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.”

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