Publication Details | Synopsis | Secondary Commentary |Varieties & Dialects | Other
Publication details |
Author: Sheridan, Richard Brinsley
Author dates: 1751-1816
Title: The Rivals
First played: 1775
First published: 1775, for John Wilkie [etc.] 100 p.
C18th availability: Available from ECCO (1775)
http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/ECCO?dd=0&locID=utoronto_main&d1=1074201000&srchtp=b&c=102&SU=All&d2=1&docNum=CW3306359731&b0=the+rivals&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=Z000119487&forward=tocMarc&DurUrl=Yes
Genre: Comedy
Trend(s): Nationality; Class; Dialect; Popularity
Character types: Malaprop; Servant; Country; Classical; Sophisticated; Irish
Synopsis |
Lydia Languish is pursued by many men, including Bob Acres, Sir Lucius O'Trigger, and Jack Absolute (as Ensign Beverley); she prefers the latter. Her aunt, Mrs. Malaprop, carries out an anonymous correspondence with Sir Lucius. Julia loves the neglectful Faulkland. Sir Anthony Absolute arranges for his son to marry Lydia; eventually, they are married, although Jack Absolute is supposed to fight his alter ego in the process. Faulkland and Julia are reconciled. Sir Lucius and Bob Acres renounce any claim to Lydia.
Act I.
Fag and Thomas, a coachman, two servants, meet by chance and discuss their employers: Thomas is employed by Sir Anthony Absolute and Fag by his son Jack, who has taken on the identity of Ensign Beverley. Jack Absolute is in love with Miss Lydia Languish, who would prefer him as a half-pay ensign than as he really is (the son of a baronet). However, her troublesome aunt is impeding the progress of their courtship. Fag teases Thomas about his wig; natural hair is the newest fashion. Lucy has brought Lydia romance novels from various circulating libraries. Lydia’s cousin Julia Melville enters, and announces that her uncle Sir Anthony has also just arrived in Bath. Lydia tells Julia that her aunt, Mrs. Malaprop, is carrying on an epistolary flirtation with a tall Irishman under a pseudonym of “Delia or Celia”. Lydia is annoyed that “the odious Acres”, another suitor, is in Bath and intends to call on her. She has written a letter to herself warning her that Beverley is carrying on with another woman; having shown this to Beverley, she has caused a quarrel between them, and he has been absent for some days. Lydia teases Julia about her lover Faulkland. Mrs. Malaprop and Sir Anthony approach; Julia flees, Lucy hides the romance novels, and Lydia composes herself. Mrs. Malaprop berates Lydia for wanting to marry an impoverished man. Sir Anthony scolds Mrs. Malaprop for having permitted her niece for having indulged in the “diabolical arts” resulting from exposure to a circulating library. Mrs. Malaprop consents to Sir Anthony’s request to have Jack Absolute court Lydia. Mrs. Malaprop scolds Lucy and begs her to keep her correspondence with Sir Lucius O’Trigger a secret.
Act II.
Absolute chastises Fag for confiding in Thomas. Faulkland arrive and Absolute tells him that Julia is in Bath. Bob Acres enters; believing that Jack Absolute has never met Lydia, he confides his annoyance at his rival Ensign Beverley. Faulkland asks Acres about Julia; he believes she should have been indisposed during his absence, but is horrified to find that she is happy and well. Acres teases Faulkland to the point of the latter’s departure. Acres tells Jack that he wants to fight Ensign Beverley. Fag announces Sir Anthony’s arrival. Jack is initially pleased with Sir Anthony’s offer of a fortune, which will allow him to quit the army, but is taken aback by the condition that he must get a wife. Sir Anthony curses him and says that he must love whoever is chosen for him. After threatening to invest five pence a day and make Jack live off the interest and vowing to “unget him”, Sir Anthony leaves. Jack summons Fag to come quickly. Lucy gives Sir Lucius a letter supposedly from Lydia (but really from Mrs. Malaprop). Sir Lucius kisses Lucy and instructs her to tell her mistress that he kissed her fifty times. Fag enters, and Lucy tells him that Sir Anthony Absolute intends to marry his son to Lydia. Fag assures her that he will bring the news to his master (Beverley).
Act III.
