Publication Details | Synopsis | Secondary Commentary |Varieties & Dialects | Other
Publication details |
Author: Sheridan, Richard Brinsley
Author dates: 1751-1816
Title: St. Patrick’s Day
First played: 1775
First published: 1788, for the Booksellers. 27 p.
C18th availability: Available from ECCO (1788)
http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/ECCO?dd=0&locID=utoronto_main&d1=0302300200&srchtp=b&c=13&SU=All&d2=1&docNum=CW3311383058&b0=st+patrick%27s+day&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=Z000119535&forward=tocMarc&DurUrl=Yes
Genre: Comedy / Farce
Trend(s): Nationality
Character types: Irish; Military; Legal; German; Medical
Synopsis |
Lieutenant O'Connor loves Lauretta, the Justice's daughter; to win her hand, he must pretend to be a simpleminded servant and a German doctor. The Justice's wife's coldness during his supposed near-death experience makes him realize that it is in his best interest to permit Lauretta to marry her lover.
Act I.
The soldiers agree to “launch [their] grievances in a volly” when the Lieutenant enters. He arrives, and the Sergeant explains that since the Lieutenant quarreled with Justice Credulous, the innkeepers treat the soldiers poorly. He counsels the Lieutenant to run off with the Justice’s daughter Lauretta or to make amends with the innkeepers; the Lieutenant agrees to do the latter. They drink to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Dr. Rosy enters and reports that the Justice is still very angry and that he would prefer to see his daughter “in a scarlet fever than in the arms of a soldier”. The Lieutenant says that he will have to elope with her and risk losing her fortune. They discuss London women; the Lieutenant is not attracted by their artificial charms and prefers Lauretta’s natural simplicity. The Doctor laments his dead wife, from whom he had withdrawn “fourscore” teeth. He philosophizes that everyone must die. They discuss the Doctor’s wife’s intellectual charms: she could “invent the ingredients” for a prescription as well as he and could “stuff…an alligator, and pickle…a lizard with any Apothecary’s wife in the kingdom.” The Lieutenant drags the Doctor offstage; they will be late for an appointment with the Justice. Lauretta discusses Lieutenant O’Connor with her mother; she is very taken with him, but her mother reminds her of a soldier’s wife’s trials. The Justice enters to say that the young man who is to be hired has arrived, but Lauretta persistently interrupts him. Dr. Rosy enters, saying that the young man will arrive shortly. The Lieutenant enters dressed as “Honest Humphrey Hum”. He is charged to keep Lieutenant O’Connor “and his gang” away from Lauretta.
Act II.
Two countrymen are enlisted. The Lieutenant (as Humphrey) enlists under his own Sergeant, who confides that his superior officer is given to wenching. Learning that Humphrey is employed by the Justice, the soldiers try to bribe him to permit the elopement; Humphrey beats them, to the Justice’s approval. The Justice discovers Lauretta walking alone in a garden, and is angry with her for exposing herself to possible kidnapping by Lieutenant O’Connor. Lauretta says that she would like to be run off with; the Justice leaves her with Humphrey for protection. Lauretta recognizes him, and they kiss, but the Justice sees them and is furious. She pretends that she has been overcome by sudden giddiness, but the Justice sees through it and recognizes Humphrey as the Lieutenant. The Justice threatens to shoot him. The Doctor muses to himself about the transience of life and love. Lieutenant O’Connor enters and says that their plan has failed. The Justice talks with his wife Bridget; she blames Lauretta’s flightiness on her name, for if she were named “Deborah, or Tabitha, or Ruth, or Rebecca, or Joan”, none of this would have happened. A letter arrives from O’Connor saying that the Justice’s hot chocolate has been poisoned. Dr. Rosy arrives; he goes next door to ask a German physician for an antidote. The Lieutenant arrives dressed as the physician, and says that the Justice will die soon without his help. He offers to cure him for £3000, but when Lauretta enters, offers to cure the Justice for free if he is allowed to court her. Bridget encourages him to die so that he doesn’t have to pay the doctor. The Justice agrees to give Lauretta’s hand to the German physician. The latter gives him a note that says that he is cured, “from [his] affectionate son-in-law, O’Connor.” Enraged, the Justice demands that O’Connor renounce his country and his profession; he refuses to do either. Recalling his wife’s lack of tenderness towards him during his supposed illness, the Justice finally lets O’Connor marry Lauretta.
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
"Sir Lucius O'Trigger, toned down in the rewritten version of the play, became more than the blustering stage Irishman, originally acted by John Lee, being now better portrayed by Laurence Clinch, for whose benefit performance Sheridan wrote, reputedly in two days, St Patrick's Day, an amusing farce reflecting not only his interest in the American War of Independence but pride in his Irish ancestry."
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
"At Covent Garden on 2 May 1775 his two-act farce, St. Patrick's Day, or, The Scheming Lieutenant, appeared and earned for itself a minor place in the afterpiece repertoire. Written for Lawrence Clicnh's benefit performance in gratitude for his having taken over Sir Lucius O'Trigger, the farce contains many of the elements of The Rivals: idiosyncratic but essentially good-natured characters, scenes of disguise and of revelation, amiable humorists of broad, quick, verbal strokes, and a farcical starring role rich in numerous assumed disguises for the principal male actor. Sheridan is said to have written it in forty-eight hours."
