Collection No. [#] The Maid of the Oaks, by John Burgoyne
1. Publication details
Author: Burgoyne, John
Author dates: 1723-1792
Title: The Maid of the Oaks
First played: 1774
First published: 1774, for T. Becket. 68p.
C18th availability: Available in ECCO (1774)
http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/ECCO?dd=0&locID=utoronto_main&d1=01638007
00&srchtp=b&SU=All&c=7&d2=1&docNum=CW3310292505&b0=the+maid+of+the+
oaks&h2=1&vrsn=1.0&b1=KE&d6=1&ste=10&d4=0.33&stp=Author&dc=tiPG&n=10
&d5=d6
Modern availability: Available in LION (1996)
http://lion.chadwyck.com/toc.do?action=new&divLevel=0&mapping=toc&area=Drama
&id=Z000061366&forward=tocMarc&DurUrl=Yes
2. Genre / subgenre: Comic Opera
3. Trend(s): Gender
Character types : Irish ; Sophisticated ; Country ; Servant
4. Brief Synopsis
Preface: Burgoyne’s comments on the English stage, including the following:
“They who suppose an English audience, because used to plain entertainment, are
incapable of relishing the most refined, are greatly mistaken. It is true, there will ever be
spectators in the two extremes of the house, who are tasteless and despicable---to the
honour of the town be it said, they are but few--- and whether they bawl for a hornpipe
from the Upper Gallery, or yawn in the weariness of dissipapation in the Boxes, they
equally betray stupidity, prejudice, or caprice: But the middle class and bulk of the
assembly, like that of the kingdom at large, will ever be on the side of nature, truth, and
sense.”
Prologue: instructs the audience to treat this play like an infant; special instruction to
prevent it from being ‘smother’d by the parish nurse’.
Act I.
Charles Dupeley, recently arrived in England, is visiting his friend Sir Harry Groveby. Sir
Harry is going to be married to the Maid of the Oaks, an orphan ward of Mr. Oldworth.
This gentleman arrives and is introduced to Dupeley. Hurry, a servant, rushes in as he
arranges for the wedding. Dupeley will soon meet Lady Bab Lardoon. Oldworth leaves to
attend to the wedding preparations. Dupeley suggests that Groveby has been taken in by
the woman, and that he would have seen through her plot to ensnare a lord, stating that all
English women are “Pamela Andrews and Clarissa Harlowe” (intertextuality:
Richardson’s novels). Groveby has not consulted with his uncle, Old Groveby, about the
marriage, as he is certain to disapprove of the class difference. Dupeley taunts him,
suggesting that he will need a divorce by the next winter. Groveby reprimands him and
leaves. Dupeley converses with Hurry, who does not give him the sort of sophisticated
descriptions of the Maid as he is hoping for. Various workmen are preparing a building
for the wedding. An Irish painter sings a song.
Act II.
Maria, the Maid of the Oaks, is sitting under a tree singing. Oldworth enters and offers to
gratify any unfulfilled wish she may have before her wedding. Maria would like to know
who her parents were, but Oldworth says to be patient, for this mystery will be revealed
by nightfall. Lady Bab Lardoon arrives and is ‘like a mole in the sunshine’ out of London.
She describes what Maria perceives as the loose morals of the town; Lady Bab is shocked
by Maria’s lack of sophistication. Sir Harry comes to claim Maria as his bride. Lady Bab
tells the listeners of how she has been lambasted in the London papers. Sir Harry tells
Lady Bab about Dupeley’s attitudes towards British women, and Lady Bab plans to
disprove him. Many little children rush in and sing a song.
Act III.
Old Groveby arrives for the wedding. He threatens to change his will to cut out Sir Harry
because Maria has no money or family name. Old Groveby meets Maria in the woods;
without realizing she is the bride, he asks her to tell him about Sir Harry’s fiancée. Old
Groveby then makes known his goal to break up the wedding. Sir Harry arrives and
Maria leaves instantly. Old Groveby wants to marry Maria himself, without realizing that
she is Sir Harry’s fiancée. Sir Harry clarifies that the girl who just left the grove was
Maria herself, and Old Groveby wishes to take revenge for having been tricked. Lady
Bab, dressed as a shepherdess, sees Dupeley; she astonishes him with her country
simplicity, but he becomes suspicious when she presents a satirical portrait of town
gentlemen. She throws him off the scent by telling him that Mr. Oldworth taught her that.
