..............................................................Come to the wrong place?
..............................................................Escape to the right course, at the
..............................................................the British School or Bezigrad Gymnasium

I. The text

I think our edition of The Rivals, by Tiffany Stern, is extremely good - it has fine footnotes - and I recommend it.
.......But should you need an online edition, or if you want to quote it in essays, here is a simple text.

II. A television production

For some reason, The Rivals has never been filmed. The best I can offer you is the BBC’s Play of the Month broadcast on 17th May 1970, directed by Basil Coleman. These nine clips are copied from a forty year-old VHS tape, so are not of superior technical quality. But Jeremy Brett (later famous as Sherlock Holmes) is grand as Jack Absolute, and Beryl Reid’s Mrs Malaprop has a certain grotesque pathos.

III. Stage productions

The wallpaper on this page is from a 1920s version.
.......The production to have seen was the one at the Haymarket two seasons ago, which everyone liked; how could they not, with Penelope Keith as Mrs Malaprop? Here are reviews of recent productions in Baltimore and Dublin.
.......Some videos of provincial or amateur stagings of the play: an inventine, slapstickish production by the Denver School of the Arts, directed by Brandon Becker; excerpts by the Rosemary Drama Group; an energetic mess by Cerritos College of Norwalk, California, a hideous town where as it happens I purchased my wedding license; a pleasant affair by the Rhyl Little Theatre in Wales, and a very charming nine-minute reworking of the play by English high school students calling themselves the Restoration Rebels (Faulkland as a depressive emo!).
....... Here are excellent photos of the Huntington Theatre Company Rivals at the Boston University Theater, which closed on 6 February 2005. Mrs. Malaprop and Sir Anthony Absolute scheme to unite her niece and his son; Lydia Languish and Julia Melville share secrets; of their love lives. Captain Jack Absolute consoles Faulkland and cowers in the presence of Sir Anthony; Lydia Languish pledges her love to Captain Jack Absolute; the outrageously attired Bob Acres tries to fit into Society.
.......And here are hundreds more photos of the play.

IV. The setting: Georgian England

Some dates to think about:
1688: the Glorious Revolution (rightful Stuart dynasty overthrown)
1714: loathsome Hanoverian dynasty arrives from Germany (eclipse of monarchy; rule by the great Whig families)
1763: Britain defeats France; first British Empire at its height
1775: American colonies revolt. Premiere of The Rivals . Sheridan is 23!
1788: Sheridan chief adviser to the Prince of Wales in Regency Crisis
1789: French Revolution
1816: Sheridan dies in poverty, forgotten.

.......What was Georgian society like?
...............stable (and smug)
...............aristocratic (and selfish)
...............rational (and shallow)
...............witty (and insincere)
...............wealthy (and worldly)
...............elegant (and chilly)

.......This ball secene from the film Becoming Jane (2007) gives a good idea of the serene splendour of late Georgian society:

.......On the other hand, Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon (1976), a dazzling film, shows us seamy Georgianism. It's set in the same milieu as The Rivals: genteel intrigue, duelling and gambling in European resorts in the epoch of the American War: 1, 2, 3.

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V. The setting: Georgian Bath

Bath Spa was the Los Angeles and Monaco and Piran of eighteenth-century England. (Click on the map above to explore the city.)
.......It was, nominally, a spa town, where people came to ‘take’ – drink and bathe in – the waters, which bubble out of the ground at 45.6 degrees celsius (114 degrees F), full of minerals. But fashion took up Bath even more enthusiastically than medicine did, especially when Beau Nash dominated the place - he wasn't long dead when The Rivals was first produced. Note in this article how he imposed a certain informality: it was possible for the bourgeosie to come to take the waters and meet the gentry and nobility, who didn’t keep their distance in Bath the way they did in London.
.......Bath was the place to be from about 1710 to about 1820 – after which it went out of fashion and became rather seedy. No one bothered Victorianising it, or slapping about Art Deco. Even the Luftwaffe didn’t do too much damage. Since 1980 Western civilisation has begun to recover from its long swoon: we have become capable of appreciating Bath again, which is now a World Heritage Site and very nicely groomed. Try zooming out and in on the satellite image above.)
.......Sheridan set The Rivals in Bath at the height of its glory. The town was then full of brand-new building in the Georgian style, of the lovely local golden stone. Everything you could want by way of aristocratic pleasure was at hand: in the Assembly Rooms, a genteel dance-hall and casino; the Grand Pump Room (and here); the theatres, some very grand; and spectacular houses to rent or buy, notably the Royal Crescent, famous throughout Europe, and Lansdown Crescent.
.......These are scenes from the 2007 film of Jane Austen's Persuasian, set in Bath a bit later than Sheridan's day – around 1810. You should be able to identify many of the buildings, which are also mentioned in The Rivals. Bath remains a magnificent backdrop for genteel amour.

VI. The setting: the late eighteenth-century theatre

London, 1773: She Stoops to Conquer, by Sheridan's friend and rival Oliver Goldsmith, was the greatest comedy of the age, perhaps. Anyway, it was and the play Sheridan's The Rivals (1775) hoped to outmatch. Here are two excerpts from the 2008 film:

London, 1777: A 1965 television version (broadcast live – that's how it was done in those days) of Sheridan's slightly later comedy, The School for Scandal, starring the wonderful Dame Joan Plowright and Felix Aylmer.

