Publication Details | Synopsis | Secondary Commentary |Varieties & Dialects | Other
Publication details |
Author: Garrick, David
Author dates: 1717 - 1779
Title: The Irish Widow
First played: 1772
First published: 1772, for T. Becket. 50p.
C18th availability: Available from ECCO (1773)
http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/ECCO?dd=0&locID=utoronto_main&d1=1269400500&srchtp=b&c=9&SU=All&d2=1&docNum=CW3307740019&b0=irish+widow&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 (1997)
http://lion.chadwyck.com/toc.do?action=new&divLevel=0&mapping=toc&area=Drama&id=Z000081489&forward=tocMarc&DurUrl=Yes
Genre: Comedy / Farce
Trend(s): Nationality ; Gender
Character types: Irish; African
Synopsis |
The 65-year-old Whittle has stolen his nephew's 23-year-old romantic interest (the Irish Widow). Everyone encourages the Widow to put an end to Whittle's affections. The Widow puts on a strong brogue to repel her aged suitor. Her father, Sir Patrick O'Neale, arrives; he dislikes Whittle and is pleased when his daughter (dressed up as a lieutenant) wishes to marry Whittle's nephew, to whom Whittle has given five thousand pounds by mistake.
Act I.
Bates arrives at Whittle’s house; Whittle has just gone to see his lawyer, but Bates is requested to wait. Whittle’s nephew William enters; once jovial, he is now morose because his uncle, aged 65, insists on making his 23-year-old lover (the eponymous Irish widow) his own bride. Bates agrees to help William. Mr. Thomas, Whittle’s privy counselor, enters. He complains that the newly youthful Whittle has demanded that Thomas tie up his hair in a pig-tail. Further, Whittle is reading “tender pieces”, including Love-in-the-Suds (an intertextual reference to a notorious contemporary satire suggesting that Garrick was in a homosexual relationship with banished playwright Isaac Bickerstaff). Whittle enters, and asks Bates if he has ever looked better. Whittle has taken ten years off his age, which Bates, who knew him at Cambridge fifty years before, calls into question. Laughing, Bates leaves; Whittle attributes his mockery to peevishness and old age. The coughing Old Kecksy enters, and encourages Whittle to marry the widow. They depart together for a walk in the park. Bates, William and the widow converse; having enticed Whittle with her modesty, the widow must turn him away by feigning a ‘wild, ranting, buxom’ persona. To succeed, the widow affects a heavy brogue. Whittle and Kecksy discuss the virtues of talkative and silent wives: "Wife a mouse / Quiet house; / Wife a cat, /Dreadful that" (page 17).
They see Bates, then, to Whittle’s horror, he sees the widow, followed by his nephew, three footmen, and a black boy. William leaves quickly; the widow speaks vulgarly in strong brogue to Whittle and to Kecksy. The latter is delighted: “she has a fine, bold way of talking.” The widow sees some acquaintances and leaves the nonplussed Whittle to consider his predicament. The widow’s return forces Whittle to concede that her character is changed absolutely; Whittle fears that she will bring in the MacBrawns and O’Shoulders she knew in Ireland to his home. He realizes he is repelled by this new bold-speaking lady. After she departs to prepare for a party, Whittle decides to give his nephew a fortune to marry the widow and to take her off his hands.
Act II.
