The Rivals
Richard Brinsley Sheridan
“He is indebted to his memory for his jests and to his imagination for his facts.”
Plot Summary
Lydia Languish has shaped her view on life from the romantic
novels she reads, and falls in love with a penniless soldier, Ensign
Beverly. But Beverly is actually Captain Jack Absolute, who has
disguised himself to fulfill Lydia’s desires for an impoverished
romantic hero. Lydia’s aunt, Mrs. Malaprop “queen of the dictionary”,
is enraged at the attachment, and has arranged a match between Lydia
and the son of Sir Anthony Absolute- Captain Jack Absolute. Thus, Jack
is his own rival.
Lydia’s other suitors are a country bumpkin, Bob Acres, who has
come to Bath to learn sophisticated ways, and Sir Lucius O’Trigger, a
belligerent Irishman. Sir Lucius believes that he is wooing Lydia by
letter; when, in fact, the woman writing him
under the name of ‘Delia’ is the lovelorn
Mrs. Malaprop.
Sir Anthony’s ward, Julia Melville, is
also in bath, along with her fiancée
Faulkland. Julia is constant in her love,
while Faulkland is racked by doubts: does
Julia love him, or the fact that he once
saved her life? He constantly tests Julia’s
love, ultimately to the point where she
breaks off their engagement.
Jack reveals his true identity to Lydia
who, incensed that the man she loved has
fooled her, renounces her attachment.
Furious, Jack leaves Lydia’s house and runs
into Sir Lucius, who is spoiling for a fight,
and accepts his challenge to duel. Meanwhile,
Lydia’s other scorned suitor, Bob Acres,
sends a challenge to ‘Ensign Beverly’; Jack
now has to fight two duels under to separate
identities for the woman who has rejected him.
Jack, Sir Lucius, and Acres all arrive at Kingsmead Fields to
fight their respective duels. Faulkland, who has come as Jack’s second,
is mistaken for ‘Beverly’. Word of the intended contests reaches Sir
Anthony and the Ladies who rush to the battleground to stop the
bloodshed. Their arrival brings about a scene of revelation in which
Jack confesses that he is Beverly and Mrs. Malaprop reveals that she is
Delia. Sir Lucius and Acres both drop their claims on Lydia; Sir Lucius
also rejects Mrs. Malaprop. Lydia, realizing she still love Jack, asks
for his forgiveness and also his hand in marriage. Julia forgives
Faulkland and agrees to marry him. The assembled company is invited by
Acres to the New Rooms for a celebration of the prospective weddings.
“Humanity is composed but of two categories, the invalids and the nurses.”
Themes
The Rivals is a play of Contradictions. Set in Bath, which was
really a home of inconsistencies. Many writers relished in Bath’s
paradoxes. Jane Austen commented that Bath was
cheaper than London and one might there “be
important at comparatively little expense”, a
notion that would appeal to such impoverished
aristocrats as Sir Lucius and even Sir Anthony. To
Bath came the old and ill seeking relief, and with
them came the young and healthy seeking romance.
The Rivals is one of the many social comedies not
only set in, but about, the way society is shaped by and to bath.
There are also many social themes in the play. The epilogue
advises women to have the ‘sense and merit’ to shame men into acquiring
knowledge. Conversely, as Sheridan emphasized that women should be
educated in the arts, music, sewing, domestic science, riding, and
history, he stressed that women should avoid novels. In his writing he
conveys that women should be literate and read-but only certain books.
To illustrate this, both Lydia and Mrs. Malaprop show different
versions of misreading (one from the “wrong” books, the other taking
the wrong information from them). The play also maintains that the men
are partly responsible for the women’s waywardness. Jack has humored
Lydia’s romance instead of stamping it out. Sir Anthony wishes to keep
women illiterate instead of directing their learning. The play promotes
the education of women, but for- and regulated by-men.
“When you meet your antagonist, do everything in a mild and agreeable manner. Let your courage be as keen, but at the same time as polished, as
your sword.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan: Biography
Sheridan was born in Dublin on October 30, 1751, to actor
parents. He lived in Dublin for the first years of his life. Between
1759 and 1762 Richard lived with his family in London. At age fourteen,
Sheridan’s mother died. At 16 he moved back with his family to Bath.
