career in Europeplaying Shakespeare to great acclaim, chose for his American debut in 1822 the part ofRolla the Incan leader in Sheridan’s Pizzaro, the story of the tragic clash between the Incasand Spanish conquerors. Not surprisingly, in Sheridan’s version the Incas are the heroes,the Spanish invaders the villains.

Fifteen years after Sheridan’s death, another American was moved by Sheridan’s cry forfreedom and democracy. About 1830, Frederick Douglass was a young house slave inBaltimore when he heard about a writer named Sheridan. With money he’d earned fromshining shoes, Douglass acquired a book of Sheridan’s parliamentary speeches; in his auto-biography, Douglass recalled the effect the book had: “I met with one of Sheridan’s mightyspeeches . . . on behalf of Catholic emancipation. These were choice documents to me. I

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read them over and over again with unabated interest. . . . What I got from Sheridan wasa bold denunciation of slavery and a powerful vindication of human rights.”

Not until later in the century would Sheridan’s revolutionary politics gradually be sep-arated from his writing for the theater. So it’s well to keep in mind while watching TheRivals that, for all its humor, it is a story about a revolution in thinking, about steeringone’s own course. Jack Absolute will go his own way in romance, following neither the con-ventional matchmaking ways of his father’s and Mrs. Malaprop’s generation, nor the fad-dish modes in the popular sentimental novels so thoroughly imbibed by Lydia. Julia, too,will do her best to free Faulkland from the outlandish course he slavishly believes loversmust run before they can prove themselves worthy of love. Mrs. Malaprop believes that,above all, a young woman “should be mistress of orthodoxy.” She seems to mean “orthog-raphy,” the study of correct spelling, but her mistake is telling. It is her misfortune, alas, tomiss the joke—and the revolution that’s happening right under her nose.

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on bathby michael paller

The city of Bath, which the poet Swinburne called “Britain’s Florence,” is located insouthwest England in Somerset County about 100 miles, or 180 kilometers, from

London. It is set in a bowl surrounded, like Rome, by seven hills. Because of its conven-ient proximity to London and its location on the Avon River, in the 18th century it becamea major social center, if never a very large town. In Sheridan’s day, the population num-bered about 30,000.

The area was first settled, probably around 500 b.c.e., by Celts, who considered it asacred place of healing, thanks to the experiences of a prince named Bladud. He was exiledfrom court about 500 b.c.e. by his father, King Hudibras, because he suffered from a skindisease, which may have been leprosy. Bladud became a wandering herder of sheep thatsomehow also acquired his disease. One day, the story goes, the sheep meandered into avalley that never froze, and wallowed in the strangely warm mud. When they emerged,Bladud noticed that their skin lesions had healed. He immediately treated himself to asimilar wallow, and he, too, was cured. Returning to court, he was embraced (perhaps notphysically) by his father and readmitted to society. From that time on, the warm springsbubbling up from below the earth in the Somerset valley became known as a place of heal-

Public Bathing at Bath, or Stewing Alive, by Isaac Robert Cruikshank (published by Sherwood & Co., 1825). Private Collection /The Stapleton Collection / The Bridgeman Art Library.

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ing, sacred to the Celts. They dedicated the place to the goddess Sul, guardian to the gate-way of the underworld.

In the 19th century, an English physician validated Bladud’s legend, writing:

In a case recently sent to me, where there were few patches large as a crownpiece over the whole body free from Psoriasis, the patient rapidly improvedafter a fortnight’s bathing and left with nearly a clean skin. This case was doubly interesting, as the baths of many continental spas had been tried in vain.

Bath historian Diana Winsor writes that even though modern physicians are moreskeptical of the water’s healing powers, it does contain 30 minerals and elements, includ-ing calcium, magnesium, lead, potassium, iron, lithium, and sulphur. She also notes thatthe water is slightly radioactive and contains so much lime that it is three times harder thannormal water. This hasn’t stopped braver souls from drinking a glass or two a day as partof their cure.

The Romans, who arrived in Britain in 43 c.e., established a town at Bath some timebefore they departed in 410. They named the town Aquae Sulis, in honor of the Celtic god-dess, whom they adopted as one of their own. They built markets, a major temple called

Well-known Characters in the Pump Room, Bath, Taking a Sip with King Bladud, by Isaac Robert Cruikshank (published bySherwood & Co., 1825). Private Collection / The Stapleton Collection / The Bridgeman Art Library.

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Sulis-Minerva (adding their own goddess to the title), three baths, and, according to somescholars, a theater.

After the Romans abandoned the country, Britain fell into several hundred years ofanarchy and war—between Celt and Saxon, Saxon and Norseman, Christian and pagan—before peace broke out in 973. That year, the Saxon king Edgar was crowned in an abbeycalled St. Peter’s in the town known as Acemanceaster (“sick man’s city”), or Hat Batha.

Hat Batha’s fortunes waxed and waned over the succeeding centuries; at one point inthe Middle Ages it was entirely owned by a physician, John de Villelua, who becamebishop of Bath. The new abbey he built there became a favorite getaway for Henry ii ofThe Lion in Winter fame, who introduced to England the concepts of common law, the jurysystem, and local government before murdering Thomas À Becket in 1170.

The next king, Richard the Lionheart, granted Bath a charter in 1189 that allowed thetown to operate a marketplace and fairs. In those days, Benedictine monks ran the bathssolely for the healing of the sick.

By 1660, things had changed little. Writer and traveler John Leland described the threebaths of Bath this way:

This Bath is much frequented of people diseased with Lepre, Pokkes, Scabbes,and great Aches. . . . The colour of the water is as it were a depe blew sea water,and reeketh like a seething pot continually, having sumwhat a sulphurous andsumwhat a pleasant flavour.

In 1700, Bath was still the small, dull town it had been for centuries, but that was aboutto change. Traditionally, London was deserted in the summer, and its new, increasinglywealthy middle class wanted a place to spend its money and time. Sheridan’s contempo-rary, Oliver Goldsmith, wrote, “They wanted someplace where they might have eachother’s company, and win each other’s money, as they had done during the winter in town.”In 1702, Queen Anne tried Bath, and then tried it again in 1703. Her attendance suddenlymade it the place to go. “We may now say it is the resort of the sound as well as the sick,”wrote Daniel Defoe, “and a place that helps the indolent and the gay to commit the worstof murders—to kill time.” So popular did Bath become that its population grew fromabout 2,000 when Queen Anne first visited to about 30,000 70 years later, when Sheridanlived there and fought the second of two duels over Elizabeth Linley.

the era of beau nash, sheridan, and THE RIVALS

It has been said that two things transformed Bath from a seedy town into the destinationlocation it became: the hot mineral springs that pumped out 250,000 gallons of water a day

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at a consistent 120 degrees (Fahrenheit), and the accomplishments of Richard “Beau”Nash. Bath’s reputation as a spot not only to get well, but also to indulge in all the vicesthat might lead to illness was established during Nash’s reign over the town from 1707 untilhis death in 1761. This is the Bath of The Rivals. Nash arrived in town in 1705, broke. Hehad few talents other than gambling, and it was the gambling that brought him to Bath.He won about ₃1,000 and decided to stay. He wangled the job as assistant to the master ofceremonies, and when the holder of that job was killed in a duel over a card game, Nashascended to the office itself and changed Bath forever.

