The English theater had a checkered history. It reached its zenith in the days of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Its nadir occurred during the Puritan regime of Oliver Cromwell. During the Restoration, a reaction to Puritanism resulted in a lot of immoral plays. During the eighteenth century, such factors as the Wesleyan revival improved public tastes, and excessive lewdness was no longer tolerated. Unfortunately, some plays were disfigured by a superficial sentimentality, perhaps due to the influence of Tristam Shandy, a character created by Laurence Sterne in the middle of the eighteenth century.
.”The Rivals” is a humorous masterpiece written by Richard Brinsley Sheridan in the latter half of the eighteenth century. Sheridan did not like sentimentality, and he satirized it in his play. However, public tastes forced him to restrict himself to clean humor. As a result, his work turned out to be a masterpiece instead of a mediocre play characterized by bawdy jokes.
The setting of the drama is the city of Bath in England. Several suitors wish to marry Miss Lydia Languish. Their rivalry is commemorated in the title.
The posture of various rivals is revealed in the opening scenes of the play. Captain Absolute, the heir of wealthy Sir Anthony Absolute, is pretending to be a poor man named Ensign Beverley. He employs this subterfuge because Lydia does not want a proper marriage but wishes to elope with a poor man. (Sheridan obviously considers Lydia’s attitude ridiculous and makes her the object of subtle satire.) Acres, a second rival, is angry at Ensign Beverly, whom he has never seen. He does not know that his rival is his good friend Captain Absolute. The third rival is Sir Lucius O’Trigger. He thinks that he is writing to Lydia, but his actual correspondent is Mrs. Malaprop, Lydia’s aunt and guardian. He does not know that Captain Absolute is interested in Lydia, but he claims that the captain insulted him. He is therefore angry at the captain.
Mrs. Malaprop wants her niece to stop entertaining the suit of Ensign Beverly and marry Acres. I consider Mrs. Malaprop to be the most interesting character in the play because of her humorous misuse of words.
Two other significant characters are Lydia’s cousin Julia and Faulkland. Before her father died, he betrothed Julia to Faulkland. She loves him, even though he is impossible. When he hurts her, she never tells anyone the reason for her sadness, and defends him when others criticize him.
Lucy is a scheming extortionist. She gets money from Captain Absolute for carrying messages to Lydia. Then she receives money from Mrs. Malaprop when she exposes their clandestine romance. Acres also pays Lucy for delivering letters to Lydia, but she never delivers them. She also receives money by carrying messages between Sir Lucius and Mrs. Malaprop. It is due to her deceit that Sir Lucius thinks that he is writing to Lydia. Mrs. Malaprop does not know about Lucy’s deceit and thinks that Sir Lucius is in love with her. She always signs her letters “Delia.”
Fag is a character of some importance in the play. He is the servant of Captain Absolute. This means that he is also the servant of Ensign Beverly.
A final character is David, a servant of Acres.
At the beginning of the play, Captain Absolute came to Bath to regain Lydia’s affection. Lydia was pretending to be angry with the so-called Ensign Beverley. She had showed him a letter which a friend had supposedly written to her. It said that Ensign Beverley was paying attention to another woman. Lydia had written the letter herself because she wanted to experience the novelty of a quarrel with her suitor.
Captain Absolute’s father had also come to Bath. He was bothered with the gout and he sought the treatment that the city of Bath could provide. He had brought Julia and others along. (I believe that Bath has some waters that were considered good for the health.)
Mrs. Malaprop had failed to persuade Lydia to marry Acres. Mrs. Malaprop and Sir Anthony Absolute agreed that Captain Absolute and Lydia would make a good couple. Neither of them knew that Captain Absolute was already Lydia’s suitor under an assumed name.
After learning that Captain Absolute was currently in Bath, Sir Anthony told his son about the marriage that was being arranged for him. The captain did not know that the bride his father had selected was the very girl that he wanted to marry, so he refused. Sir Anthony became furiously angry and disowned him.