Pleased with Fag’s news, Jack returns to his father and affects penitence. Sir Anthony describes Lydia’s beauty, to which Jack pretends to be indifferent. Sir Anthony forgives him but says that he will marry the girl himself if Jack continues to spite him. Faulkland and Julia meet; his disbelief in her love causes her to leave in tears. As himself, Jack meets with Mrs. Malaprop to discuss his engagement to Lydia. She approves of the match, but gives him Beverley’s latest letter, saying that he must defeat his rival. Jack suggests that she allow Lydia to run off with Beverley and to let him apprehend the couple before they have time to be married. Mrs. Malaprop agrees to this plan. As a joke, Jack requests that she introduce him to Lydia as Beverley. Lydia meets him; he says that he is Beverley but that he had impersonated Absolute to fool Mrs. Malaprop. This lady listens to part of their conversation, and is scandalized to hear Lydia tell Absolute “Let her choice be Capt. Absolute, but Beverley is mine”. Acres practices a dance step and grooms himself. Sir Lucius O’Trigger arrives. Acres tells him about how Beverley has supplanted him as Lydia’s preferred rival, and O’Trigger encourages him to fight Beverley. O’Trigger dictates the challenge, and tells Acres that he faces a similar situation: a young captain (Absolute) has insulted his country.
Act IV.
Acres’ valet David discourages him from fighting by calling honour a “false friend”, but he will not be dissuaded. Acres calls Jack Absolute to deliver the challenge to Beverley. Sir Anthony and Jack go to visit Lydia and Mrs. Malaprop. Lydia and Jack refuse to look at one another; Sir Anthony and Mrs. Malaprop are angry with both of them. Lydia marvels that her aunt has noticed no difference between Absolute and the pretended Absolute (really Absolute as Beverley). However, Lydia recognizes Jack as Beverley, and realizes that he is really Absolute; she is peeved that there will be no elopement. Alone, they fight over the deception. Sir Anthony and Mrs. Malaprop return to hear Lydia renounce any further thought of Jack. To his own amusement, Sir Anthony believes that Jack has been “too lively” and has taken a liberty. Sir Lucius meets the despondent Jack and challenges him to a duel. Jack meets Faulkland, who is still smarting over his fight with Julia. A letter arrives from that lady forgiving him; Faulkland finds fault nonetheless, to Jack’s disgust. To test Julia’s love, Faulkland will tell her that he plans to duel that evening.
Act V.
Faulkland goes to Julia to tell her that he must “fly the kingdom instantly”. Julia suggests that she join him in exile, but he finds excuses to prevent her doing so. Finally he admits that his exile is a lie. Julia tells him that she cannot marry him because he will never be content in love. Faulkland curses himself. Lydia complains to Julia about Beverley’s real identity. David, Fag and Mrs. Malaprop enter; the servants have acquainted the lady with knowledge of the imminent duels between Sir Lucius and Absolute, Acres and “Beverley”, and Falkland and whoever runs across his path; the women fly to stop them. Absolute hides his sword under his greatcoat. He meets his father, and tells him that he is bringing the sword to Lydia’s so that he can die a romantic death if she does not change her mind. As soon as Absolute has gone, David arrives to tell Sir Anthony of the duels. They rush to stop them. Sir Lucius practices aiming his gun at the terrified Acres. Absolute and Faulkland arrive; they plead with Faulkland to fight with Sir Lucius so as not to spoil the party. Absolute admits that he is Beverley; Acres is relieved and refuses to fight him. Acres agrees to be Sir Lucius’ second. Absolute and Sir Lucius draw. Sir Anthony, Mrs. Malaprop and Lydia arrive and stop the fight. Sir Lucius addresses Lydia as “Delia”, but Lydia says it is a mistake, and professes her love for Jack. Mrs. Malaprop reveals herself to be Delia, but Sir Lucius will have none of it. Acres says he will live a bachelor. Sir Anthony orders Julia and Faulkland to be married immediately; this will put a stop to Faulkland’s nonsense. Sir Lucius hosts a party celebrating the two marriages. Absolute and Faulkland discuss how they have both tasted “the Bitters, as well as the Sweets, of Love”, but that all has been remedied.
Secondary commentary |
A) Jeffares, A. Norman. ‘Sheridan, Richard Brinsley (1751–1816)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 29 May 2008. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/25367
"The Rivals was withdrawn after the first night, 17 January 1775, but Sheridan rewrote it in ten days and its popularity has lasted ever since. Set in Bath, it owes not a little to his mother's novel Memoirs of Miss Sidney Biddulph (1761; 1767) and her unfinished play A Journey to Bath, in which her Mrs Tryfort anticipated her son's Mrs Malaprop. The play possesses the originality of true comedy, though it contains many deliberate echoes of other plays. There are many references to and caricaturings of events in Sheridan's own life, Sir Anthony Absolute, mirroring Congreve's Sir Sampson Legend in Love for Love, being a father as domineering and opinionated as Sheridan's own."
