The Rivals by Richard Sheridan

97 Pages·1986·12.792 MB·English

by  Jeremy Rowe (auth.)

MACMILLAN MASTER GUIDES
GENERALEDITOR:JAMESGIBSON
JANEAUSTEN Emma NormanPage
SenseandSensibility judy Simons
Persuasion judy Simons
PrideandPrejudice RaymondWilson
MansfieldPark RichardWirdnam
SAMUELBECKEn WaitingforGodot jenniferBirkett
WIlliAMBLAKE SongsofInnocenceandSongsofExperience
AlanTomlinson
ROBERTBOLT AManforAllSeasons LeonardSmith
CHARLOnEBRONT~ JaneEyre RobertMiles
EMILYBRONT~ WutheringHeights HildaD.Spear
GEOFFREYCHAUCER TheMiller'sTale MichaelAlexander
ThePardoner's Tale GeoffreyLester
TheWifeofBath'sTale NicholasMarsh
TheKnight'sTale AnneSamson
ThePrologue tothe CanterburyTales
NigelThomasandRichardSwan
JOSEPHCONRAD TheSecretAgent AndrewMayne
CHARLESDICKENS BleakHouse DennisButts
GreatExpectations DennisButts
GEORGEELIOT Middlemarch GrahamHandley
SilasMamer GrahamHandley
TheMillon theFloss HelenWheeler
T.S.ELIOT SelectedPoems AndrewSwarbrick
HENRYFIELDING JosephAndrews Trevorjohnson
E.M.FORSTER HowardsEnd IanMilligan
WILLIAMGOLDING TheSpire RosemarySumner
LordoftheFlies RaymondWilson
OLIVERGOlDSMITH SheStoops toConquer PaulRanger
THOMASHARDY TheMayorofCasterbridge RayEvans
Tessofthed'Urbervilles jamesGibson
BENjONSON Volpone MichaelStout
JOHNKEATS SelectedPoems john Garrett
PHILIPLARKIN TheWhitsun WeddingsandTheLessDeceived
AndrewSwarbrick
D.H.LAWRENCE SonsandLovers R.P.Draper
HARPERLEE ToKillaMockingbird jeanArmstrong
GERARDMANLEYHOPKINS SelectedPoems R.J.c.Watt
CHRISTOPHERMARLOWE DoctorFaustus DavidA.Male
THEMETAPHYSICALPOETS joanvanEmden
THOMASMIDDLETON and TheChangeling TonyBromham
WILLIAM ROWLEY
ARTHURMILLER TheCrucible LeonardSmith
DeathofaSalesman PeterSpalding
GEORGEORWELL AnimalFarm jeanArmstrong
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE RichardII CharlesBarber
Othello TonyBromham
Hamlet jean Brooks
KingLear FrancisCasey
HenryV PeterDavison
TheWinter'sTale DianaDevlin
JuliusCaesarDavid Elloway
Macbeth David Elloway
TheMerchantofVenice A M.Kinghorn
MeasureforMeasure Marklilly
HenryIVPartI Helen Morris
RomeoandJuliet HelenMorris
AMidsummerNight'sDream
KennethPickering
TheTempest KennethPickering
Coriolanus GordonWilliams
AntonyandCleopatra MartinWine
TwelfthNight R.P.Draper
RICHARDSHERIDAN TheSchoolforScandal PaulRanger
TheRivals jeremyRowe
EDWARDTHOMAS SelectedPoems Gerald Roberts
JOHN WEBSTER TheWhiteDeviland TheDuchessofMalfi
DavidA.Male
VIRGINIAWOOlF TotheLighthouse johnMepham
MrsDalloway julianPattison
THE RIVALS
JEREMY ROWE
©JeremyRowe 1986
Allrights reserved. Noreproduction,copy or transmissionof
this publicationmay be made withoutwrittenpermission.
No paragraphofthis publicationmaybe reproduced,copiedor
transmittedsave with written permissionor inaccordancewith
the provisionsoftheCopyright,Designsand PatentsAct 1988,
orundertheterms ofany licencepermittinglimitedcopying
issued bytheCopyrightLicensingAgency, 90TottenhamCourt
Road, LondonWIT4LP.
Any person whodoes any unauthorisedactinrelationtothis
publicationmay beliable tocriminalprosecutionand civil
claimsfordamages.
The authorhasassertedhisright to beidentifiedastheauthor
ofthis work inaccordancewith theCopyright,Designs
and PatentsAct 1988.
Publishedby
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills,Basingstoke,HampshireRG2I 6XS
and London
Companiesand representatives
throughoutthe world
ISBN978-0-333-37204-3 ISBN978-1-349-07389-4(eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-07389-4
This book isprintedon papersuitableforrecyclingand
made from fully managedand sustained forest sources.
Acataloguerecord forthis book isavailable
from the British Library.
10 9 8 7 6 543 2
10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02
CONTENTS
Generaleditor'spreface vii
Acknowledgements viii
1 Lifeand background 1.1 Life 1
1.2 Background 9
2 The theatre 2.1 The building 14
::.1.
The audience 15
2.3 The plays 18
2.4 TheComedy of Manners 19
2.5 The actors 20
2.6 Costume 21
2.7 Scenery 22
2.8 Lighting 24
2.9 Stagehistoryofthe play 25
3 Summaryand critical
commentary 28
4 Themes and issues 4.1 Youngand old;the 53
arranged marriage
4.2 Posingand pretending 54
5 Technical features 5.1 Plot and structure 57
5.2 Characterisation 60
5.3 Style and language 63
5.4 Stagecraft 65
6 Specimenpassageand
