Page 241 - DENG403_BRITISH_DRAMA

Unit 18: Richard Sheridan: The School for Scandal—Introduction to the Author and the Text

• The School for Scandal opened at the Drury Lane Theatre in London, England, in May of 1777. Notes
It was an enormous success. Reviews heralded the play as a “real comedy” that would sup-
plant the sentimental dramas that had filled the stage in the previous years. While wildly
popular in the eighteenth century, the play has not been as successful with contemporary
audiences. The play suffered with anti-semitism and appears artificial in the characters’ speech,
dress, and motivations.

18.4 Keywords

Playwright : A person who writes plays. Or The texts of plays that can be read, as distinct
from being seen and heard in performance.
Novelist : A person who writes novels.
Social pariah : Any person or animal that is generally despised or avoided. Even if one’s
marriage was a sham, divorce made a woman a social pariah in the Victorian
era.
Post Chaise : A closed four-wheeled horse-drawn coach used as a rapid means for
transporting mail and passengers in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Anti-semitism : A person who persecutes or discriminates against Jews.
Real comedy : The phrase ‘all the world’s a stage’ is most famously remembered as a line in
a soliloquy written by Shakespeare for the character Jacques in his comedy.
Later the term frequently used for many a plays such as The School for Scandal.
Comedy of manners: Comedy of manners is a comedy representing the contemporary behaviour of
fashionable society.

18.5 Review Questions

1. Give a brief sketch of birth and early childhood of Richard Sheridan.
2. Illustrate that Richard Sheridan was a playwright.
3. Richard Sheridan was a superb political orator, illustrate this statement in context of Hasting’s
impeachment.
4. Explain that the School for Scandal was a real comedy.
5. Explain the following in context of School for Scandal:
(a) Anti-semitism (b) Real comedy
(c) Lack of strong character

Answers: Self Assessment

1. (c) 2. (a) 3. (b) 4. (d) 5. (a)
6. livelihood 7. orators 8. extravagance 9. Warren Hastings
10. The School for Scandal 11. True 12. True 13. False
14. False 15. False 16. (a) 17. (b) 18. (c)
19. marriage, love 20. disparaging remarks 21. Restoration values
22. characters’ speech 23. society 24. True 25. True
26. False 27. True 28. False

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