Lucy had heard about the proposed match between Lydia Languish and the son of Sir Anthony Absolute. She did not know that Captain Absolute was Ensign Beverly, so she told Fag about the development, and Fag told Captain Absolute. In this way, the captain found out that his father wanted him to marry the very same girl that he had been courting in secret.
Captain Absolute then wanted to be reconciled with his father. He abased himself in his father’s presence and humbly asked for forgiveness. He pretended not to know whom Sir Anthony had picked for him, and he said that he would gladly sacrifice his own inclinations to please his father.
When Sir Anthony told his son the name of the bride, he pretended not to know her. He asked his father whether Lydia Languish was a squint-eyed girl with red hair. When Sir Anthony described her beauty, the captain said it did not matter. The only thing that he wanted was to please his father.
Sir Anthony remembered how he himself felt when he was young, and he was disgusted with his son’s professed indifference to feminine beauty. He hoped that his son was lying and playing the hypocrite.
In the meantime, Faulkland had returned to Bath after a prolonged absence. He expressed concern over Julia’s health. However, when Acres claimed that she had been happy all the while that he was gone, Faulkland did not like it. He thought that she should have been pining for him instead of singing and dancing.
When Faulkland discussed this with Julia, she told him not to believe the idle words of a silly boor. Julia kept speaking with love and sincerity, but no matter what she said, he found something wrong with it. Finally she left with tears in her eyes.
Captain Absolute came to Lydia’s house and conversed with Mrs. Malaprop. He learned that Lucy had not delivered Ensign Beverley’s last letter to Lydia, but had given it to Mrs. Malaprop. In this way, the captain learned of Lucy’s deceit.
The letter contained some insulting remarks concerning Mrs. Malaprop. It called her a she-dragon and criticized her use of the English language. Moreover, the supposed Ensign Beverly wrote that he had figured out a way to elude Mrs. Malaprop and even make her a go-between in their interviews.
Captain Absolute pretended to sympathize with Mrs. Malaprop, who had suffered such unjust insults. Moreover, he suggested that Mrs. Malaprop wink at the correspondence of the ensign and Lydia for a while and even let her plan an elopement. Then when the elopement was about to take place, he would detain Ensign Beverley and carry off Lydia in his stead. Mrs. Malaprop thought it was a delightful idea.
With Mrs. Malaprop’s permission, Captain Absolute conversed alone with Lydia. Of course, Lydia knew him as Ensign Beverly. This supposed Ensign Beverley told Lydia that he had learned that Captain Absolute was his new rival, so he had come to the house pretending to be Captain Absolute. He said that Mrs. Malaprop believed him and therefore allowed him to see Lydia. So Mrs. Malaprop had in fact become a go-between for their interview.
In the meantime, Acres decided to challenge Ensign Beverley to a duel. Since he did not know how to find his rival, he asked his friend Captain Absolute to deliver the message. Acres was a coward and he hoped that his rival would not show up for the duel, so that he would be victorious without having to risk his neck. He asked Captain Absolute to scare Ensign Beverley by describing the prowess of his challenger.
Later, Sir Anthony Absolute forced his son to come with him to talk with Lydia. A comical scene ensued in which it became evident to everyone present that Captain Absolute and Ensign Beverley were the same person.
Sir Anthony was pleased with the development. He now realized that his son was a chip off the old block. He jokingly reminded his son that he had referred to Lydia as a squint-eyed girl with red hair.
Mrs. Malaprop was angry when she realized that Captain Absolute was the person who had described her in an insulting fashion in his letter to Lydia. However, Sir Anthony managed to persuade her to forgive and forget.
Lydia was disappointed that there would be no elopement. She did not want to marry the regular way with her aunt’s permission. She told her aunt that she would now obey her and renounce Beverley forever.
Shortly after this disappointing interview with Lydia, Captain Absolute happened to meet Sir Lucius O’Trigger. Sir Lucius wanted to fight a duel with him because of a supposed insult. Captain Absolute did not know what he had done to anger Sir Lucius. However, because of his experiences with Lydia, he was in an ugly mood and would have gladly fought a duel with anyone. The duel was to take place in the evening.