Dupeley suggests they run off together. Lady Bab suggests that he will leave her when he
meets Lady Bab Lardoon in London; Dupeley denies this and tries to kiss her. Hurry
enters and reveals Lady Bab’s real identity. Sir Harry and Oldworth enter and laugh at the
confused and ashamed Dupeley. They go off to extricate Maria from Old Groveby’s
embraces. After Oldworth apologizes for not contacting him earlier, Old Groveby relents
and says he will change his will to leave all his property to Maria (and her husband Sir
Harry). They prepare to lead the bride to the wedding.
Act IV.
Hurry continues to supervise the preparations; he is ‘mad with joy’. Guests to the
wedding sing as the procession approaches. Oldworth reveals that he is Maria’s real
father, and that she is an heiress; he raised her as his ward to avoid turning her into a
coquette, and to ensure that her husband would marry her for love. Actaea, an unpleasant
cousin of Lady Bab’s, arrives, and she and Dupeley escape as Actaea sings.
Act V.
A Shepherd and Shepherdess enter and sing to one another. Folly and Druid sing. The
Palace of Celestial Love is revealed. Lady Bab vows to renounce hypocrisy and fashion,
and Dupeley asks her to marry him. Songs and dances conclude the ceremony.
5. Secondary commentary
5a. Mintz, Max M. ‘Burgoyne, John (1723–1792)’, Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004. Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography. 23 May 2008. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/4013
Burgoyne returned to literary pursuits, having in 1774 authored a play, The Maid of The
Oaks, a mix of concealed identities featuring a female advocate of women's equality. The
play had been written in two acts as part of the lavish wedding celebrations for Edward
Smith Stanley, later twelfth earl of Derby, and Lady Elizabeth Hamilton, held at
Burgoyne's home, The Oaks, near Epsom in Surrey. It was later expanded to five acts by
David Garrick and became a popular part of the Drury Lane repertory.
6. Overview of varieties / dialects:
The main division is between the town and the country, depicted in Lady Bab’s personas
as a knowledgeable town lady of fashion, and a rural, uneducated shepherdess. Humour is
added in the servant Hurry’s speech – he is so rushed that he mishears and
mispronounces several words.
7. Variety: Hurry (a servant)
7a. Sample of dialect
OLDWORTH.
Why, honest Hurry, if there is none to be had, you need not be in such haste about 'em--Mercy on us! My Fête has turn'd this poor fellow's head already, he will certainly get a
fever.
HURRY.
[75] Get a favour, Sir!---why there has not been one left these three hours; all the girls in
the parish have been scrambling for them, and I must get a hundred yards more---Lord a
mercy! there is so much to do at once, and nobody to do it, that it is enough to moider
one's head.
-DUPELEY.
I thought as much.
(Smiling.)
You are a courtier, friend Hurry.
[Page 11 ]
HURRY.
I court her!---heaven forbid!---she's going to be married, Sir.
DUPELEY.
Well said simplicity! If you won't tell me who she is, tell me what she is?
HURRY.
She is one of the most charmingest, sweetest, delightfulest, [250] mildest, beutifulest,
modestest, genteelest, never to be prais'd enough young creature in all the world!
7b.1 Orthography; “moider”
7b.2 Grammar: “she is one of the…young creature”; superlative suffixes “est”; double
superlatives “most charmingest”
7b.3 Vocabulary: mishears “fever” as “favour”, and “courtier” as “court her”; interjection:
“Lord a mercy!”; expression “moider [murder] one’s head”
c. Nationality: English
d. Character profile: a servant
7g. Consistency of representation: consistent
7. Variety: O’Daub (Irish painter)
7a. Sample of dialect
[page 14]
PAINTER.
And, by my soul, it would have been better for you if you had---I would have put out Mr.
Lanternbug 's stars with one dash of my pincil, by making them five times more bright--Ho! if you had seen the sign of a setting sun, that I painted for a linen-draper, in Breadstreet, in Dublin--- [50] Devil burn me but the Auroree of O'Guide was a fool to it.
ARCHITECT.
O'Guide!---who is he? Guid-o, I suppose you mean.
PAINTER.
