ANTI-SENTIMENTAL COMEDY:
The sentimental comedy did not last long.
The sentimental soon degenerated into sentimentality. This change gradually
manifested itself in the advent of sensibility to replace wit and immorality in
the comedy. In this sentimental comedy of Colley Cibber and Steele there was
conventional morality and sentimentality in place of grossness of the
restoration comedy. These dramatists dealt with the problems, of conduct,
family and marriage in a tone that will no longer shock decorum and by virtue
of tears they cause to flow, they contributed to the edification of souls.
These dramatists aimed at preaching some moral lessons by restoring suffering
innocent virtue to happiness and converting rogues into good characters. Thus
these comedies lost the true spirit of comedy. There are no gaiety and innocent
mirth created by wit and fun. Instead, these plays served the false morality of
the middle class.
The two great dramatists are-
A. OLIVER GOLDSMITH:-
His two well known comedies that give
death-knell to the sentimental comedy are-
(i) Good-natured Man:-
The story of the play thus follows. Mr.
Honeywood is an open hearted good natured by a foolish young man. He gives away
to the importunate what he owes to his creditors. His uncle Sir William decided
to teach him a lesson by having him arrested for debt and to make him know who his
true friends are. Young Honeywood loves Miss Richland but he recommends to her
the suit of Lofty a govt. officer whom he believes to be responsible for his
release from arrest. But it is Miss Richland who has secured his release.
Honeywood finally understands his folly and gets married with Miss Richland.
Within the main plot there runs also a sub-plot.
In the prologue Goldsmith declared with a touch of sarcasm that he had
preferred the older laughing comedy to the sentimental type. There are many
weakness in the plot, much of the dialogues are stilted.
(ii) She Stoops to Conquer:-
She
Stoops to Conquer or The Mistakes of a Night was produced in 1773. The
principal characters are Hardcastle, who loves ‘every thing that’s old; old
friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine’; Mrs. Hardcastle, and
Miss Hardcastle their daughter; Mrs.
Hardcastle’s son by a former marriage, Tony Lumpkin, a frequenter of the ‘Three
Jolly Pigeons’, idle and ignorant, but cunning and mischievous, and doted on by
his mother; and young Marlow, ‘one of the most bashful and reserved young fellows
in the world’, except with barmaids and servant-girls. His father, Sir Charles
Marlow, has proposed a match between young Marlow and Miss Hardcastle, and the
young man and his friend, Hastings, accordingly travel down to pay the
Hardcastle a visit. Losing their way they arrive at night at the ‘Three Jolly
Pigeons’, where Tony Lumpkin directs them to a neighbouring inn, which is in
reality the Hardcastles’ house. The fun of the play arises largely from the
resulting misunderstanding, Marlow treating Hardcastle as the landlord of the
supposed inn, and making violent love to Miss Hardcastle, whom he takes for one
of the servants. This contrasts with his bashful attitude when presented to her
in real character. The arrival of Sir Charles Marlow clears up the
misconception and all ends well, including a subsidiary love-affair between
Hastings and Miss Hardcastle’s cousin, Miss Neville, whom Mrs. Hardcastle
destines for Tony Lumpkin.”
The prologue of the play gives the
conception of comedy of Goldsmith. It is also a direct satire on sentimental
comedy. Moreover, he has explained his ideas about the comic art in the
dedication to Samuel Johnson. In the play, he has ironically attacked
sentimental comedy through the mouth of his character. As Miss Hardcastle
observes in Act II: “Indeed, I have often been surprise how a man of sentiment
could ever admire those light air pleasures, where nothing reaches the heart”.
Again Tony says in the same Act: “I have often seen her and sister cry over a
book for an hour together; and they said they liked the book the better the
more it made them cry.”
B is Sheridan....
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