The master of ceremonies was in charge of Bath’s social life (balls, card parties, gam-bling, concerts) and since life in Bath consisted of the waters, these diversions, and littleelse, Nash was virtually king of Bath—a title he bestowed upon himself. He devised andenforced a set of social rules by which visitors to Bath largely abided. He outlawed thewearing of swords, to which Sir Lucius attests, because they tore women’s skirts andincreased the chance of violence and duels, which were illegal. He frowned upon privateparties (difficult in any case because most accommodations were too small for gatheringsof more than a few people), and encouraged public ones by persuading the local corpora-tion to repair, maintain, and light the streets; by building the Assembly Rooms, whichbecame the main venue for dancing, concerts, and gambling; and by licensing the sedanchairmen who were used to carrying customers in their chairs around town for extortion-ate prices. He hired a good orchestra from London to perform at concerts and play fordances that usually began at 6 p.m. and ended by 11, at which time all public activityceased. He banned swearing in public places and, perhaps most interestingly (it wouldhave been of special interest to Sheridan), he introduced the concept of integration of theclasses to Bath. He became so successful in leveling classes, the bbc Bath Web site tell us,“that people could be found creating friendships across the classes that could not bedreamt of in London.” Everyone—aristocrat, merchant, apprentice, woman, and man—had to obey the rules. Sheridan biographer Fintan O’Toole writes, “The new rich, anxiousto display their wealth, mingled with the new poor hoping to rescue their fortunes by anadvantageous match,” which Sir Lucius is certainly hoping to do with Lydia.

Now, everyone was coming to Bath. Tobias Smollett in his 1771 novel Humphrey Clinker,describes the social scene:

. . . clerks and factors from the East Indies, loaded with the spoil of plunderedprovinces, planters, negro-drivers, and hucksters from our American planta-tions, enriched they know not how; agents, commissaries, who have fattened,in two successive wars, on the blood of the nation; ursurers, brokers, and job-

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bers of every kind; men of low birth and no breeding . . . suddenly translatedinto a state of affluence, unknown to former ages.

They all came and mingled. By the time Sheridan arrived in Bath in 1770 (his father, anactor, started an elocution school there), the town was at least as much a place to socializeas it was to recover from socializing. O’Toole writes:

Bath was kind of petrified irony, a beautiful and elegant town that owed its for-tune to disease and the fear of death. . . . [But] this had become a mere excusefor idle pleasures. Daniel Defoe called Bath “the resort of the sound rather thanthe sick” and [writer, publisher, bon-vivant] Horace Walpole remarked thatpeople “went there well and returned home cured.” For those who came to pre-serve rather than to regain health, the vague reminder of illness merely con-firmed their own vitality.

A typical day in Nash’s and Sheridan’s Bath might start with a light breakfast or a visitto the Pump Room. This was a large gathering place located in a building erected above

The South Parade, Bath (1775), by Thomas Malton, Jr. © Victoria Art Gallery, Bath, and North East Somerset Council / TheBridgeman Art Library.

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the old Roman baths. The focal point was a pump from which, for a small fee, you could“take the waters.” To Sophie Carey, a young woman whose diary describes daily activitiesat Bath in 1720, the water tasted “unaccountably horrid,” no doubt because of its sulphurcontent. This might be followed by a trip to the baths, where you would immerse yourselfin the 120-degree water for perhaps an hour or so. From there, you were likely to beswathed in towels or a robe and carried back to your lodging in a sedan chair. Once arrived,you’d be put to bed, still wrapped up, to sweat for an hour or so.

In the afternoon, you might walk on the North or South Parade, visit a coffee house tosocialize or read the papers, or court, or even arrange an illegal duel. Across the street fromthe baths and Pump Room was another major attraction, Bath Abbey, begun by John deVillelua for Henry ii in the 12th century.

In the evening there would be dances and card parties, and, under Nash, all activitieswould cease at 11 p.m. The major venue for evening social gatherings was the AssemblyRooms, which were finished in 1771. Under Nash’s supervision, this is where orchestralconcerts, vocal recitals, and dances were held. If you were from a family with social ambi-tions, this would be another regular stop.

In this period, Bath owes its architectural distinction to two architects, John Wood, Sr.and his son, John Wood, Jr. They built the great Palladian residences called the Circus andthe Royal Crescent and the Assembly Rooms and designed the North and South Parades,the main avenues on which the characters of The Rivals stroll. Their classical architectureand broad main avenues gave Bath its appearance of sophistication and civilization. TheNorth and South Parades were, in the words of DianaWinsor, “plain, sunlit terraces of paleamber stone . . . broad paved walks lifted on vaults above the marshy riverbank.”

The Circus was Britain’s first circular street, begun by Wood in 1751. Wood built it basedon measurements he took at Stonehenge, and the two have roughly the same diameter. Itis, Winsor says, “a Roman amphitheatre translated into domestic architecture.” Built inthree segments, it consists of 33 houses each three stories high, decorated with Doric, Ionic,and Corinthian columns. It was built around a large open space of cobbles and trees witha well in the center that served the residents of the houses.

The younger Wood oversaw the building of the Royal Crescent, built between 1767 and1775. It comprises 30 houses built, as the name suggests, in a long arc. It was from number11 that Sheridan eloped with Elizabeth Linley in 1772. Both the Circus and Royal Crescentwere among the best addresses in Bath.

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Engraving for Act III of The Maid of Bath, a play by Samuel Foote (1720-77) ridiculing the suitors of Elizabeth Linley (laterMrs. R.B. Sheridan). ©City of Westminster Archive Centre, London, UK/The Bridgeman Art Library.

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the cult of sensibilityby michael paller

The first time we see Lydia Languish, she’s asking her maid, Lucy, for several novels.Some of the titles are real; others are fictional. Most are examples of the “novel of

sensibility” or “sentimental novels.”In his Dictionary of 1755, Samuel Johnson defined sense as “the faculty or powers by

which external objects are perceived.” On the other hand, he defined sensibility as “thequickness of sensation or perception.” Originally, this meaning of sensibility could be takenas a synonym for empathy, the ability to understand the emotions of others, to respond tothe needs of those around us. By the time Lydia is deep into her novels—that is, around1775—sense and sensibility were understood to be opposites: sense referred to one’s per-ception of the physical world outside of one; sensibility had to do with the ability to finelyperceive and appreciate one’s own emotions and responses ( Jane Austen’s 1811 novel of thatname argues for a perception of right and wrong behavior that balances feeling and rationaljudgment).

The idea was summed up in the title of a novel of sensibility published in 1771, andprobably well known to Lydia (perhaps Faulkland, too), The Man of Feeling, by HenryMackenzie. What identified the main character was not his worldly achievement, his tal-ents, or his appearance, but his ability to feel. He feels, therefore he is. He exemplified thebelief, fostered by the French writer and philosopher Rousseau, that moral developmentwas stimulated by experiencing powerful sympathies.

In the Introduction to a recent Penguin Classics edition of Austen’s Sense and Sensibility,Ros Ballaster writes:

In [The Man of Feeling], sensibility inverts to become an individualistic andself-gratifying corruption of the valued social response and collective responsi-bility that sentiment must engender. Perception of external objects becomes awholly aesthetic indulgence. “Heroes” and “heroines” of sensibility prefer theircottages ruined, their fields suffocated by dead leaves, their landscapes free ofhuman life, so that they can focus on the complexities and rhythms of theirown experience of perception.

It can be, in other words, an excuse for self-indulgence, for celebrating one’sown sensitivities at the expense of seeing the real sufferings of others.