And if he has an O to his name, what signifies whether it comes before or behind---Faith
I put it like my own of O'Daub, on the right side, to make him sound more like a
gentleman---besides it is more melodious in the mouth, honey.
7b.1 Orthography: “pincil”,
7b.2 Grammar
7b.3 Vocabulary: “honey”?
c. Nationality: Irish
d. Characteristics of dialect speakers: Irish; prefixing a name with O makes it sound
“more like a gentleman”?
7g. Consistency of representation: consistent
7. Variety: Lady Bab (a lady from the town)
7a. Sample of dialect
[page 20]
Lady BAB .
Only fit for sheep-walks and Oakeries !---I beg your pardon, Mr. Oldworth---in town it
wou'd just raise you to the whist-party of old lady Cypher, Mrs. Squabble and lord
Flimzey; and at every public place, you wou'd stand among the footmen to call your own
chair, while all the maccaronies passed by, whistling a song through their tooth-picks,
and giving a shrug--- dem it, 'tis pity that so fine a woman shou'd be lost to all common
decency.
MARIA, (smiling)
I believe I had better stay in the Oakery, as you call it; for I am afraid I shall never
procure any civility in town, upon the terms required.
Lady BAB .
Oh, my dear, you have chose a horrid word to express the intercourse of the bon ton;
civility may be very proper in a mercer, when one is chusing a
[Page 21 ]
[100] silk, but familiarity is the life of good company. I believe this is quite since your
time Mr. Oldworth, but 'tis by far the greatest improvement the beau monde ever made.
7b.1 Orthography
7b.2 Grammar: “you have chose”; “her” for Old Groveby (wrong gender)
7b.3 Vocabulary: “civility” vs “familiarity”; beau monde, bon ton (French)
c. Nationality: English
d. Character profile: sophisticated, city woman
7g. Consistency of representation: inconsistent (she pretends to be a shepherdess)
7. Variety: Lady Bab as a shepherdess
7a. Sample of dialect
Lady BAB .
You seem to wish for my nosegay, Sir, it is much at your service.
(Offers the flowers, and curtseys awkward.
DUPELEY.
Oh, the charming innocent!---my wishes extend a little further. A thousand thanks, my
fair one; I accept it as a faint image of your own sweets. To whom am I so much obliged?
Lady BAB .
To the garden-man, to be sure; he has made flowers grow all over the garden, and they
smell so sweet; pray smell 'em, they are charming sweet I assure you, and have such fine
colours---law! you are a fine nosegay yourself, I think.
(simpers, and looks at him.
DUPELEY.
Exquisite simplicity!
(half aside)
sweet contrast to
[Page 44 ]
fashionable affectation---Ah, I knew at first glance you were a compound of innocence
and sensibility.
Lady BAB .
Lack-a-dazy heart! how could you hit upon my [50] temper so exactly?
7b.1 Orthography
7b.2 Grammar
7b.3 Vocabulary: “lack-a-dazy”
c. Nationality: English
d. Character profile: sophisticated, city woman
e. Consistency of representation: inconsistent (alters language when pretending to be a
shepherdess)
8. Narrative comments on dialects and varieties
9. Other points of interest:
Education at home vs. education abroad:
Sir HARRY .
Don't sneer, and I will tell you---By mere chance, in a progress of amusement to this side
the country: [125] The story is too delicate for thy relish, suffice it that I came, saw, and
lov'd---I laid my rank and fortune at the fair one's feet, and would have married instantly;
but that Oldworth opposed my precipitancy, and insisted upon a probation of six months
absence---It has been a purgatory!
DUPELEY.
All this is perfectly en regle for a man of home education---I should like to see the
woman that could entangle me in this manner.
-Journalistic practices:
Lady BAB .
Lord, a great while, and in all its stages: They first began with a modest inuendo, " we
hear a certain Lady, not a hundred miles from Hanoversquare, lost, at one sitting, some
nights ago, two thousund guineas ---O tempora! O mores!"
OLDWORTH, (laughing)
Pray, Lady Bab, is this concluding ejaculation your own, or was it the Printer's?
Lady BAB .
His, you may be sure; a dab of Latin adds surprizing force to a paragraph, besides
shewing the learning of the author.
Note: field 7 is recursive; where several varieties are represented a separate record is
completed for each variety."