Sir Lucius suggested that the duel take place at Kingsmead Fields. He explained that a little business called him there at six o’clock and he wanted to take care of both matters at once.
He did not tell the captain what his little business was. He was referring to the duel between Acres and Beverley, which was supposed to take place at Kingsmead Fields. Sir Lucius had to be there because he was the second of Acres.
Captain Absolute asked Faulkland to be his second in the duel. While they were conversing, a servant gave Faulkland a conciliatory letter from Julia, asking him to come and see her at once.
Instead of being happy over the proposed reconciliation, Faulkland concocted a silly plan to test Julia’s love once and for all. He told Julia that he had killed someone in a quarrel and had to leave the country. Julia passed the test with flying colors. She told him that she would go with him.
However, when Faulkland revealed that his quarrel and flight were a fabrication to test her devotion, Julia figured that Faulkland was hopeless, and decided to break up with him for good. She said she would never marry anyone else and would pray for his happiness.
Julia then visited her cousin Lydia. When Lydia wanted to know the reason for Julia’s sadness, she faithfully refused to tell her. In contrast, Lydia freely expressed her disenchantment with her suitor. However, the accusations that she leveled at him only revealed her own willful caprice, which Julia exposed with a judicious critique.
Mrs. Malaprop arrived on the scene with Fag and David. The servants told the ladies about the impending duels. Lydia became alarmed when she learned that Captain Absolute was involved. At the mention of Faulkland’s name, Julia suggested that they rush to the scene to prevent bloodshed. Mrs. Malaprop did not want to interfere, but she changed her mind when she learned that Sir Lucius was involved.
Meanwhile, Captain Absolute was waiting for Faulkland so that they could go to Kingsmead Fields. He was hiding his sword under his coat so people would not be alarmed.
Sir Anthony Absolute embarrassed him by appearing on the scene. Captain Absolute told his father that he was going to see Lydia. When Sir Anthony discovered the sword under his son’s coat, the captain pointed out that Lydia was absurdly romantic. So he was going to threaten to fall on his sword and expire at her feet if she did not forgive him.
After Sir Anthony left, he met David. When he learned about the impending duels, he hastened to the scene.
Acres and Sir Lucius were the first to arrive at Kingsmead Fields. Their comical conversation underscored the cowardice of Acres.
When Captain Absolute and Faulkland came to Kingsmead Fields, Sir Lucius thought that Faulkland was Beverley and began to make preparations for his duel with Acres. Acres objected that he did not want to fight his friend Faulkland. When it came out that Captain Absolute was Beverley, Acres said that the captain was his friend. He would not fight with the captain even if he were fifty Beverleys.
Sir Lucius and Captain Absolute drew their swords and got ready for their duel. At this point, Sir Anthony entered the scene and the three ladies were not far behind. Lydia offered her hand to Captain Absolute and solicited the return of his affections.
After hearing this, Captain Absolute no longer felt like fighting when there was no real reason to fight. He assured Sir Lucius that there must have been some mistake. He asked for pardon for any unintentional affront that he may have given him. However, he would support his claim to Lydia against any man.
Acres quickly gave up his claim. Sir Lucius was satisfied with what the captain had said regarding the affront. However, he produced the letters that he had received and asked Lydia: “Miss Languish, are you my Delia, or not?”
Mrs. Malaprop scolded Sir Lucius and said that she was Delia. Sir Lucius gracefully extricated himself from the predicament without insulting Mrs. Malaprop.
Julia and Faulkland were also reconciled to each other. Sir Anthony scolded them for fighting and told them to get married immediately.
It is surprising to see an admirable character like Julia in a satirical comedy. Note, however, that Sheridan is satirizing the superficial sentimentality that occurred in some contemporary plays. Lydia is the chief focus of Sheridan’s satire, and the insincere nature of her sentiments becomes all the more apparent when a sincere character like Julia reveals to the audience what true virtue is like. Of course, I have no way of knowing whether this was Sheridan’s intention when he conceived the character of Julia, but it is axiomatic that a good example is a living reproof to bad behavior.
Reference
“The Rivals” by Richard Brinsley Sheridan; Elizabeth Duthie, editor