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Obviously, neither Lydia nor Faulkland is corrupt, but, as young people often are, theyare overly susceptible to what they read, and novels of sensibility like The Man of Feelingwere all the rage.

where did the trend come from?The rise of sensibility and sentimentalism is part and parcel of the rise of the middle class,which began to assert itself in England at the end of the 17th century, when the very bour-geois William and Mary took the throne in the Glorious Revolution. Writers and thinkerssuch as Rousseau began emphasizing the free, natural expression of emotions, repudiatingthe aristocracy’s cooler, restrained code of behavior. Rousseau also introduced the notionthat the free, authentic expression of the creative spirit was more important than adheringto an exterior, arbitrary set of formal rules and procedures (in this and in other respects, hepredicted the emergence, at the end of the 18th century, of Romanticism).

This emphasis on natural feeling and emotion expressed itself across a wide range ofthought and activities. The wild, natural-appearing English garden began to replace themore formal, symmetrical ones laid out on French lines (as at Versailles). The “graveyardschool” of English poetry celebrated the poet’s exquisite sensibility in the face of death anddecay, exemplified by Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” (1747–50).Here are the last 12 lines:

Here rests his head upon the lap of earthA youth to fortune and to fame unknown.Fair Science frowned not on his humble birth,And Melancholy marked him for her own.

Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere,Heaven did a recompense as largely send:He gave to Misery all he had, a tear,He gained from Heaven (’twas all he wished) a friend.

No farther seek his merits to disclose,Or draw his frailties from their dread abode,(There, they alike in trembling hope repose)The bosom of his Father and his God.

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what lydia readsSome of the books that Lydia has in her lodgings in Act i, scene two, are real, some arefictional. The ones we know are real:

The Delicate Distress (1769) and The Gordian Knot (1770), by Richard Griffith.The first is one of two sequels to a very successful epistolary novel (that is, writ-ten in the form of letters sent by the characters) of sensibility that Griffth wrotewith his wife, Elizabeth, called A Series of Genuine Letters between Henry andFrances. The second is a similar novel of sensibility.

The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle (1751) and The Expedition of HumphreyClinker (1771), by Tobias Smollett. Both are picaresque novels, and definitely notnovels of sensibility. Indeed, they are rather savage satires on the politics, culture,and mores of the day. Lydia might have them because Mrs. Malaprop wouldsurely disapprove of them as reading matter unfit for young women. The OxfordCompanion to English Literature describes Peregrine Pickle as “long, ferocious, andoften savagely libelous.” In 1752, Smollett published an essay called “An Essay onthe External Use of Water,” an attack on Bath and the people who went there.And, as quoted earlier, Smollett also took a swipe at Bath in Humphrey Clinker.

The Memoirs of a Lady of Quality, Written by Herself is a title Sheridan bor-rowed from chapter 81 of Peregrine Pickle. The chapter was notorious for beingthe mostly true account of the love life of Viscountess Frances Anne Vane, afriend of Smollett (he wrote it with her permission). The writer HoraceWalpole referred to her as “that living academy of love-life.”

A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy (referred to by Lucy as TheSentimental Journey), by Laurence Sterne. Written in 1767, he called this non-fiction travel book “sentimental” because the point of his journey was not to seethe sights but to make meaningful contact with people. On the continent, hebecame known as “the high priest of sentimentalism.”

The Whole Duty of Man, which Lucy uses to press lace, probably was written byRichard Allestree, a chaplain to Charles ii, in 1658. In it, man’s duty to God andhis fellow men are analyzed in detail. A good book to leave in view in case Mrs.Malaprop should enter.

The other books—The Reward of Constancy, The Fatal Connexion, The Mistakes of theHeart, The Delicate Distress, The Memoirs of Lady Woodford—seem to be fictional.

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It seems likely that Lydia also would have read two of the most famous novels of sen-sibility of the day, Samuel Richardson’s Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1739) and Clarissa, orThe History of a Young Lady (1747). Pamela is about a young girl of 15 who wants to preserveher virtue while holding on to the man she loves. Pamela is a servant who, on the death ofher mistress, becomes the target of the amorous advances of the late mistress’s son, Mr. B.(as he is called). When Mr. B.’s first, mild attempts at seduction fail, he abducts Pamela.Nonetheless, she successfully preserves her virtue, and halfway through the book, Mr. B.proposes marriage. The second half of the novel concerns the couple’s efforts to win support from his family for this unorthodox marriage. The idea of being abducted, andthen making a match of which her fiancé’s family disapproves, might well appeal to Lydia’ssensibility-susceptible imagination.

In Clarissa, the young heroine, Clarissa Harlowe, discovers that her family is arranginga marriage that would be loveless for her, but economically beneficial for them. Instead, sheruns away with the handsome Lovelace. Here’s a quick summary of the seven-volumenovel from the Encyclopedia Britannica1:

Outside the orbit of the Harlowes stands Lovelace, nephew of Lord M. and aromantic who held the code of the Harlowes in contempt. In her desperatestraits, Clarissa appraises too highly the qualities that set Lovelace beyond theworld of her family, and, when he offers protection, she runs off with him. Sheis physically attracted by if not actually in love with Lovelace and is responsiveto the wider horizons of his world, but she is to discover that he wants her onlyon his own terms. In Lovelace’s letters to his friend Belford, Richardson showsthat what is driving him to conquest and finally to rape is really her superiority.In the correspondence of Clarissa and her friend Anna Howe, Richardsonshows the distance that separates her from her confidante, who thinks herquixotic in not accepting a marriage; but marriage as a way out would have beena sacrifice to that same consciousness of human dignity that had led her to defyher family. As the novel comes to its long-drawn-out close, she is removed fromthe world of both the Harlowes and the Lovelaces and dies, a child of heaven.

Again, the heroine’s plight—her refusal to submit to her parents’ will, her insistence ongoing her own way and preserving her sense of her own dignity, and especially her senti-mental death—would no doubt fire Lydia’s imagination.

1Encyclopedia Britannica Premium Service, “Richardson, Samuel” (by William Merrit Sale, Jr.), http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9063574. Accessed February 15, 2006.

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sheridan’s duels: the deadly seriousnessbehind THE RIVALS

by michael paller

The duels that are almost fought in The Rivals are difficult to categorize according tothe traditional rules, since no one is truly insulted or injured beforehand—but then

that is part of Sheridan’s satiric point. He had fought two duels himself over ElizabethLinley, whom he had recently married, with results that were both absurd and just short oftragic. Although he had felt compelled to defend his honor at the time, when he came towrite The Rivals three years later, it seems that Sheridan decided to think again about theentire notion of defending one’s honor by assaulting another person’s body. Here’s whathappened.

Before she eloped with Sheridan in late 1771 (as Lydia fervently hopes to do withAbsolute), Elizabeth had been pursued by a married man, Captain Thomas Mathews.After the elopement, Mathews published a statement in The Bath Chronicle claiming thatSheridan had insulted his character in a letter Sheridan had written to Elizabeth’s fatherjustifying the elopement (which caused a sensation in gossip-hungry Bath). WhenSheridan and Elizabeth returned from France, where they’d been married, Sheridan heardabout or saw the article, followed Mathews to London, and demanded satisfaction for thestatement Mathews made in the newspaper. They met at a London tavern and fought bycandlelight. Sheridan biographer Fintan O’Toole describes the confrontation:

After a few passes, Sheridan got the point of his sword against Mathews’schest, and had caught Mathews’s wrist with his free hand. With his adversaryat his mercy he demanded that he should sign an apology to be published inthe Bath Chronicle. Mathews’s second, Captain Knight, took Sheridan’s arm,crying, “Don’t kill him.” Mathews called out, “I beg my life,” two or three times.When Sheridan backed off, however, Mathews refused to sign the apology, andclaimed that Knight’s intervention had saved Sheridan rather than himself.Sheridan, in anger, demanded that Mathews either give him his sword or setto it again.

