CHAPTER III.

Management of the Theatre.-Additions to the Tempest of Shakspeare.-Comedy of the Relapse altered, with the Title of the Trip to Scarborough -Success of the Comedy of the School for Scandal.-Anecdote of Garrick.-Observations on that Play.-Opinion of Mr. Cumberland.—Traditionary Doubts concerning the Origin of the Comedy.

THE abdication of Mr. Garrick, and the accession of Mr. Sheridan to the administration of the government of Drury Lane, occasioned a variety of opinions among the admirers of the drama, many considering the change as auspicious to genius, while others were apprehensive that, whatever might be the natural abilities and disposition of the young manager, he wanted a knowledge of business and an industrious spirit to render him an efficient substitute for his accomplished predecessor.

By his constant application to the minutest affairs, Garrick gained general respect, and his studied care to meet the wishes of the town every season rendered him deservedly popular. Complaints were indeed sometimes uttered against him by disappointed authors and refractory actors, but he contrived to keep them from inflaming the public mind; and though differences occasionally arose between him and Mr. Lacy, his partner, as well as with the performers, prudence taught him to confine the disputes to those who were directly concerned; by which means, with temperate conciliation, they usually died away, and the manager had credit for more effective authority than he really possessed. The new proprietors did not preserve the same appearance of unanimity; and the contentions among them, even at the opening of the winter

season in 1776, became the subject of general conversation, which served to confirm the fears of those who most regretted the separation of Mr. Garrick from that establishment. Nor were the admirers of Mr. Sheridan much better pleased when they found nothing but old pieces brought forward, and that without much attraction in the representation. The principal of these was the Tempest, with some of the additions of Dryden, and a few songs from the pen of Mr. Sheridan, composed by Mr. Thomas Linley, his brother-in-law. Still, as the public had been led to expect something original from the author of the Rivals and the Duenna, this sublime production of Shakspeare, though set off by very excellent scenery and music, did not give the desired satisfaction. Another revival and alteration by Mr. Sheridan, in the same season, was not better adapted to allay the popular discontent, or to reconcile the lovers of the drama to the new management. This was an attempt to make the licentious, but witty, comedy of the "Relapse," passable in an age of refinement, under the title of "A Trip to Scarborough." The original play is well known to have been written as à continuation of Cibber's comedy of "Love's last Shift ;" and nothing but its humour, spirit, and strength of character, could have given it currency even at that period when the immorality of the stage was publicly vidicated against the powerful attack of the zealous and learned Jeremy Collier.

What could induce Mr. Sheridan to draw this indecent production of Sir John Vanbrugh's fertile muse from oblivion, is difficult to guess; but the most extraordinary thing of all, is the fact, that in adapting the old play to modern taste, he omitted all the wit which seasoned the Relapse, and substituted nothing of his own, in the Trip to Scarborough, as an equivalent. Great opposition was made to the play, and even some of the persons who were engaged in its representation contributed to increase this dislike by the manner of

their performance. But the cabals of the actors, and their endeavour to depress what it was their duty to enliven, as the servants of the house and the public, gave so much offence to the audience on the second exhibition of the piece, that loud resentment was expressed against their conduct, which made them more cautious, and the comedy on the third night was both well played and well received.

But the gloomy cloud that had been spread over old Drury through a great part of the season suddenly dispersed at the close, and the comic muse surprised the world with a production which gave universal delight, and went far beyond the expectations of those who had formed the highest estimate of the genius of Mr. Sheridan.

The comedy of "the School for Scandal" was performed, for the first time, on the eighth of May, and its effect upon the public exceeded that of the Duenna, though the season was then at the close. It was indebted to the judgment of Garrick for some slight touches, with a prologue, and to the best actors of the day for their exertions; but its intrinsic merit could not fail to insure success, of which its continued power of pleasing is an established proof. Of this piece, and the opinion entertained of it by Garrick, we have a story told by Mr. Murphy, in his life of that great performer, to the following effect. "The School for Scandal was presented at Drury Lane, in the beginning of May; and there again we find that Garrick was still at work. His muse furnished the prologue to that excellent comedy. Mr. Sheridan wished to have the opinion of so able a judge. Garrick read the play with close attention, and spoke of it in all companies with the highest approbation. He attended the rehearsals, and was never known, on any former occasion, to be more anxious for a favourite piece.

"He was proud of the new manager, and, in a triumphant

manner, boasted of the genius to whom he had consigned the conduct of the theatre. Amidst the praise which he bestowed on Mr. Sheridan's performance, a gentleman said to him, "This is but a single play, and, at the longrun, will be but a slender help to support a theatre. To you, Mr. Garrick, I must say, the Atlas that propped the stage has left his station." "Has he?" said Garrick if that be the case, he has found another Hercules to succeed to the office." He augured the best from a genius that began in so auspicious a manner. "It is to be regretted," continues the complaisant biographer, "that his prediction has not been fulfilled. A few more such productions would, with propriety, have fixed on Mr. Sheridan the title of our modern Congreve."

This celebrated comedy has the peculiar merit of charming the audience, without possessing any thing like a regular plot, or such a connected story as keeps up the attention of the spectator to the end of a dramatic representation in constant expectation of the result. But here no such curiosity is awakened, and yet we are carried on from one scene to another with increasing pleasure. An immediate interest is created at the opening, which continues to the end, without any suspension of thought or conjectural solicitude as to the fortune of any of the parties. The two brothers are palpable imitations of the principal characters in Fielding's best novel: but the hypocritical baseness of Blifil, cool, thoughtful, and plotting, in all his measures, is much more consistent than the sentimental refinement of Joseph Surface, who endeavours to draw Lady Teazle from virtue by logic and philosophy. In that very scene, upon which the whole piece is made to turn, this formal dealer in apophthegms and sententious morality lays siege to the wife of his friend dialectically in mood and figure, when he is

Murphy's Life of Garrick, vol. ii. p. 145.

suddenly interrupted by the arrival of Sir Peter; and the lady, for security, is placed behind a screen, though there is a closet in the same room. But this screen constitutes the sine qua non of the whole play, for without it, hypocrisy would not be unmasked, nor reformation effected. Improbable, however, as this incident is, it answers the purpose for which the author designed it, by exhibiting to the delighted audience a group of personages actuated at the moment by very different feelings. So far the contrivance is good, but it is the study of the desk, and not the casual occurrence of real life. No man in the embarrassed state of Joseph, and with his supposed cunning, would act so incautiously as to place a lady of that importance in a situation where she could hardly escape dis

covery.

Mr. Cumberland, however, has vindicated such expedients upon the stage in a very ingenious manner, and he has justified them by adducing this very play, of which he says, "I could name one, now living, who has made such happy use of his screen in a comedy of the very first merit, that if Aristotle himself had written a whole chapter professedly against screens, and Jerry Collier had edited it, with notes and illustrations, I would not have placed Lady Teazle out of earshot to have saved their ears from the pillory; but if either of these worthies could have pointed out an expedient to have got Joseph Surface off the stage, pending that scene, with any reasonable conformity to nature, they would have done more good to the drama than either of them have done harm; and that is saying a great deal.”*

Yet, with all respect to so good a judge of stage effect, and the license of dramatic poetry, it may fairly admit of a doubt whether a scene of this improbable description can be considered as coming

* Cumberland's Memoirs, 4to. p. 224.