The
Rivals – Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816)
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, the most
important dramatist of the 18th century, was born in Dublin in
1751. His father Thomas Sheridan, an
Irish actor-manager had a name for himself in his profession. So, he had taken young Sheridan to the town of
Bath, where he established an Institute for elocution and grammar in 1770. Sheridan used to write sonnets, verses,
satires and lampoons upon others.
However, his powers as a dramatist are displayed in design, in
dialogues, in most effective presentation of comic characters. That’s why Balston has said, “Of the only three
plays in the English language besides those of Shakespeare which have achieved
permanent popularity, two, ‘The school for Scandal’ and ‘The Rivals’ are by
Sheridan, the third, ‘She Stoops to Conquer’, is by Oliver Goldsmith. Moreover, it is also said in the warfare with
sentimentality Goldsmith was an elder not a better soldier than Sheridan.
Sheridan’s first play ‘The Rivals was
staged in 1775. As the play was not a
success, he revised it and staged it again.
However, the revised play became a big success. After writing a farce and a comic opera, he
staged ‘The School for Scandal’ in 1777, which won him immediate recognition.
‘The Critic’ which he wrote in 1779 was the last play as he selected
parliamentary career as his life long one.
Though he shone well in his social and political life of London, his
excellence as a dramatist still helps him shine better. Such were his precision of diction in
dialogues and skill in the construction of scenes in his plays.
‘The Rivals’ is a comedy of situation
and intrigue. As the title indicates
many of the characters consider themselves as ‘rivals’. The play opens with a chance meeting of Fag,
the servant of Captain Absolute and Thomas, the Coachman of Captain’s Father,
Sir. Anthony in a street of Bath.
Captain Absolute is there in Bath in the guise of poor Ensign Beverley with
the hope of winning the hands of Miss. Lydia Languish. Sir. Anthony visits Bath with his ward, Julia
for his gout, as the city water is a cure of gout. Lydia, is greatly disturbed because of her
aunt’s discovery of her secret love- intrigue with Beverley. Her tough aunt Mrs. Malaprop not only stands
against her love but insists her to marry Bob Acres. Then Julia enters. Both talk about their love affairs. Though Julia and Faulkland love each other,
Julia thinks that Faulkland is jealous and has no faith in himself where as
Faulkland is afraid whether her love towards him is out of gratitude on his
saving her from a boat accident.
When Sir. Anthony absolute enters,
Mrs. Malaprop talks about the love affair of Lydia. When Sir. Anthony proposes his son Captain
Absolute as Lydia’s husband, she withdraws her candidature and gives her
consent. Both Sir. Anthony and Mrs.
Malaprop are ignorant of the fact that Lydia’s lover, Ensign Beverley is none
other than Captain Absolute. Mrs.
Malaprop wants to have the marriage of her niece at the earliest. Then she may not have any problem to continue
the secret love affair with Sir. Lucius O’ Trigger. Because she knows very well that the letters
that she sent to him with the name ‘Delia’ is considered by him as they were
the letters from the charming niece of Mrs. Malaprop.
When Fag and Captain Absolute talk
about the arrival of Sir. Anthony, Faulkland enters. The two friends exchange their love affairs
with Lydia and Julia. Bob Acres enters
then and talks about his rival Ensign Beverley.
Actually he is not aware that the Ensign and his friend (Absolute) Jack
are one and the same person. After his departure,
Sir. Anthony enters the scene. He wants
his son to marry a rich heiress of his choice.
Captain Absolute says that he won’t marry a girl whom he has not known
or seen. Moreover, when he says that he
has already pledged his love to another lady, Sir. Anthony is greatly shocked
and says that if he disobeys him, in that case, he will disinherit and even
disown him and leaves. However, when Lucy,
the maid servant of Mrs. Malaprop delivers a letter of Mrs. Malaprop to Sir.
Lucius and gets kissed by him, Fag enters there. So Lucy has to reveal the truth that it was
the letter of Mrs. Malaprop to Sir. Lucius that she delivered to him. She also tells Fag that Beverley has now to
face a worse rival than Bob Acres. That
is Captain Absolute who has been proposed by Sir. Anthony to get married to
Lydia.