When Mathews released his sword, Sheridan broke it in two and flung thehilt into a corner of the room, a breach of the etiquette of dueling which,Mathews claimed, released him from his obligation to apologize. When he wasoffered another sword to continue the fight, however, Mathews refused it and,

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“with much altercation and much ill grace,” wrote out an apology dictated bySheridan and signed it.

The apology was published in Bath and this should have ended the affair. But Mathewsthen began telling his own version of the duel, saying that he apologized only as a favor toSheridan and not because he’d been forced to do so at the point of a sword. He denied beg-ging for his life and said that Sheridan had broken his sword after Mathews had surren-dered it. Sheridan, nothing if not hot-blooded, was outraged that Mathews was spreadingthis version of events, since they had agreed that Sheridan would not humiliate Mathewsby letting it be known that he’d broken his sword as long as Mathews did not misrepre-sent what had happened between them. In retaliation, Sheridan told his own, apparentlymore truthful, version of events, which made Mathews look very bad, indeed. In his turn,Mathews wrote out his own version and insisted that Sheridan sign it. Sheridan refused,and challenged Mathews to a second duel.

The Explanation (George Tierney dueling Prime Minister William Pitt), by James Gillray (published by Hannah Humphrey, 1798).© Courtesy of the Warden and Scholars of New College, Oxford / Bridgeman Art Library.

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The rematch took place four miles outside of Bath in a place called Kingsdown.Reportedly, Sheridan was quite drunk. Here is O’Toole’s account of the second duel, whichquickly descended into almost fatal absurdity:

Mathews wanted to use pistols, but Sheridan insisted on swords [in duelingetiquette, the challenged party chose the weapons]. He rushed at Mathews andtried to grab his sword, as he had done in the London fight. But Mathewsstabbed at him, and may have wounded him slightly on the upper body.Sheridan then either stumbled or was tripped by Mathews and fell over, drag-ging Mathews with him. In the wild melee, both their swords were broken.Mathews got on top of Sheridan and stabbed him several times in the neck andface with the hilt of his sword, which still had about six inches of jagged-edgedblade on it. Sheridan, for his part, gave Mathews a slight wound in the stom-ach with what was left of his own sword.

. . . Both men were screaming “horrid curses” so loudly that their seconds . . . had difficulty hearing each other. [Sheridan’s second] added to the cacoph-ony by calling out, “Oh, he is killed, he is killed!” Before the seconds could doanything, however, Mathews managed to get hold of the much sharper pointof his sword and to stab Sheridan in the stomach with it. Seeing this [the sec-onds] asked Sheridan to beg for his life. Sheridan refused to do so, crying out,“No, by God, I won’t.” Mathews may have stabbed him again in the neck beforethe seconds intervened to disarm them both. Mathews rushed off in [his]chaise for London, apparently believing that he had “done for” Sheridan.

Sheridan was carried to a nearby house and then to an inn where he was treated for hiswounds.

the duel of honorWhy did Sheridan feel compelled to fight these duels—especially the second one? Theanswers rest with the idea of the duel of honor and the resurgence of dueling in the lastthird of the 18th century, even though it had been illegal in England for almost two hun-dred years.

Although we now find the idea of physical combat to defend one’s honor according toa very strict code of roles an abhorrent notion, it can also be considered a tremendousimprovement over what had been the situation in Europe before dueling became common:bloody, murderous assaults on individuals, often in the form of ambushes, with little if anydistinction between them and attempted murder.

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All over Europe, between the 16th and 19th centuries, handbooks were published setting forth the strict rules under which personal combats could be carried out betweenpeople who were considered to be honorable—and it was only the “honorable” class (thatis, the aristocracy) that engaged in duels.

The kinds of “crimes” over which duels of honor were generally fought concernedaffronts to women (or, in the case of the seduction of a wife or daughter, affronts to themen whose “property” the women were), and accusations of lying and other sorts of dis-honorable behavior, such as cowardice.

As the historian Robert Baldick relates, once an injured party decided that spillingblood was the only way to right a heinous wrong against him, “the offended party had tograpple with sending a challenge, choosing seconds, and selecting weapons before facingup to the actual duel.” One way to do this would be to consult the various dueling manu-als that were easily available. One of the most popular was the Irish code duello “adopted atthe Clonmel Summer Assizes, 1777, for the government of duelists, by the gentlemen ofTipperary, Galway, Mayo, Sligo, and Roscommon, and prescribed for general adoptionthroughout Ireland.” Although the manual itself didn’t come into existence until two yearsafter The Rivals was written, most of its tenets would have been well known to Sheridan(although it seems that Sir Lucius is ignorant of many of them).

an intricate codeA gentleman was expected to abide by an intricate code. Some highlights of the 26 provi-sions:

Although an apology for a lie or insult, offered under the prescribed circum-stances, might render a duel unnecessary, no apology could be given for a physical blow dealt to an honorable man. If, however, the offender submittedto a voluntary caning, a duel might then be avoided.

Offences having to do with a woman’s reputation were considered slightly lessserious than a physical blow or calling a man a liar, thus a “slighter apology”could avoid a duel.

In a duel involving pistols, no firing in the air was permitted; this was consid-ered child’s play and dishonorable.

Challenges should never be delivered at night (seemingly because the assump-tion was that such a challenge was the product of rashness brought on bydrinking).

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Any “wound sufficient to agitate the nerves and necessarily make the handshake must end the business for that day.”

the procedurethe challenge. Once a person felt that he was seriously affronted and decided to offera challenge, the first thing he did was write the challenge. Most authorities agreed that itshould be written with coolness and politeness, without strong language or additionalprovocation. The genteel challenger would simply convey the cause of the offence, why thechallenger considers it a matter of honor to bring the challenge, and a request that theoffender name a time and place.

the second. Then, the challenger must choose his second: the person who usuallydelivered the message and would act as his associate throughout the ordeal—and, if appro-priate, help to avoid useless bloodshed. One expert wrote of this mediating role, “There isnot one cause in fifty where discreet seconds might not settle the difference and reconcilethe parties before they came into the field.” Most authorities agreed that seconds “shouldbe men of experience and moral courage, justice and urbanity,” while two experts said thatinfidels and Irishmen should be barred from serving as seconds. The former were ineligi-ble, according to a French authority, because “it is not proper that an unbeliever shouldwitness the shedding of Christian blood, which would delight him,” and the latter because“nine out of ten Irishmen have such an innate love of fighting that they cannot bring anaffair to an amicable adjustment.”

the choice of weapons. In England, the man who was challenged was allowed thechoice of weapons. This could give him considerable advantage if he chose one with whichhe was particularly skillful or with which his opponent was untrained or inept. Swordswere traditionally the weapon of gentlemen. If, however, the challenger responded honestlythat he was no swordsman (a damaging admission to make), then the challenged partywould usually not be allowed to decline the alternate choice of weapon the challengeroffered.

before the duel. On the morning of the event, a combatant was advised to “drink hiscoffee, and take a biscuit with it, directly he rises; then, in washing his face, attend tobathing his eyes well with cold water.” Then, if married, he should quietly leave the housewithout disturbing his wife or children and set out for the dueling ground not in his owncarriage, in which he might be recognized by magistrates, but in an anonymous one forhire. If he were to feel any qualms on the way, one expert suggests that he stop “and take

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a little soda-water, flavoured with a small wine-glass of brandy, which I can strongly rec-ommend as a most grateful stimulant and corrective.”

on the field of honor. Once arrived at the location, the duelists were urged to strollabout puffing a cigar and otherwise remaining calm while the seconds marked off theagreed-upon distance between the adversaries if they were using weapons other thanswords. The author of one manual suggested that the duelist then take the opportunity “tocast his eye closely upon his adversary, and mark if there is any nervous tremulation in hismovement,” while being careful himself to remain “as firm and stiff as a statue.”

