Publication Details | Synopsis | Secondary Commentary |Varieties & Dialects | Other
Publication details |
Author: Cowley, Hannah
Author dates: 1743-1809
Title: Who’s the Dupe?
First played: 1779
First published: 1779, for J. Dodsley, L. Davis, W. Owen. 26p.
C18th availability: Available from ECCO (1779)
http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/ECCO?dd=0&locID=utoronto_main&d1=0433401300&srchtp=b&c=10&SU=All&d2=1&docNum=CW3312419958&b0=who%27s+the+dupe&h2=1&vrsn=1.0&b1=KE&d6=1&ste=10&dc=tiPG&stp=Author&d4=0.33&n=10&d5=d6
Modern availability: Available from LION (1996)
http://lion.chadwyck.com/toc.do?action=new&divLevel=0&mapping=toc&area=Drama&id=Z000068740&forward=tocMarc&DurUrl=Yes
Genre: Comedy / Farce
Trend(s): Gender
Character types: Educated Male; Classical; French; Cockney
Synopsis |
Doiley wants to marry his daughter Elizabeth to a learned man, Gradus; by pretending to be well-educated, Elizabeth's lover Granger successfully wins her hand.
Act I.
Two flower girls lament the fast-approaching summer: their wares will soon be widely available for free. Sandford enters and buys some flowers. Granger arrives: he has run out of money, and wishes to marry Elizabeth Doiley with her ten thousand pounds rather than any other woman with a hundred thousand. However, Sandford informs him, her father has decided to choose a suitor for her himself. Sandford tells Granger that Mr. Doiley wants Elizabeth to marry a man with “Larning”. The Doileys expect Gradus, Elizabeth’s learned suitor. Charlotte, Elizabeth’s cousin, announces a mantua-maker’s arrival, but the guest is really Elizabeth’s clandestine suitor, Granger. Granger wants to elope immediately with Elizabeth, but she has a plan in which she will be able to secure her father’s permission to marry him. Gradus and Mr. Doiley approach; Granger throws on some women’s clothes to act as the mantua-maker. Granger acts as a Frenchwoman, and insults Gradus. After ‘she’ leaves, Gradus attempts to woo Elizabeth with classical allusions; she will have none of it. Stumped, Gradus leaves abruptly, but is detained by Charlotte, who flirts with him, and finally tells him that she can help him win Elizabeth’s heart. Charlotte teaches Gradus to press her hand and to kiss her; he does this enthusiastically. Mr. Sandford will give Gradus fashionable clothing. Miss Doiley, who has overheard the conversation between Gradus and Charlotte, praises the latter. Mr. Granger plans to dress up as his rival.
Act II.
Gradus is dressed to the nines, and has been counseled by Charlotte and Sandford to forego any mention of classical scholars. To impress Elizabeth, Gradus calls learning a “Bore” and abjures every discipline, to Doiley’s horror. Seeing that he has failed to impress Doiley, Gradus desperately asks for a private audience with Elizabeth, which her father grants. Sandford describes another young man, Wilfrid Granger’s son, who is obsessed with the sciences and has apparently disproved Newton. Doiley agrees to see him and says he will leave the bulk of his fortune to young Granger, who conveniently appears below. He is shown in. Doiley is impressed by his silences and his made up words (“phlogisticated”). Granger suggests that men were first “Quadrupedes”, then “Bipedes”, to Doiley’s delight. Doiley brings in Gradus to see which of the men is smarter. Granger is terrified but holds his own, speaking ‘Greek’-like English. Doiley decides that Gradus has spoken English, while Granger has spoken Greek. Gradus acknowledges the fact that he has been duped, but his proposal to Charlotte is approved by Doiley, who offers to “throw in a few hundreds”. Granger and Elizabeth are to be married the next day.
Secondary commentary |
A) de la Mahotière, Mary. ‘Cowley , Hannah (1743–1809)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 26 May 2008. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/6500
"It depicts the plight of another near-victim of an arranged marriage, this time revolving around the relative educational attainments of the heroine's suitors. At one point, exasperated with her father's choice of Gradus, a dry-as-dust product of ‘Brazen-nose’, Elizabeth protests ‘The education given to women shuts us entirely from such refined acquaintance’."
Varieties & Dialects |
Overview of varieties / dialects
A Cockney girl speaks with an accent. Sandford mimics Doiley's mispronunciations. Gradus (the man of learning) infuses his speech with classical allusions. Granger pretends to be a Frenchman and a classical scholar. Miss Doiley makes one grammatical error.
Varieties / dialectsVariety: Cockney accent (flower girl)
a. Sample of dialect
[page 1]
2d Girl.
Aye, wery true---people talks of summer; but for my part, give me Christmas. In a hard frost, or a deep show, who's drest without flowers and furs? Here's one of the Captains.
b.1 Orthography: “wery”
b.2 Grammar
b.3 Vocabulary
c. Nationality: English
d. Character profile: Cockney flower-seller
e. Consistency of representation: only present for this scene
Variety: Sandford
a. Sample of dialect:
Sand.