Captain Absolute is happy at the news
brought by Fag that whom his father insisted to marry is Lydia herself. So, he meets his father with his willingness
to marry the girl of his father’s choice.
With a letter of introduction from his father, he meets Mrs.
Malaprop. Mrs. Malaprop not only talks
of her niece’s foolish infatuation for poor Ensign Beverley but also gives him
a letter of Beverley to Absolute.
However, Captain Absolute makes Mrs. Malaprop to bring Lydia to him by
saying that Beverley has come to see her.
Lydia is greatly surprised to see Beverley there. Captain Absolute explains that somehow he has
supplanted his rival and impersonates him there. Lydia is pleased to see her aunt deceived and
wants to implement her plan of elopement if he decides to forgo her dowry. Absolute assures her that her beauty and love
are all the dowry he values. However,
Mrs. Malaprop has all the time been over hearing the talk between Captain and
Lydia. On the contrary, in the meeting
of Julia and Faulkland, he says that when lovers are separated, they should
shed tears of sorrow. Then in a long
speech about true love unfortunately complains that women often profess love
for men for motives other than that of true love. Julia bursts into passion, begins weeping and
leaves the room. Then only he realizes
his mistake of torturing a faithful girl.
However, he resolves not to treat her like this anymore.
The simple-minded Bob Acres decides to
fight a duel with Beverley at the instigation of Sir. Lucius and writes a
letter of challenge. However, David his
servant advises him not to have a duel with Beverley. So, Bob Acres hands over the letter of
challenge to Captain Absolute and wants him to act as his second in the
duel. Captain Absolute is greatly amused
on hearing this, declines to accept that honour and suggests the name of Sir.
Lucius. Then Captain Absolute is taken
by his father to the house of Mrs. Malaprop.
But Lydia refuses to look at the new suitor, not to speak for receiving
his address when Absolute is compelled to speak, he talks in a very low gruff
tone lest she should recognize him as Beverley.
Sir. Anthony asks his son to speak clearly and Lydia to show them honour
by turning her face. Lydia recognizes
her Beverley’s voice in the young man.
Absolute is caught in his deception.
Lydia is frustrated and wild with anger for the deception practiced on
her so long by the Captain. However, Sir.
Anthony and Mrs. Malaprop decide to forgive the two young persons, leaving them
alone to settle their problem. Absolute
fails to convince Lydia. Sir. Lucius who
thinks that Absolute has spoiled his chances of marrying Lydia, challenges him
to fight a duel with him. Absolute,
takes up the challenge and agrees to have the fight at king’s Mead-fields that
evening.
Both Absolute and Faulkland meet and
disburden their disappointments in love.
Absolute asks Faulkland to act as his second in his duel with Sir. Lucius. On hearing this incorrigible
capriciousness of Faulkland makes him to plan another test for Julia’s
consistency in love for him. He meets
her and tells her that as he has killed a person in a duel he has to leave
England immediately. Hearing this Julia
proposes to share his sorrows, go in exile with him and marry him. Then Faulkalnd tells her that it is a cooked
up story. But Julia who is terribly
shocked at the capricious jealousy of her lover leaves Faulkland out o
despair. The disappointed Faulkalnd goes
to king’s mead-fields to act as Absolute’s seoncd. When Julia and Lydia talk about their lovers,
Mrs. Malaprop enters the room with Fag and David shouting ‘murder and
man-slaughter in the fields’.
At king’s Mead-fields, on seeing
Absolute with Faulkland, Sir. Lucius takes Faulkland to be Beverley. But Bob Acres says that he will fight with
only Beverley. Thus Absolute declares
himself to be Beverley. Acres says that
he won’t fight with his friend Absolute.
But Sir. Lucius draws his sword to fight with his opponent
Absolute. Sir. Anthony along with all
women intervene and prevent the fight.
When Sir. Lucius talks about the letter of ‘Delia’, Mrs. Malaprop reveals
the truth and declares herself to be ‘Delia’.