Next, the combatants would assume their positions and be given their weapons, and theother players would go to their places: “The seconds should retire about eight yards fromthe line of fire, equidistant from the antagonists; the two surgeons [if any are in atten-dance] and any friend should be about two yards behind them, and the servants in a linerather further back.” The author of this particular manual, according to Baldick, admittedthat he didn’t see “any particular advantage arising from this mode of placing the parties,”but admitted that “it looks better than to see a number of persons straggling around theprincipals, not infrequently at the risk of their own lives—with hair-triggers in close proximity.”

Dueling could have its unexpected dangers as well, especially when the weapons werepistols. In the late 18th and into the 19th century, pistols were notoriously inaccurate andunsafe. A pistol that was loaded incorrectly, with too much powder, was more likely to blowup in the duelist’s hand and injure or kill him than it was to harm his opponent.

In The Rivals, Sir Lucius assures Bob that the preferred stance to take while firing wasto let Beverley “see the broad-side of your full front . . . now a ball or two may pass cleanthrough your body and never do any harm at all.” Standing with his profile facing Beverley,as Acres wishes to do, only exposes him to more danger, Sir Lucius assures him: for if thebullet “misses a vital part of your right side, ’twill be very hard if it doesn’t succeed on theleft!”

But this is contrary to all the best advice, which was, as Acres desired, to give the oppo-nent the smallest possible target by showing him only your profile. (On the other hand,Charles Fox, the portly leader of the Whig party who was usually Sheridan’s supporter inthe latter’s early years in Parliament, is said to have taken Sir Lucius’s advice in one duelbecause, he said, “I am as thick one way as the other.”)

duels in britain in sheridan’s time and why he fought the second oneBritain was slower than continental Europe to adopt the duel of honor; the first knownrecorded instance was in 1609. That incident involved a nephew of James i, so it was

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probably no coincidence that the king condemned dueling in 1613, and his attorney-general, Francis Bacon, was equally determined to stamp it out. But suppressing the prac-tice was difficult, as the duelists could easily meet before magistrates had any wind of whatwas happening. Sometimes, in order to avoid arrest, the duelists would go abroad to fight.

Dueling declined during the civil war under the Puritan protectorate, although OliverCromwell still found it necessary to pass a law against it. When the cavaliers returned withthe restoration of the monarchy in 1660, they brought dueling back from France withthem.

With the arrival on the throne of William and Marry in 1688, the middle class began togrow as a significant political, cultural, and economic presence. Among the cultural resultswas a paradox: the middle classdistrusted the aristocracy’shabits and behavior, but therewas a resurgence in the popu-larity of dueling. Why?

Although the middle classwas in the ascendant, Britainwas still very much run by andfor the aristocracy. While notevery member of the House ofCommons was an aristocratwith a long family lineage,there wasn’t a single leaderthere who wasn’t. In the 1770s,in Britain, the notion of honorwas still very much defined onaristocratic terms, and for anambitious young man of themiddle class eager to rise in thepolitical world, it was this defi-nition that held meaning.Sheridan was exactly such aman. He had enormous politi-cal ambitions, but he was theson of an actor, and anIrishman to boot. In other

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words, he was no gentleman as the term was still understood. He wanted desperately to betreated as one, though, and as O’Toole points out, in these increasingly middle-class dayswhen middle-class and aristocratic values sat uneasily side by side, it could be difficult toknow who a gentleman was. How to be recognized as a gentleman, as defined in aristo-cratic terms, in an increasingly middle-class world? Sheridan had been trained in fencingand riding by a family friend in London and in speech by his father, and so possessed skillsthat previously belonged only to the aristocracy. He was, as O’Toole, writes, “living proofthat gentility was no longer an obvious and unquestionable quality. Like all uncertainthings, it needed to be tested.” One way to test your quality as a gentleman, when you feltyour honor impugned, as Sheridan did when Mathews began telling false and derogatoryversions of their first duel, was to challenge him to another. O’Toole:

For a few decades at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries,before middle-class values [fully] gained ascendancy, the acid test of gentilitywas that gentlemen had the right to kill each other, and in doing so, stand out-side any social contract binding on the common man. In a world where poli-tics was still the property of gentlemen, the dangerous ritual of the duel ofhonor was a rite of passage into the world of public affairs.

It was to this dangerous ritual (and the fact that Sheridan survived two instances ofthem) that we owe much of the inspiration of The Rivals.

OPPOSITE The Duel between Charles de Lameth and de Castries (1790), a contemporary engraving. From The Duel: A History ofDueling, by Robert Baldick.

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THE RIVALS: historical context

1558–1603 The reign of Elizabeth i, probably the most splendid age in the history ofEnglish literature. Such writers as Sir Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, Roger Ascham,Richard Hooker, Christopher Marlowe, and William Shakespeare flourish.

1603–1649 The rule of the Stuart kings James i and Charles i. In 1642, Charles i closes alltheaters.

1649–1659 The Commonwealth. Oliver Cromwell ousts the king, abolishes the monarchy,creates a Rump Parliament, and enforces Puritan rule as Lord Protector of the Realm, withthe assistance of a heavily armed standing military.

1660–1688 The Restoration era begins as Charles ii is restored to the throne; theatersreopen and the era becomes noted for licentiousness, frivolity, and French mores.Comedies of manners—like those by William Congreve (The Way of the World), GeorgeFarqhuar (The Beaux’ Stratagem), Aphra Behn (The Rover), William Wycherley (TheCountry Wife), and John Dryden (All for Love)—rule London stages.

1689 The coronation of William and Mary marks the beginning of a shift in societal attitudes as the middle class rises and Puritan ideals resurface.

1714 The Georgian era begins in Britain; culture and literature continue to back away fromthe bawdiness of the Restoration era, preferring sentimentality and virtue over satire and vice.

1737 The Licensing Act re-establishes censorship of all plays on the British stage.

1751 Richard Brinsley Sheridan is born in Dublin.

1775 The Rivals is performed in London’s Covent Garden Theatre.

1776 Sheridan becomes a partner in the management of London’s Drury Lane Theatre.

1780 Sheridan is elected to Parliament.

1812 Sheridan loses his seat in Parliament and succumbs to debt and destitution.

1816 Richard Brinsley Sheridan is buried in Westminster Abbey’s Poets Corner. LordByron commemorates him with his “Monody on the Death of the Right Honourable R.B. Sheridan.”

Drawn from the study guide for the Huntington Theatre Company’s 2004 production of The Rivals. Dramaturgy notes by Ilana M.Brownstein.

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a RIVALS glossary

“sure, sir anthony absolute, madam julia, harry, mrs. kate, and thepostilion, be all come.”A postilion is one who rides as a guide on the near horse of one of the pairs attached to acoach or post chaise (a closed, four-wheeled, horse-drawn carriage, once used to transportmail and passengers), especially without a coachman.