B) Auburn, Mark S. ‘Richard Brinsley Sheridan: 1751-July 7, 1816.’ Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 89: Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Dramatists, Third Series. Edited by Paula R. Backscheider, University of Rochester. The Gale Group, 1989. LiteratureResourceCenter. 29 May 2008. 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=U13039685&n=10&docNum=H1200003616&ST=sheridan+richard+brinsley&bConts=16047
"The Rivals appeared on 17 January 1775. It represents a lively if confusing imbroglio of young love triumphing over parental disapproval in the way of Roman New Comedy, with this important difference: the old parents in fact desire the marriage of the young people, and the young people create their own difficulties. Romantic Lydia Languish wants to elope rather than marry anyone with her "friends' consent." To humor her, Captain Jack Absolute has disguised himself as penniless Ensign Beverley. Lydia's aunt, Mrs. Malaprop, is negotiating with Sir Anthony Absolute about an alliance of Lydia with his son Jack Absolute. Complicating the picture are two other rivals for Lydia's affections: the foppish country booby Bob Acres and the pugnacious fortune-hunting Sir Lucius O'Trigger. Neither of these rivals ever crosses Lydia's mind, and Sir Lucius's pretensions are particularly absurd since Mrs. Malaprop herself is attracted to him. Both Mrs. Malaprop and Sir Lucius are betrayed by the scheming maidservant Lucy in the correspondent which the aunt thinks she is carrying on with Sir Lucius and which Sir Lucius thinks he is carrying on with Lydia. In a subplot which Sheridan meant to be comic but which rarely plays as such, overly delicate and emotionally insecure Faulkland tests the affections of his orphaned fiancée, Julia Melville (Sir Anthony's niece and Lydia's best friend). The difficulties are good-naturedly resolved at the scene of a six-way duel: Acres to fight "Beverley," Jack to fight Sir Lucius (either for Jack to defend his pretensions to Sir Lucius's Lydia or for Sir Lucius to avenge a slight upon Ireland which he alleges Jack made--the text gives both reasons and thereby indicates the subservience of plot to characterization), and Faulkland to fight anyone who is willing. Sir Anthony and Mrs. Malaprop arrive in time to prevent the rivals from dueling and to sort out the marriages. The key to the amiable tone of play is Acres's resignation of any interest, Sir Lucius's offer to hold a party for everyone assembled even though he has been disappointed of a fortune and a bride, and Sir Anthony's sage advice to being the correct couples together. … critics have attributed the comedy's greatness to its exuberant play with language and with language's power to obfuscate reality, but this language emanates from, as well as serves to form, distinctly drawn, wonderfully absurd characters."
Varieties & Dialects |
Overview of varieties / dialects
Despite being Irish, Sir Lucius O'Trigger speaks in StE. Mrs. Malaprop's speech is studded with "malapropisms". Bob Acres blends classical allusions and city sophistication with his country upbringing. Some servants speak in non-standard English. Jack Absolute makes one grammar error.
Varieties / dialectsVariety: Coachman
a. Sample of dialect
[page 3]
Coach.
Well---I wish they were once harness'd together in matrimony.---But pray, Mr. Fag, what kind of a place is this Bath?---I ha' heard a deal [75] of it---here's a mort o' merry-making---hey?
b.1 Orthography: “I ha’ heard”
b.2 Grammar: “I wish they were once” (meaning is future/conditional tense)
b.3 Vocabulary: “a mort o’ merry-making”; “harness’d together” (note his employment)
c. Nationality: English
d. Character profile: a coachman (servant class)
e. Consistency of representation: consistent
Variety: Mrs. Malaprop
a. Sample of dialect
[Page 11 ]
Mrs. Mal.
You thought, Miss!---I don't know any business you have to think at all---thought does not become a young woman; the point we would request of you is, that you will promise to forget this fellow---to illiterate him, I say, quite from your memory.
…
Mrs. Mal.
Now don't attempt to extirpate yourself from the matter; you know I have proof controvertible of it.---But tell me, will you promise to do as you're bid?---Will you take a husband of your friends choosing?