His father had given up the stage to teach elocution, hoping to find
more paying pupils outside of London.
In Bath, Sheridan met the Linley family, who taught music and
gave concerts. The eldest daughter, Elizabeth was a singer with an
ethereal voice and extraordinary beauty. Richard’s brother Charles fell
in love with Elizabeth, as did Richard’s friend Halhead. Also in love
with her was an elderly man, Walter Long, with whom Elizabeth’s father
tried to arrange a match. Samuel Foote wrote a play about Elizabeth’s
conquests called The Maid of Bath, in which there was a character named
‘Major Racket’ based on Captain Thomas Matthews, a married man who
hounded Elizabeth. Only 16 years old, Elizabeth could not cope with
these attentions and turned to Sheridan for help. He arranged for her
to go to France and settle in a convent. He accompanied her there, and
married her along the way. When Matthews heard this news, he attacked
Sheridan in The Bath Chronicle and Sheridan returned to England to
fight and win a duel against Matthews. When Matthews retracted the
apology, which had been beaten out of him, the two fought another duel
in which Sheridan almost died.
Thomas Sheridan tried to dissolve his son’s marriage as it had
been made when the couple was under age, and appeared to have been
unconsummated. He sent Richard away from
Elizabeth to study law. In London,
however, Sheridan was now of age, and he
remarried his Elizabeth at a ceremony to
which his father was not invited. Sheridan
decided to settle on a career of writing
plays He started with The Rivals in 1775
and once it was finally successful, he
followed it by writing St Patrick’s Day
(1775), The Duenna (1775), A Trip To
Scarborough (1777), The School For Scandal
(1777), The Camp (1778); much later he
wrote The Critic (1789), The Glorious
First of June (1794), and Pizarro (1799).
In 1780 He turned to politics and the rest
of his life was divided between affairs of state and
affairs of the stage.
His money, however, was in the theatre. He became manager and
part owner of Drury Lane in 1776, and rebuilt the theatre in 1793-4 as
an investment. When Drury Lane burned down in 1809, it consumed
Sheridan’s money with it. It is said that he watched its demise from
the tavern opposite, saying, “A man may surely be allowed to take a
glass of wine by his own fireside”. In 1812 he went into debt and
pawned his books, sold his furniture, and died in 1816 “absolutely
undone and broken-hearted”. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Who’s Who of 1770’s
The Rivals lacked the straightforward sentimentality of the other
plays written around the same time, like Hugh Kelly’s popular False
Delicacy (1768). It really resembled Restoration plays written some
hundred years earlier. Sheridan had
a similar style to William Congreve
(1670-1729), but he was thought to
have better connected character and
sentiment. Sheridan’s writing was
different from his contemporaries,
but similar to writers before him.
1700
Steam boilers
1755-1763
Seven Years' War
1760
Benjamin Franklin invents the
bifocal lens
1765
Steam engine
1775-1783
American Revolution
1776
U.S. Declaration of Independence
signed in Philadelphia
1788
Parliament in France gives Louis XVI their grievances
1789
George Washington becomes the first president of the United States
1789-1799
French Revolution
1791
Bill of Rights ratified in the U.S.
1796
Inoculation/vaccination
1800
First suspension bridge
1800-1815
Napoleonic Wars
1801
First electric arc lamp
1803
US negotiates Louisiana Purchase from French
1804
Steam-powered locomotive
1812-1814
War of 1812
1819
Stethoscope
Arts and Music
From roughly 1750 to 1820, artists, architects, and musicians
moved away from the heavily ornamented styles of the Baroque, and
embraced a clean, uncluttered style they thought reminiscent of
Classical Greece. At this time Vienna was the musical center of Europe,
and musical works of the Classical period are often referred to as
Viennese style. The Classical Period reached its majestic culmination
with the masterful symphonies, sonatas, and string quartets by the
three great composers of the Viennese school: Franz Joseph Haydn,
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig von Beethoven.