“hark’ee, thomas, my master is in love with a lady of a very singular taste: a lady who likes him better as a half-pay ensignthan if she knew he was son and heir to sir anthony absolute, abaronet of three thousand a year!”A half-pay ensign is a junior military officer who draws only half of his salary, because heis not on active service. Young Absolute’s manservant, Fag, points out that his master’slove, Lydia Languish, prefers to think of him as a poor man, and would likely not love himif she knew he was wealthy. That is why young Absolute, in fact a captain, disguises him-self as a lower-ranking soldier.

“rich! zounds! thomas, she could pay the national debt as easily asi could my washer-woman! she has a lapdog that eats out of gold,she feeds her parrot with small pearls, and all her thread-papers are made of banknotes!”Thread-papers are small pieces of soft paper, like tissue paper, used for rolling up skeins ofthread. To use banknotes for this implies that Lydia has money enough to spare her cashon such indulgent uses.

“bravo, faith! i warrant she has a set of thousands, at least—butdoes she draw kindly with the captain? / as fond as pigeons.”To draw kindly is an analogy of a horse and mare pulling together in the shafts of a coach,working together rather than against one another. To describe the lovers as fond as pigeonsis likening them to turtle doves.

“pretty well, thomas, pretty well. ’tis a good pleasurable spa; inthe morning we go to the pump-room (though neither my masternor i drink the waters); after breakfast we saunter on the

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parades, or play a game at billiards; at night we dance; but damnthe place—not a fiddle nor a card game allowed after eleven!”The pump-room of Bath was a large gathering place located in a building erected abovethe old Roman baths. The focal point was a pump from which, for a small fee, you could“take the waters,” i.e., a fountain where you could drink the supposedly therapeutic localspring waters. The pump-room became a place for the upper classes to socialize. The waterwas said to taste “unaccountably horrid,” no doubt because of its sulphur content.

“zooks! ’tis the captain.”An abbreviation of the popular exclamation “Gadzooks,” which comes from “God’shooks,” meaning the nails on the cross.

“indeed, ma’am, i traversed half the town in search of it! i don’tbelieve there’s a circulating library in bath i ha’n’t been at.”A circulating library was a bookseller’s collection lent out on payment of a fee. Rather thanpurchasing a book, ladies would rent the latest romantic novels to read during their idlehours at Bath.

“very well—give me the sal volatile. / is it in a blue cover, ma’am?/ my smelling-bottle, you simpleton!”Sal volatile (from the Latin sal, salt, and volatilis, flying) is a solution of ammonium carbonate in alcohol or ammonia water used to ward off faintness or headaches. Its crys-tallized form is known as smelling salts.

“she has absolutely fallen in love with a tall irish baronet shemet one night since we have been here, at lady macshuffle’s rout.”A rout is a large evening party or reception.

“no, upon my word. she really carries on a kind of correspondencewith him, under a feigned name though, till she chooses to beknown to him; it is a delia or a celia, i assure you.”Delia and Celia were names much used in love poetry of the 16th century and thus fash-ionable in courtship.

“throw RODERICK RANDOM into the closet—put THE INNOCENT ADULTERY

into THE WHOLE DUT Y OF MAN—thrust LORD AIMWORTH under the sofa—

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cram ovid behind the bolster—there—put THE MAN OF FEELING intoyour pocket—so, so—now, lay mrs. chapone in sight, and leaveFORDYCE’S SERMONS open on the table. . . . fling me LORD CHESTERTON ’S

LET TERS. now for ’em.”Lydia, in an attempt to appear upright, is instructing Lucy to hide away her more frivo-lous reading materials, while leaving pious books out to be observed by Mrs. Malaprop.

The Adventures of Roderick Random (1748) was the first novel of Scottish writer TobiasSmollet, one of the most popular 18th-century British novelists. The book was an imme-diate bestseller, peopled with larger-than-life characters with such names as Potion,Crampley, and Weazel.

French playwright and novelist Paul Scarron, author of the novel The Innocent Adultery,is largely responsible for making the burlesque one of the characteristic literary forms ofthe mid-17th century. The History of Lord Aimworth and Hon. Charles Hartford, esq., was anepistolary novel of the era.

The classical Roman poet Ovid wrote his notorious manual of seduction and intrigue,The Art of Love (Ars Amatoria), around 1 b.c.e. In this celebrated poem, Ovid guides menin the quest for love among the demimonde (i.e., among women on the fringes ofrespectable society who are supported by wealthy lovers); although he disclaimed anyintention of teaching adultery, Ovid’s guidance could arguably be applied to the seductionof married women. Mrs. Malaprop obviously would not consider this work appropriatereading material for her niece.

The Man of Feeling, a well-known novel of sensibility, is a collection of sentimental char-acter sketches by Henry Mackenzie (1771).

Mrs. Chapone’s Letters on the Improvement of the Mind (1773), highly regarded in its dayas a guide to proper behavior in good society, attacked the Letters of Lord Chesterfield to HisSon as teaching immoral conduct. The controversial correspondences between LordChesterfield and his son Philip, dating from 1737, were praised as a complete manual ofeducation, yet despised by Samuel Johnson for teaching “the morals of a whore and themanners of a dancing-master.”

Sermons for Young Women (1766), often called Fordyce’s Sermons, is a two-volume com-pendium of sermons compiled by Dr. James Fordyce, a Scottish clergyman, which wereoriginally delivered by himself and others. The sermons encourage female subjugation tomale preferences and emphasize a feminine mannerliness of speech, action, and appear-ance over substantive development of ideas. Half a century later, Jane Austen mockedFordyce in her novel Pride and Prejudice (1814), when Mr. Collins, a buffoonish clergyman,selects the Sermons as an appropriate title for reading aloud to his young female cousins.

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Fordyce was also one of Mary Wollstonecraft’s principal targets in her revolutionary fem-inist tract The Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792).

“you thought, miss!—i don't know any business you have to thinkat all—thought does not become a young woman; the point wewould request of you is, that you will promise to forget this fellow—to illiterate him, i say, quite from your memory.”This is the first entrance and first “malapropism” of Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s mostfamous character. Some say the model for Mrs. Malaprop may have been Henry Fielding’sMrs. Slipslop, who appeared in Joseph Andrews in 1742. In chapter six of that novel Mrs.Slipslop invites the young hero to a glass of wine, preparatory to making clear, as far as sheis able, her intentions:

“Sure nothing can be a more simple contract in a woman, than to place heraffections on a boy. If I had ever thought it would have been my fate, I shouldhave wished to die a thousand deaths rather than live to see that day. If we likea man, the lightest hint sophisticates. Whereas a boy proposes upon us to breakthrough all the regulations of modesty, before we can make any oppressionupon him.” Joseph, who did not understand a word she said, answered, “Yes,Madam.” “Yes, Madam!” replied Mrs. Slipslop with some warmth, “Do youintend to result my passion? Is it not enough, ungrateful as you are, to make noreturn to all the favours I have done you: but you must treat me with ironing?Barbarous monster! how have I deserved that my passion should be resultedand treated with ironing?” “Madam,” answered Joseph, “I don’t understand yourhard words: but I am certain you have no occasion to call me ungrateful: for sofar from intending you any wrong, I have always loved you as well as if you hadbeen my own mother.” “How, Sirrah!” says Mrs. Slipslop in a rage: “your ownmother? Do you assinuate that I am old enough to be your mother? I don'tknow what a stripling may think: but I believe a man would refer me to anygreen-sickness silly girl whatsomdever.” (http://www.salon.com/books/today/2003/01/17/jan17/print.html)

“item, from mrs. malaprop, for betraying the young people toher—when i found matters were likely to be discovered—twoguineas, and a black paduasoy. item, from mr. acres, for carryingdivers letters—which i never delivered—two guineas, and a pair

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of buckles. item, from sir lucius o’trigger, three crowns, twogold pocket-pieces, and a silver snuff-box!Lucy is tallying her payments earned for errands and messages carried between the furtivelovers and conspirators of the upper classes, including a paduasoy (from the Old French pout-de-soie), a garment made of corded silk, and pocket-pieces, coins carried as lucky charms.