William thanks Bates, but the latter warns him that the game is not yet up. William hides himself, and Whittle enters. Bates says that Whittle should give William an additional ten thousand pounds, in addition to the estate, as thanks for taking the widow off his hands. Whittle refuses. Bates leaves. Sir Patrick O’Neale, the widow’s father, arrives. Whittle tells him that he no longer wants to marry his daughter; Sir Patrick departs furiously. Thomas enters to say that a mob has tried to destroy Whittle’s house because of the impending marriage. Many bills arrive from Martha Brady (the widow), and Whittle refuses to pay them. The widow enters, disguised as her brother, Lieutenant O’Neale. She speaks with Thomas, who is terrified of her. The disguised widow makes Whittle read his letter of rejection to her, then proceeds to practice swordplay, as the Lieutenant intends to punish Whittle on behalf of the family. Whittle refuses to fight, and runs from the room screaming ‘murder!’ He begs his nephew to ‘be the olive branch’ and settle the dispute by marrying the widow; he will give him five thousand pounds. The lovers are left alone by the rejoicing Bates and Thomas. Whittle and Bates enter as William seems to be kissing the Lieutenant’s hand. Sir Patrick O’Neale enters, and sees his daughter disguised. He consents to her marriage with the nephew. Whittle’s friends reveal that they have tricked him, and prevent his denying his nephew the five thousand pounds. The play closes with a song sung by the Widow Brady.
Secondary commentary |
A) White, Douglas H. ‘David Garrick: February 19, 1717-January 20, 1779.’ Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 89: Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Dramatists, Third Series. A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book. Edited by Paula R. Backscheider, University of Rochester. The Gale Group, 1989. Literature Resource Center. 27 May 1008. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/LitRC?vrsn=3&OP=contains&locID=utoronto_main&srchtp=athr&ca=1&c=1&ste=6&tab=1&tbst=arp&ai=U13678826&n=10&docNum=H1200002859&ST=garrick+david&bConts=15023
"It too is an imitation of a French play (Molière's Le Marriage forcé, 1664), though this time somewhat farther from the original. As usual Garrick produced a lively piece on familiar themes. A pair of young lovers are thwarted by an old man, guardian to the lover and with the power over him of having to give consent to his marriage. The old man falls in love with the girl (the Irish widow of the title) and has to be tricked out of his infatuation by a ploy similar to the one in Jonson's Epicoene, or The Silent Woman (1609 or 1610). All is conducted within the middle range of comic engagement--the characters, the emotions, and the wit, but that middle range is Garrick's playing field."
Varieties & Dialects |
Overview of varieties / dialects
The widow, normally speaking with a gentle Irish accent, adopts a strong brogue to repulse her elderly suitor Whittle.
Varieties / dialectsVariety: The Widow’s feigned brogue
a. Sample of dialect
[page 15]
NEPHEW.
You are an excellent mimic; assume but the character of your Irish female neighbour in the country, with which you astonish'd us so agreeably at Scarborough; you will frighten my Uncle into terms, and do that for us, which neither my love, nor your virtue, can accomplish without it.
WIDOW.
Now for a trial---
(mimicking a strong brogue)
--- fait and trot, if you will be after bringing me before the old Gentleman, if he loves musick, I will trate his ears with a little of the brogue, and some dancing too into the bargain, if he loves capering ---O bless me! my heart fails me, and I am frighten'd out of my wits; I can never go thro' it.
--
WIDOW.
Take what relief you plase, young Jontleman, what have I to do with dat? He is certainly mad, or out of his sinses, for he swears he can't live without me, and yet he talks of killing himself; how does he make out dat? If a countryman of mine had made such a blunder, they would have put it into all the news-papers, and Falkner's Journal beside; but an Englishman may look over the hedge, while an Irishman must not stale a horse.
--
WIDOW.
Is your name Wittol ?
[page 39 ]
WHITTLE.
My name is Whittle , not Wittol .
b.1 Orthography: Jontleman, plase, dat, sinses, stale, trate
b.2 Grammar
b.3 Vocabulary: “fait and trot”,; ejaculation: “O bless me!”
c. Nationality: Irish
d. Character profile: young Irish widow; pretends to have a strong brogue to repulse Whittle
e. Consistency of representation: consistent only when she is ‘in character’
Variety: Black footman’s dialect
a. Sample of dialect:
POMPEY.
The Baccararo whiteman no let blacky boy go first after you missis, they pull and pinch me.
FOOTMAN.