commentary 69
vi
7 Inrehearsal 74
8 Criticalreception 78
Revisionquestions 80
Furtherreading 82
vii
GENERAL EDITOR'S PREFACE
The aimof theMacmillanMasterGuidesisto help you to appreciate the
book you are studying by providing information about it and by sug
gestingways of readingand thinking about it whichwillleadto afuller
understanding. Thesectionon the writer'slifeandbackground hasbeen
designed to illustrate those aspects of the writer's life which have
influenced the work,and to placeit initspersonaland literary context.
The summaries and critical commentary are of special importance in
that each briefsummary ofthe actionisfollowedby anexaminationof
the significant critical points. The space which might have been given
to repetitive explanatory notes has been devoted to a detailed analysis
of the kind of passagewhich might confront you in an examination.
Literary criticism is concerned with both the broader aspects of the
work being studied and with its detail. The ideas which meet us in
reading a great work of literature, and their relevanceto us today, are
an essential part ofour study,and our Guides look at the thought of
their subject in some detail. Butjust asessentialisthe craft withwhich
the writer has constructed his work ofart,and this isconsideredunder
severaltechnical headings - characterisation, language,style and stage
craft.
The authors of these Guides are all teachers and writers of wide
experience, and they havechosen to write aboutbooks they admireand
know wellin the beliefthat they cancommunicate their admirationto
you. Butyou yourselfmust readandknow intimatelythe book you are
studying. No one can do that for you. You should seethis book asa
lamp-post. Use it to shed light, not to lean against. If you know your
text and know what it issayingabout life,andhow it saysit,then you
will enjoy it, and there isno better way of passingan examination in
literature.
JAMES GIBSON
viii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I wish to thank all those concerned with The Rivals when I directed the
play at the DePaul/Goodman School of Drama in Chicagoin 1982. Their
insightshavecontributedgreatly to this MasterGuide.
JEREMY ROWE
Coverillustration:A Theatrical Candidate, by Thomas Rowlandson,
©Victoria and Albert Museum.
1 LIFE AND BACKGROUND
1.1 Life
Like other playwrightswhose names are inseparablefrom English comedy,
such as William Congreve, George Farquhar and Oscar Wilde, Richard
Brinsley Sheridan in fact came from Irish stock. Hisgrandfather,Thomas,
was a Doctor of Divinity and a friend ofDean Swift,who wroteGulliver's
Travels.Although not rich, Thomas aimed at a gentle, even noble way of
life for his household, and the rectory where he lived was in his eyes a
veritable mansion; he passed on this ambition for gentility to succeeding
generations. Swift said of hisfriend, with whom heenjoyed aquarrelsome
if jocular relationship, that he was'agenerous,honest,good-natured man,
but that his perpetualwantofdiscretion andjudgement made him actasif
he were neither generous, honest nor good-natured'.He could have made
the same remark about his godson, Richard's father who was also called
Thomas,and just asappropriately about Richard himself.
Richard was born in Dublin on 6 September 1751. The talents and
accomplishments of both his parents were of a theatrical nature. His
father was in his day a well-known actor, and at the beginning of his
career seemed set to rival David Garrick, the leading English actor of the
age. One critic applauded him with the comment that 'Hamlet was a
character often attempted, but never tolerably by any but Sheridan'
high praise indeed, while Richard, an incisive critic of everything his
father attempted, once wrote of his acting in the scene with Hubert in
William Shakespeare's KingJohn that 'here was a masterpiece of the art'.
Unfortunately,Thomas's becoming acting manager ofthe Theatre Royal,
Smock Alley, Dublin in 1745 was a promotion to disaster. Being a man
with high ideals and theatrical principles, he immediately set about re
forming the theatre which,ashe sawit, had fallen into a moral and artistic
decline. However, neither his audience nor his actors were the slightest
bit interested in reform, and after ten yearsoffretful rule, Thomasfound