“’sdeath! you rascal!”An abbreviated form of “God’s Death,” referring to the crucifixion of Christ.

“i’ve traveled like a comet, with a tail of dust all the way as longas the mall.”A mall is a public walkway or promenade. The original was Pall Mall alley, the fashionablewalk in London just north of St. James’ Park. It derived its name from the game pall-mall,played on the grounds in the front of the palace, in which a ball is struck with a mallet todrive it through an iron ring.

“that she has indeed—then she is so accomplished—so sweet avoice—so expert at her harpsichord—such a mistress of flat andsharp, squallante, rumblante, and quiverante!”Flats and sharps are musical terms for raising a note a half step up or down. Squallante,rumblante, and quiverante are burlesque musical terms, perhaps connected with thecourante, a Baroque dance of Italian origin.

“now i recollect one of them—‘my heart’s my own, my will is free.’”“My Heart’s My Own” is a song from British composer Thomas Arne’s Love in a Village(1762), which included original music by Arne as well as popular songs of the time that werewell known to patrons of the London pleasure gardens. Famous for setting the poem “Rule,Britannia” to music and for composing music for major revivals of Shakespeare’s plays, Arnewas the leading English lyric composer of the mid 17th century and for a time resident com-poser of the Drury Lane Theatre (later co-owned by Richard Brinsley Sheridan).

“country-dances! jigs and reels! am i to blame now? a minuet icould have forgiven—i should not have minded that . . . but country-dances!”The minuet was a dignified dance performed in small steps, the cotillion was livelier, andcountry-dances were downright boisterous.

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“’zounds!”An oath derived from the phrase “God’s wounds,” referring to injuries inflicted on Christduring his crucifixion.

“her one eye shall roll like the bull’s in cox’s museum.”The celebrated London jeweller and metalworker James Cox exhibited waxworks, curiosi-ties, and clockwork automata in his “museum” in Spring Gardens in London. One of hismost famous works was a life-size swan automaton, exhibited in 1772.

“so! sir anthony trims my master: he is afraid to reply to hisfather—then vents his spleen on poor fag!Fag means that Sir Anthony has scolded his son, Captain Jack, who then turns his ownfrustration and anger onto his servant. Oh, the unfairness of being among the lowerclasses.

“so—i shall have another rival to add to my mistress’s list—captain absolute. however, i shall not enter his name till mypurse has received notice in form.”Lucy, an industrious and clever servant, withholds her services of information and com-munication until she has received payment. Her purse, she says, must receive paymentbefore she tells her mistress of yet another suitor who is vying for her hand.

“he looks plaguy gruff.”To be plaguy is to have troubled nerves or a state of mind, usually from repeated worries.

“why, sirrah, you’re an anchorite! a vile, insensible stock!”An anchorite is one who has withdrawn from the world for religious reasons, a hermit. Tocall someone a stock indicates that they are as smart as a block of wood.

“and be linked instead to some antique virago, whose gnawing passions and long-hoarded spleen will make me curse my follyhalf the day and all the night.”From the Latin virago for “a man-like woman, a female warrior, a heroine” (in turn fromthe Latin vir, man), a virago is a woman regarded as loud, scolding, ill-tempered, quarrel-some, or overbearing, or a woman of extraordinary stature, strength, and courage.

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“i have a scheme to see you shortly with the old harridan’s consent, and even to make her a go-between in our interview.—was ever such assurance!”A harridan is a vicious woman, from the French haridelle, a gaunt woman, nag, or oldhorse.

“i am impatient to know how the little hussy deports herself.”A hussy is a brazen, impudent, or immoral girl. The term comes from the Middle Englishhouswif, housewife.

“but these outlandish heathen allemandes and cotillions arequite beyond me! i shall never prosper at ’em, that’s sure—mineare true-born english legs—they don’t understand that curstfrench lingo!”An allemande is a German dance, and a cotillion is a French dance, both popular at thetime.

“in king’s-mead-fields”Duels had recently been outlawed in Bath when The Rivals was written in 1775. Militarymen were prohibited from dueling in England. Though outlawed because they were sonumerous, duels were not entirely stopped by the law. When men quarreled to the pointwhere they felt their dispute could only be settled by a duel, they would meet surrepti-tiously, usually early in the morning in less populated places like woods or parks such asKing’s-Mead-Field. Sheridan himself was involved in two duels (the first in London, thesecond in Bath) connected to his tempestuous relationship with Elizabeth Linley, withwhom he eloped and married.

“out, you poltroon! you ha’n’t the valour of a grasshopper.”A poltroon is an ignoble and cowardly person. The word is derived from the Frenchpoltron, from the Old Italian poltrone, for coward or idler, and perhaps augmentative ofpoltro, an unbroken colt (from the Latin pullus, young animal), or from poltro, for bed orlazy. The reference is that cowards stay in bed feigning illness.

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“oh! she’s as mad as bedlam! or has this fellow been playing us arogue’s trick!”Bedlam is the nickname of Bethlem Royal Hospital of London, the world’s oldest psychi-atric hospital. It was founded in 1247 as a priory for members of the order of the Star ofBethlem. It is mentioned as a hospital in 1330, and lunatics are first recorded there in 1403.King Henry viii gave it to the city of London in 1547 as a hospital for lunatics. During the18th century people could visit Bedlam for a penny to watch the patients and laugh at theirbehavior.

“well, sir, since you are so bent on it, the sooner the better; letit be this evening—here, by the spring gardens.”The Spring Gardens were a popular summer rendezvous spot in Bath for public breakfasts,teas, concerts and fireworks.

“women should never sue for reconciliation: that should alwayscome from us. they should retain their coldness till wooed tokindness. and their pardon, like their love, should ‘not unsoughtbe won.’”The quote is from Milton’s Paradise Lost: “Her virtue, and the conscience of her worth, /That would be wooed, and not unsought be won.”

“conscious moon—four horses—scotch parson—with such surpriseto mrs. malaprop—and such paragraphs in the newspapers.”When Lydia mentions a “Scotch parson,” she is referring to the fact that eloping couplestraditionally went to Scotland, where the marriage laws were much more liberal than thosein England. In 18th-century England, the names of couples intending to be married wererequired to be read aloud by the priest of the parish, to give anyone a fair chance to objectto the marriage. This “reading of the banns” could be contravened by a special license fromthe archbishop of Canterbury.

the south paradeThe South Parade was a fashionable neighborhood of Bath, designed by John Wood, theElder (1704–54). His grand design for the South Parade, Queen’s Square, the North Parade,and the Circus, was on a palatial scale to suggest Classicism.

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questions to consider

1. Why do you think the play is called The Rivals? Which characters are in competitionwith each other? What is the message of the play?

2. What are the themes of the play, and what do you think Sheridan is saying about them?Do you agree with him? Consider: love, honor, fighting (dueling), the struggle betweenyouth and age, class relationships, education (especially for women), language, posing, andpretending.