When Sir. Lucius decides not to marry Mrs. Malaprop, Sir. Anthony steps
into cheer the disappointed Mrs. Malaprop, by saying, “you are in your bloom
yet’. When Lydia offers her hand to
Absolute, Sir. Anthony advises Julia and Faulkland also to get married. He also propses a drink for their health and
wishes a husband for Mrs. Malaprop. Thus
‘The Rivals’ a comedy of manners reflects the ways of life of a particular
social class – men and women whose follies and foibles are made subjects of fun
and satire. It also ends happily with
its objects achieved by correcting the manners and refining the conduct of the majority
of the characters of the play.
Sheridan’s attitude towards sentimental comedy and his
satiric portraiture of contemporary society
By the middle of the 18th century the sentimental comedy had
fully established itself on the English Stage.
The comedy of manners, so popular in the restoration period, was then
rapidly degenerating. It became much too
coarse, artificial and blantantly immoral.
Its heroes and heroines became immoral.
Wit and humour were completely replaced by ‘conscious
moralization’. So, a reaction against
sentimentalism began to grow in the domain of drama. However, it resulted gradually in the revival
of the comedy of manners in a new setting.
However, the pioneers of this reaction were Goldsmith and Sheridan who
declared war against the sentimental comedies, while Goldsmith registered this
protest in his essay on ‘On the theatre’ and illustrated his views in his
comedy ‘The good-natured man’. Sheridan
projected his protest with greater force in his three plays, ‘The Rivals’, ‘The
School for Scandal’ and ‘The Critic’.
Though ‘The Rivals’ is an
artificial comedy of manners, it is not totally devoid of sentimentalism. Obviously
Sheridan tries to satirize the heroine of sentimental comedy in the person of Lydia
Languish who is ready ‘to die with disappointment’. Similarly, in the Julia-Faulkland episode
Julia loves Faulkland, who is an incorrigible sentimentalist. He is obsessed with some fixed ideas about
love, sex and marriage. He is full of
doubts about the sincerity of his beloved. Every time Faulkland meets Julia, he
finds occasions to quarrel with her and Julia has to leave him with tears. All these draw sympathy from the spectators
for poor Julia. Moreover, the play ends
with a note of moral preaching. Thus,
though Sheridan tried to attack sentimentality in his plays, yet he could not
completely get rid of the prevailing force of sentimentality. But, through these characters and the
situations he satirizes the manners, habits and follies of the people of the
contemporary society.
Sheridan attempts to
portrait the pleasures, intrigues as well as the artificial conventions and
follies of the aristocratic section of the eighteenth century. Lydia Languish is a satiric portrait of the
one whose head had been turned by her reading of too many romantic novels. In Faulkland his jealousy is
exaggerated. In Mrs Malaprop, Sheridan
satirizes the provincial woman desperately trying to live up to the smartness
of Bath by her muddle-headed but unconscious life of learned words. In the character of Sir Antony, Absolute,
Sheridan presents a satiric portrait of the type of self willed authoritative
father of the old conservative school who believes in keeping an iron hand over
his son even when he has grown into an adult.
Through Sir Lucius O’ Trigger Sheridan satirizes the type of adventures
with whom fighting is a kind of pastime.
Bob Acres represents the type of foolish country-squire who believes
that merely by putting on fine dress and assuming a swaggering air he can win
the love of his lady.
The Rivals is full of series of cleverly devised situations and intrigues. All the complications arising out of these
situations continue to develop the theme.
The central theme of the play is that there is quadrangular rivalry
among four sets of characters for the heroine, Lydia Languish. They are Ensign Beverley, Captain Absolute,
Sir Lucius O’ Trigger and Bob Acres. Thus, ‘The Rivals’ represents the
superficial habits and manners of only the then fashionable society of
aristocratic and middle classes. The
dialogues are witty, sharp, keen, humorous, sparkling in brilliant exchange of
words. Sheridan’s main aim of writing
this play was to provide entertainment to his audience. So, he may lack the high seriousness and the
depth of Shakespeare. But Sheridan
occupies an important position in the history of English drama. Some critics give him even the second place
after Shakespeare.
-----Thulasidharan V