It is a shame, your ladyship, that a black negro should take place of English christians---we can't follow him indeed.
b.1 Orthography
b.2 Grammar: “no let”
b.3 Vocabulary: Baccararo, whiteman, blacky, missis
c. Nationality: African (black servant)
d.Character profile: the Widow's footman
e. Consistency of representation: consistent to this scene
Variety: Sir Patrick O’Neale
a. Sample of dialect:
Sir PATRICK .
Mr. Whizzle , your humble sarvant; it gives me grate pleasure, that an old Jontleman of your property, will have the honour of being united with the family of the O'Neale's; we have been too much Jontlemen, not to spend our estate, as
[page 31 ]
you have made yourself a kind of Jontleman by getting one; one runs out one way, and t'other runs in another, which makes them both meet at last, and keeps up the ballance of Europe.
--
[page 34]
Sir PATRICK .
What is it nothing to make a penny post-man of me? But I'll go to my daughter directly, for I have not seen her to day, and if I find that you have written any thing that I won't understand, I shall take it an affront to my family, and you shall either let out the noble blood of the O'Nales , or we will spill the last drop of the red puddle of the Wizzels .
(Going and returns.)
Harkee, old Mr. Wizzle, Wheezle, Whistle , what's your name? You must not stir till I come back; if you offer to ate, drink, or sleep, till my honour is satisfy'd, 'twill be the worst male you ever took in your life. You had better fast a year, and die at the end of six months, than dare to lave your house. So now, Mr. Weezle , you are to do as you plase.
--
[page 46]
Sir PATRICK .
I hope, Mr. Whizzle, you'll excuse my coming back to give you an answer, without having any to give; I hear a grate dale of news about myself, and came to know if it be true; they say my son is in London, when he tells me himself by letter here, that he's at Limerick; and I have been with my daughter to tell her the news, but she would not stay at home to receave it, so I am come---O gra ma chree my little din ousil craw , what have we got here? a piece of mummery! here is my son and daughter too, fait; what are you waring the breeches, Pat, to see how they become you when you are Mrs. Weezel.
b.1 Orthography: Whizzle/Wheezle/Whistle/Wizzel/Weezel, sarvant, grate, Jontleman, lave, receave, fait, waring
b.2 Grammar
b.3 Vocabulary: O gra ma chree my little din ousil craw
c. Nationality: Irish
d. Character profile: Irish nobleman
e. Consistency of representation: very consistent throughout the play
Commentary on Irish brogue:
NEPHEW.
You are an excellent mimic; assume but the character of your Irish female neighbour in the country, with which you astonish'd us so agreeably at Scarborough; you will frighten my Uncle into terms, and do that for us, which neither my love, nor your virtue, can accomplish without it.
WIDOW.
Now for a trial---
(mimicking a strong brogue)
--- fait and trot, if you will be after bringing me before the old Gentleman, if he loves musick, I will trate his ears with a little of the brogue, and some dancing too into the bargain, if he loves capering ---O bless me! my heart fails me, and I am frighten'd out of my wits; I can never go thro' it.
-----
[page 16]
WHITTLE.
Yes, yes, she is Irish, but so modest, so mild, and so tender, and just enough of the accent to give a peculiar sweetness to her words, which drop from her in monasyllables, with such a delicate reserve, that I shall have all the comfort, without the impertinence of a wife.
-----
[page 19]
WIDOW.
And are you now talking of my brogue? It is always the most fullest when the wind is aesterly; it has the same effect upon me, as upon stammering people---they can't spake for their impediment, and my tongue is fix'd so loose in my mouth, I can't stop it for the life of me.
-----
[page 33]
WHITTLE.
But you don't understand me, Sir Patrick I say---
Sir PATRICK .
I say, how can that be, when we both spake English.
WHITTLE.
But you mistake my meaning, and don't comprehend me.
Other points of interest |
None.
©2009 Arden Hegele