3. With which character do you identify most in the play (if any)? Do any of the charac-ters remind you of people you know or have known?

4. What roles do Mrs. Malaprop and Bob Acres play in this comedy? How do their lan-guage difficulties reflection the issues that cause conflict between the lovers?

5. How are class and gender relationships different today? If this play were set in the 21stcentury instead of the 18th, how do you think it would be different? Would the charactersmake the same decisions?

6. What do you think of Sheridan’s dialogue? What does the language used by each char-acter tell you about them?

7. What do the costumes tell you about each character? Consider: social rank, class, sex,personality, job, etc. How is each of these elements conveyed?

8. If you were Lydia, and found out that Beverley is really Captain Absolute, how wouldyou respond? What do you think of the way Faulkland treats Julia? How would yourespond if you were Julia? How are the relationships between these characters similar toromantic relationships today? How are they different?

9. Who deceives whom in The Rivals, and why? Could the characters be more honest?What would happen if they were more open with each other?

10. How is each of the relationships resolved in the end? Is the ending happy for all of thecharacters? What do you think might happen next for each of them?

11. Why do you think The Rivals is still popular more than 200 years after it was written?

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for further information . . .

on richard brinsley sheridan and THE RIVALS

Adams, Joseph Quincey, Jr. “The Text of Sheridan’s The Rivals.” Modern Language Notes25, no. 6 ( June 1910): 171–73.

Auburn, Mark. “The Pleasure of Sheridan’s The Rivals: A Critical Study in the Light ofStage History.” Modern Philology 72 (1975): 256–71.

______. Sheridan’s Comedies: Their Contexts and Achievements. Lincoln, London: Universityof Nebraska Press, 1977.

Donoghue, Frank. “Avoiding the ‘Cooler Tribunal of the Study’: Richard BrinsleySheridan’s Writer’s Block and Late Eighteenth-Century Print Culture.” English LiteraryHistory 68 (2001): 831–56.

Durant, Jack D. Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Boston: Twayne, 1975.

Enotes.com. The Rivals. http://www.enotes.com/rivals/19647.

Hogan, Charles Beecher. The London Stage Part V: 1776–1800. Carbondale, il: SouthernIllinois University Press, 1970.

Huntington Theatre Company. The Rivals Study Guide. http://www.huntingtontheatre.org/season/rivals/rivals_dramaturgy.pdf.

Kelly, Linda. Richard Brinsley Sheridan: A Life. London: Sinclair-Stevenson, 1997.

Lincoln Center Theater. Study Guide for Teachers: The Rivals. http://www.lct.org/rivalsstudyguide.pdf.

Loftis, John. Sheridan and the Drama of Georgian England. Oxford, uk: Blackwell, 1976.

Maccubbin, Robert Purks. “Enacting the Tyranny of Social Forms in Sheridan’s TheRivals.” 1650–1850 2 (1996): 3–24.

Malek, James S. “Julia As a Comic Character in The Rivals.” Studies in the Humanities 7(1978): 10–12.

Morwood, James and David Crane, eds. Sheridan Studies. Cambridge, New York:Cambridge University Press, 1995.

O’Toole, Fintan. A Traitor’s Kiss: The Life of Richard Brinsley Sheridan. London: GrantaBooks, 1997.

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Shakespeare Theatre Company. The Plays: Explore Productions: The Rivals.http://www.shakespearetheatre.org/plays/details.aspx?id=1&source=l.

Sheridan, Richard Brinsley. The Dramatic Works of Richard Brinsley Sheridan. 2 vols. Editedby Cecil Price. Oxford: Clarendon, 1973.

______. The Letters of Richard Brinsley Sheridan. 3 vols. Edited by Cecil Price. Oxford:Clarendon, 1966.

______. The Plays and Poems of Richard Brinsley Sheridan. 3 vols. Edited by R. CromptonRhodes. Oxford: Blackwell, 1928.

______. The Rivals. http://www.bibliomania.com/0⁄6⁄284⁄2000/frameset.html.

______. The Rivals. Mineola, ny: Dover Publications, 1998.

______. The Speeches of the Right Honourable Richard Brinsley Sheridan. With a Sketch of hisLife. Edited by a Constitutional Friend. 3 vols. London: h. g. Bohn, 1842.

Sheridaniana; or, Anecdotes of the life of Richard Brinsley Sheridan; his table-talk, and bon mots.London: H. Colburn, 1826.

Taylor, David Francis. Richard Brinsley Sheridan 1751–1816. http://www.rbsheridan.com.

period and placeAnderson, Misty G. Female Playwrights and Eighteenth-Century Comedy: NegotiatingMarriage on the London Stage. New York: Palgrave, 2002.

Austen, Jane. Persuasion. London: Penguin Classics, 2003.

______. Sense and Sensibility. London: Penguin Classics, 2003.

Baldick, Robert. The Duel: A History of Duelling. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1965.

Bath. http://www.cityofbath.co.uk/index.html.

bbc. “Local Legends: Beau Nash’s Bath.” Legacies: uk History Local to You/Somerset.www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/myths_legends/england/somerset/article_2.shtml.

Crathorne, James. The Royal Crescent Book of Bath. London: Collins & Brown Ltd., 1998.

Griffith, Elizabeth. The Delicate Distress (1769). Edited by Cynthia Booth Ricciardi andSusan Staves. Eighteenth-Century Novels by Women, vol. 3. Lexington: University Pressof Kentucky, 1997.

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Haggerty, George E. Unnatural Affections: Women and Fiction in the Later 18th Century.Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998.

Holland, Barbara. Gentlemen’s Blood: A History of Dueling from Swords at Dawn to Pistols atDusk. New York: Bloomsbury, 2003.

Kiernan, v. g. The Duel in European History: Honour and the Reign of Aristocracy. Oxford:Oxford University Press, 1988.

MacDonald, Peter. Bath 2000: Two Thousand Years in the Life of a World Heritage City.Bristol, uk: Petmac Publications, 1999.

McCutcheon, Marc. Everyday Life in the 1800s: A Guide for Writers, Students & Historians,Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 2001.

Porter, Roy. English Society in the Eighteenth Century. London, New York: Penguin Books,1990.

Richardson, Samuel. Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded. Oxford University Press, 2001.

Stone, George Winchester, Jr., ed. The Stage and the Page: London’s ‘‘Whole Show’’ in theEighteenth-Century Theatre. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981.

Timescapes: Land & History. Georgian Bath. http://www.time-scapes.co.uk/Bath/georgianbath.html.

Vickery, Amanda. The Gentleman’s Daughter: Women’s Lives in Georgian England. NewHaven, ct: Yale University Press, 1999.

Winsor, Diana. The Dream of Bath. Bath: Trade & Travel Publications, 1980.

Wollstonecraft, Mary. Thoughts on the Education of Daughters: With Reflections on FemaleConduct, in the More Important Duties of Life. Classic Books, 2000.

malapropismsCharlton, James & Mary Kornblum. Bred Any Good Books Lately? A Collection of Puns,Shaggy Dogs, Spoonerisms, Foghoots and Malappropriate Stories. Laurel, 1994.

Rosten, Leo. Carnival of Wit: From Aristotle to Woody Allen. Plume, 1996.

http://www.manbottle.com/humor/Malaprops.htm.

http://www.fun-with-words.com/mala_malapropisms.html.

http://www.public-speaking.org/public-speaking-malaprops-article.htm

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