…
[page 12]
Mrs. Mal.
There's a little intricate hussy for you!
…
Mrs. Mal.
Nay, nay, Sir Anthony, you are an absolute misanthropy.
--
[page 13]
Mrs. Mal.
Observe me, Sir Anthony.---I would by no means wish a daughter of mine to be a progeny of learning; I don't think so much learning becomes a young woman; for instance---I would never let her meddle with Greek, or Hebrew, or Algebra, or Simony, or Fluxions, or Paradoxes, or such inflammatory branches of learning---neither would it be necessary for her to handle any of your mathematical, astronomical, diabolical instruments;--- But, Sir Anthony, I would send her, at nine years old, to a boarding-school, in order to learn a little ingenuity and artifice.---Then, Sir, she should have a supercilious knowledge in accounts;---and as she grew up, I would have her instructed in geometry, that she might know something of the contagious countries;---but above all, Sir Anthony, she should be mistress of orthodoxy, that she might not mis-spell, and mis-pronounce words so shamefully as girls usually do; and likewise that she might reprehend the true meaning of what she is saying.---This, Sir Anthony, is what I would have a woman know;---and I don't think there is a superstitious article in it.
--
[page 34: letter to Lucius]
“Sir---there is often a sudden incentive impulse in love, that has a greater induction than years of domestic combination: such was the commotion I felt at the first superfluous view of Sir Lucius O'Trigger ." Very pretty, upon my word. " As my motive is interested, you may be assured my love shall never be miscellaneous ." Very well. " Female punctuation forbids me to say more; yet let me add, that it will give me joy infallible to find Sir Lucius worthy the last criterion of my affections.--- Yours, while meretricious .--- Delia .”
--
[page 46]
Mrs. Mal.
Sir---you overpower me with good-breeding. ---He is the very Pine-apple of politeness! You are not ignorant, Captain, that this giddy girl has somehow contrived to fix her affections on a beggarly, strolling, eve's-dropping Ensign,
[Page 47 ]
whom none of us have seen, and nobody knows any thing of.
b.1 Orthography
b.2 Grammar
b.3 Vocabulary: malapropisms: “to illiterate” (obliterate); “controvertible” (incontrovertible); “intricate” (indignant?); “misanthropy” (misanthrope); “progeny of learning”; “a supercilious knowledge in accounts” (superficial); “geometry” (geography); “contagious countries” (??); “reprehend the true meaning” (apprehend); “superstitious” (??); “incentive impulse”; “induction” (effect?); “domestic combination” (cohabitation); “superfluous” (superficial); “motive is interested”; “miscellaneous”; “Female punctuation forbids me to say more” (female compunction); “joy infallible”; “meretricious”; “Pine-apple” (pinnacle)
c. Nationality: English
d. Character profile: upper middle class; not especially well-educated (if one is to judge by her description of an ideal education for women); has a wide but consistently misapplied vocabulary
e. Consistency of representation: consistent
Variety: Bob Acres
a. Sample of dialect:
[page 27]
Abs.
Spoke like a man---but pray, Bob, I observe you have got an odd kind of a new method of swearing---
Acres.
Ha! ha! you've taken notice of it---'tis genteel, isn't?---I didn't invent it myself though; but a commander in our militia---a great scholar, I assure you---says that there is no meaning in the common oaths, and that nothing but their antiquity makes them respectable;---because, he says, the ancients would never stick to an oath or two, but [375] would say By Jove! or by Bacchus! or by Mars! or by Venus! or by Pallas! according to the sentiment ---so that to swear with propriety, says my little Major, the 'oath should be an echo to the sense;' and this we call the oath referential , or sentimental swearing ---ha! ha! ha! 'tis genteel, isn't it?
b.1 Orthography
b.2 Grammar
b.3 Vocabulary: classical terms (Jove, Bacchus, Mars, Venus, Pallas) used as oaths
c. Nationality: English (country)
d. Character profile: a fashionable country squire
e. Consistency of representation: he does revert to “d—n” as the play progresses
Variety: Jack Absolute
a. Sample of dialect
[page 48]
Abs.