Varieties & Dialects |
Overview of varieties / dialects
The Irish Lieutenant is better spoken than the English soldiers under his command. The Justice occasionally uses Latin terms. The Lieutenant disguises himself as Humphrey Hum, an idiot servant, and as a German doctor; he adopts different dialects for each of these personas. Two Irish countrymen (one of whom has been educated at his father’s grammar school) speak with poor grammar.
Varieties / dialectsVariety: Soldiers
a. Sample of dialect:
[page 3]
3d Sol.
Ay, ay, let him have our grievances in a volly, and if we be to have a spokesman, there's the Corporal is the Lieutenant's countryman, and knows his humour.
Cor.
Let me alone for that, I serv'd three years within a bit, under his honour, in the Royal Inniskillions, and I never will see a sweeter tempered gentleman, nor one more free with his purse. I put a great shamrogue in his hat this morning, and I'll be bound for him, he'll wear it, was it as big as Steven's green.
4th Sol.
I say again then you talk like youngsters, like Militia striplings, there is a discipline, look'ee, in all things, whereof the serjeant must be our guide, he's a gentleman of words, he understands your foreign lingo, your figures, and such like auxiliaries in scoring.---Confess now for a reckoning, whether in chalk or writing, ben't he your only man.
b.1 Orthography: “ben’t”; “look’ee”
b.2 Grammar: “if we be to have”; “there’s the Corporal is”; “such like auxiliaries”
b.3 Vocabulary: “grievances in a volly” (military); “shamrogue”, “Steven’s green” (Ireland)
c. Nationality: Irish / English
d. Character profiles: soldiers (only the corporal is Irish)
e. Consistency of representation: consistent
Variety: “Humphrey Hum” (Lieutenant in disguise)
a. Sample of dialect:
[page 13]
Lieu.
Not I---they are but zwaggerers, and you'll see they'll be as much affraid of me, as they wou'd of their captain.
Jus.
And I faith Humphry, you have a pretty cudgel there.
Lieu.
Aye, the zwitch is better than nothing, but I should be glad of a stouter, ha' you got such a thing in the house as an old coach-pole, or a spare bed post.
b.1 Orthography: “zwaggerers”; “affraid”; “zwitch”
b.2 Grammar
b.3 Vocabulary
c. Nationality: Irish?
d. Character profile: Humphrey is supposedly an idiot servant
e. Consistency of representation: consistent (to the persona)
Variety: Irish countrymen
a. Sample of dialect:
1st Coun.
Yes, an please you, I be quite single, my relations be all dead, thank heavens more or less. I have but one poor mother left in the world, and she's an helpless woman.
Ser.
Indeed! a very extraordinary case---quite your own master then---the fitter to serve his Majesty---Can you read?
1st Coun.
Noa, I was always too lively to take to learning but John here, is main clever at it.
Ser.
So, what, you're a scholar friend.
2d Coun.
I was born so, measter. Feyther kept grammar school.
Ser.
Lucky man, in a campaign or two put yourself down chaplain to the regiment. And I warrant, you have read of warriors and heroes.
2d Coun.
Yes that I have, I have read of jack the Giant killer, and the Dragon of Wantly, and the---noa, I believe that's all in the hero way, except once about a Comet.
b.1 Orthography: “Noa”; “measter”; “Feyther”
b.2 Grammar: “I be”; “my relations be”; “an helpless”; “Feyther kept grammar school” (ironic – missing an article)
b.3 Vocabulary: “main clever”
c. Nationality: Irish
d. Character profile: the first is an uneducated Irishman; he second has been educated (his bad grammar is a subtle comment on Irish education)
e. Consistency of representation: consistent
Variety: The Justice
a. Sample of dialect
[page 21]
Jus.
Why zounds! Madam, how durst you talk so, if you have no respect for your husband, I should think unus quorum might command a little deference.
Bri.
Don't tell me---Unus findlestick, you ought to be asham'd to shew your face at the sessions, you'll be a laughing stock to the whole bench, and a byeword with all the pig-tail'd Lawyers, and bag-wig'd Attornies about town.
b.1 Orthography
b.2 Grammar: “how durst you”
b.3 Vocabulary: swearing (“zounds!”); Latin (“Unus quorum”);
c. Nationality: Irish
d. Character profile: a judge; his wife Bridget mocks his Latin terms (“Unus findlestick”)
e. Consistency of representation: consistent
Variety: Lieutenant as a German doctor
a. Sample of dialect
[page 25]
Lieu.
Metto dowsei pulsum.
Doc.
He desires to feel your pulse.
Jus.
Can't he speak English?
Doc.
Not a word.
Lieu.
Palio vivem mortem soonem.
Doc.
He says you have not six hours to live.
b.1 Orthography
b.2 Grammar
b.3 Vocabulary: made-up language: “pulsum”; “vivem”; “mortem”; “soonem” like “pulse, life, death, soon”
c. Nationality: Irish ("German")
d. Character profile: a “German” physician (despite the fact that this is clearly not German!)
e. Consistency of representation: consistent (to the persona)
None.
Other points of interest |
None.
©2009 Arden Hegele