Paris, 1782: The theatre scene from the 1988 film Dangerous Liasons, based on Pierre Choderlos de Laclos' 1782 novel Les Liaisons dangereuses. The drama takes place in a Parisian theatre before the curtain goes up, for the Marquise de Merteuil has sinned against social custom, and Society, assembled as usual in the theatre, violently rejects her:

Windsor, 1787: A scene from The Madness of King George (1994), based on Alan Bennett’s play, set in 1787. In shows King George III, tedious, vain but well-meaning, enjoying what he far preferred to the intellectual exhaustion of the real theatre: amateur theatricals, private concerts. But he, and the whole royal family, warmed to The Rivals – it became an instant favourite of theirs. (Is that a good thing?)

Vienna, 1784: the premiere of The Marriage of Figaro, Mozart's comic opera; from Amadeus (1984).

VII. Some more resources

Here’s a trashy sentimental novel of the 1760s, Mistakes of the Heart, one of the pile Lydia hides in Act I, scene i: open it at random to get the flavour. You can imagine how this sort of thing could rot the mind back then – and now; here’s a trashy sentimental novel of the present day (the hero is called Richard Major; I discovered him one day when trying to google a photo of me). Here’s a parody of the modern genre.
.......I haven’t looked at it so can't recommend it, but if you want a commentary to comfort you as you approach the exam, you can click her to buy the York Notes from Amazon.
.......Why write an academic article about vernacular literature? It's a silly idea. But this one happens to be modest and useful. That is unusual. This one is more typical. How much better to write without pomposity.
.......Don't ignore the Wikpedia articles on Sheridan, The Rivals, and malapropisms.
.......Articles on and on the eighteenth century tradition of taking the waters.
.......Here’s how a romantic comedy ought to end: Shakespeare’s As You Like It. Why, then, does The Rivals end in such a rancid way?
.......I can’t imagine you’ll need it, but here is a scene-by-scene summary of the play (beginning on page 4).

VIII. Past A-level questions

Have a look at the course prescription.
....... See this fussy but useful official advice on exams here and here.
.......In the exam, you will be given a slab of the play – about two pages’ worth – and asked to comment (in a fairly predictable way):

June 2010
And it is my wish, while yet I live, to have my boy make some figure in the world .... Now, damn me, if ever I call you Jack again while I live! (Act II, Scene I, lines 350-403)
Explore the ways in which Sheridan presents father-son relations in this passage. In your answer you must consider how the playwright uses literary, linguistic and rhetorical devices and conventions to create specific dramatic effects.

January 2011
Pray, what is the case? I ask no names.... Zounds, as the man in the play says, ‘I could do such deeds!’ (Act III, Scene iv, lines 49-103)
Explore the ways in which Sheridan presents the nature of honour in this passage. In your answer you must consider how the playwright uses literary, linguistic and rhetorical devices and conventions to create specific dramatic effects.

June 2011
What, Lydia, now that we are as happy in our friends’ consent .... we must interrupt your billing and cooing a while. (Act IV, Scene ii)
Explore the ways in which Sheridan presents a lovers’ quarrel in this passage. In your answer you must consider how the playwright uses literary, linguistic and rhetorical devices and conventions to create specific dramatic effects.

BISL mock exam November 2011, not authentic but dashed plausible if I say so myself
Nay, then, I see you have taken something ill.... I see you are determined to be unkind! (Act III, Scene ii)
Explore the ways in which Sheridan mocks delusions about sensibility and sincerity in this passage. In your answer you must consider how the playwright uses literary, linguistic and rhetorical devices and conventions to create specific dramatic effects.

Some more inventions
1. Hah! my little embassadress .... any court in Christendom. (Act II, Scene ii, pp. 88-90)
Explore the ways in which Sheridan presents bad use of language in this passage. In your answer you must consider how the playwright uses literary, linguistic and rhetorical devices and conventions to create specific dramatic effects.

2. Captain, give me your hand .... Men are all barbarians. (Act V, Scene iii, pp. 166-67)
Explore the ways in which Sheridan presents the troubles of age and youth in this passage. In your answer you must consider how the playwright uses literary, linguistic and rhetorical devices and conventions to create specific dramatic effects.

3. Did you call, ma'am? .... necessities of his fortune. (Act I, Scene ii, pp. 64-66)
Explore the ways in which Sheridan presents deceit in this passage. In your answer you must consider how the playwright uses literary, linguistic and rhetorical devices and conventions to create specific dramatic effects.

4. My aunt has discovered our correspondence .... this is caprice! (Act I, Scene ii, pp. 53-55)
Explore the ways in which Sheridan presents perversity in this passage. In your answer you must consider how the playwright uses literary, linguistic and rhetorical devices and conventions to create specific dramatic effects.

5. Well, Julia, you are your own mistress .... too inconsiderate! (Act I, Scene ii, pp. 56-57)
Explore the ways in which Sheridan presents being in love in this passage. In your answer you must consider how the playwright uses literary, linguistic and rhetorical devices and conventions to create specific dramatic effects.

IX. Contact me

John Hoppner’s portrait of Sheridan;
to send me an email, click on his wine-reddened nose.
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