Impudent scoundrel!---" it shall go hard but I will elude her vigilance, as I am told that the same ridiculous vanity, which makes her dress up her coarse features, and deck her dull chat with hard words which she don't understand ---"
b.1 Orthography
b.2 Grammar: “she don’t understand”
b.3 Vocabulary
c. Nationality: English
d. Character profile: soldier / son of a baronet
e. Consistency of representation: inconsistent; this error occurs in Absolute’s writing, but his speech is StE
Variety: David (Acres’ valet)
a. Sample of dialect
[page 59]
David.
Then , by the Mass, Sir! I would do no such thing---ne'er a Sir Lucius O'Trigger in the kingdom should make me fight, when I wa'n't so minded. Oons! what will the old lady say, when she hears o't!
Acres.
Ah! David, if you had heard Sir Lucius! ---Odds sparks and flames! he would have rous'd your valour.
David.
Not he, indeed. I hates such blood-thirsty cormorants. Look'ee, Master, if you'd wanted a bout at boxing, quarter-staff, or short-staff, I should never be the man to bid you cry off: But for your curst sharps and snaps, I never knew any good come of 'em.
b.1 Orthography: “wa’n’t”; “o’t”; “Look’ee”
b.2 Grammar: “I hates”
b.3 Vocabulary: “Oons!”
c. Nationality: English
d. Character profile: servant
e. Consistency of representation: consistent
Degrees of gentility in swearing:
[page 27]
Abs.
Spoke like a man---but pray, Bob, I observe you have got an odd kind of a new method of swearing---
Acres.
Ha! ha! you've taken notice of it---'tis genteel, isn't?---I didn't invent it myself though; but a commander in our militia---a great scholar, I assure you---says that there is no meaning in the common oaths, and that nothing but their antiquity makes them respectable;---because, he says, the ancients would never stick to an oath or two, but [375] would say By Jove! or by Bacchus! or by Mars! or by Venus! or by Pallas! according to the sentiment ---so that to swear with propriety, says my little Major, the 'oath should be an echo to the sense;' and this we call the oath referential , or sentimental swearing ---ha! ha! ha! 'tis genteel, isn't it?
Abs.
Very genteel, and very new indeed---and I dare say will supplant all other figures of imprecation.
Acres.
Aye, aye, the best terms will grow obsolete ---D---ns have had their day.
--
(Body) Language varieties:
[page 54]
Acres.
Sink, slide---coupee---Confound the first inventors of cotillons! say I---they are as bad as algebra to us country gentlemen---I can walk a Minuet easy enough when I'm forced!---and I have been accounted a good stick in a Country-dance. ---Odd's jigs and tabors!---I never valued your cross-over two couple---figure in---right and left---and I'd foot it with e'er a captain in the county!---but these outlandish heathen Allemandes and Cotillons are quite beyond me!---I shall never prosper at 'em, that's sure---mine are true-born English legs--- they don't understand their curst French lingo!
[page 55 ]
---their Pas this, and Pas that, and Pas t'other!--- d---n me, my feet don't like to be called Paws! no, 'tis certain I have most Antigallican Toes!
Other points of interest |
Teaching girls to read (cf. Frances Chamberlaine Sheridan’s father’s opinion):
[page 12]
Sir Anth.
It is not to be wonder'd at, Ma'am--- all this is the natural consequence of teaching girls to read.---Had I a thousand daughters, by Heavens! I'd as soon have them taught the black-art as their alphabet!
Mrs. Mal.
Nay, nay, Sir Anthony, you are an absolute misanthropy.
Sir Anth.
In my way hither, Mrs. Malaprop, I observed your niece's maid coming forth from a circulating library!---She had a book in each hand ---they were half-bound volumes, with marbled covers!---From that moment I guess'd how full of duty I should see her mistress!
Mrs. Mal.
Those are vile places, indeed!
Sir Anth.
Madam, a circulating library in a town is, as an ever-green tree, of diabolical knowledge! ---It blossoms through the year!---And depend on it, Mrs. Malaprop, that they who are so fond of handling the leaves, will long for the fruit at last.
Mrs. Mal.
Well, but Sir Anthony, your wife, Lady Absolute, was fond of books.
Sir Anth.
Aye---and injury sufficient they were to her, Madam.---But were I to chuse another helpmate, the extent of her erudition should consist in her knowing her simple letters, without their
[page 13 ]
mischievous combinations;---and the summit of her science be---her ability to count as far as twenty.---The first, Mrs. Malaprop, would enable her to work A. A. upon my linen;---and the latter would be quite sufficient to prevent her giving me a shirt, No. 1. and a stock, No. 2.
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