My dear Granger! the sum total is this: old Doiley---bred, you know, in a Charity-school---swears he'll have a Man of Larning for his Son. His caprice makes him regardless of fortune; but Elizabeth's Husband must have Latin at his fingers' ends, and be able to teach his Grandsons to sputter in Greek.
b.1 Orthography: “Larning”
b.2 Grammar
b.3 Vocabulary
c. Nationality: English
d. Character profile: helpful friend
e. Consistency of representation: Sandford speaks StE; this is just a parody of Doiley
Variety: Doiley
a. Sample of dialect
Doil.
How! what! a provokive to mirth! why, Hussey, he was recommended to me by an antikary Doctor of the Royal Society---he has finish'd his Larning some time; and they want him to come and drink and hunt in Shropshire--- not he---he sticks to al-mater; and the College-heads have been laid togather many a time, to know whether he shall be a great Judge, a larned Physician, or a Civility Doctor.
Miss Doil.
Nay then, Sir---if he's all this, laughing will be irresistible.
Doil.
Don't put me in a passion, Betty---don't go for to put me in a passion. What, would you have a Man with an eternal grin upon his face, like the head of a knocker? and hopping and skipping about like a Dutch Doll, with quicksilver in its heels! If you must have a Husband of that sort, so be it, so be it---you know the rest.
--
Doil.
Oh, He! He's very different from your Men of Breeding, I assure you---The most extraordinary Youth that was ever turn'd out of College. None of your Randans, up all night---not drinking and wenching---No--- in his room---poring, and reading, and studying. Oh the joy that I shall have in hearing him talk! I do love Larning . I was grieved---grieved to the soul, Betty, when thou wert born. I had set my heart upon a Boy---and if thou'd'st been a Boy, thou shouldst have had Greek, and Algebra, and Jometry enough for an Archbishop.
b.1 Orthography: “antikary”; “Larning”; “togather”; “Jometry”
b.2 Grammar: “don’t go for to put me in a passion”; “thou”
b.3 Vocabulary: “provokive”
c. Nationality: English
d. Character profile: Mr. Doiley insists that his daughter marry a learned man (in contrast to his poor speech!)
e. Consistency of representation: very consistent
Variety: Gradus (the very desirable learned man)
a. Sample of dialect:
Grad.
Madam!---
[bows]
---hem---permit me---this honour ---hem---believe me, Lady, I have more satisfaction in beholding you, than I should have in conversing with Grævius and Gronovius. I had rather possess your approbation than that of the elder Scaliger; and this apartment is more precious to me, than was the Lyceum Portico to the most zealous of the Peripatetics.
--
[page 18]
Grad.
Dear Madam! believe me, that as for---what can I say---how assimilate myself to two such opposite tastes? I stand reeling between two characters, like a Substantive between two Adjectives.
b.1 Orthography
b.2 Grammar
b.3 Vocabulary: classical allusions: “Graevius and Gronovius”; “Scaliger” “Lyceum Portico”; “Peripatetics”
c. Nationality: English
d. Character profile: brilliant (and deadly boring) university man
g. Consistency of representation: consistent, until Gradus is transformed by Charlotte
Variety: Granger as a mantua-maker (fake French)
a. Sample of dialect:
Grang.
Mon Dieu! Madame ! is dis de Gentilhomme for whom you vant de Bride Cloaths?---He speak like a Dictionary-maker, and look like a Physician.
b.1 Orthography: “dis”, “vant”
b.2 Grammar
b.3 Vocabulary: “Mon Dieu! Madame!” ; “gentilhomme”
c. Nationality: English (pretends to be French)
d. Character profile: Granger is dressed as a female mantua-maker (upward mobility trade; interesting that ‘she’ is French!)
e. Consistency of representation: this scene only
Variety: Miss Doiley
a. Sample of dialect
[page 17]
Miss Doil.
How different from what you was this morning!
b.1 Orthography
b.2 Grammar: “you was”
b.3 Vocabulary
c. Nationality: English
d. Character profile: young Englishwoman; speaks StE, unlike her father
e. Consistency of representation: this instance only
Variety: Granger as a man of learning (fake Greek)
a. Sample of dialect:
Grang.
With Men of the World, Mr. Doiley, Fifty Thousand Pounds might have their weight; but, in the balance of Philosophy, gold is light as phlogisticated air.
--
Grang.
Yon lucid orb, in æther pensile, irradiates th'expanse. Refulgent scintillations, in th'ambient void opake, emit humid splendor. Chrysalic spheroids th'horizon vivify---astifarious constellations, nocturnal sporades, in refrangerated radii, illume our orb terrene.
b.1 Orthography
b.2 Grammar
b.3 Vocabulary: “phlogisticated” (neologism); enormous and complex vocabulary in the second excerpt (and the sentences are complete!)
c. Nationality: English (pretends to be a classical scholar)
d. Character profile: Granger has been asked to speak Greek, which he cannot do
e. Consistency of representation: this scene only
None.
Other points of interest |
None.
©2009 Arden Hegele