Whilst Vaughan or Dapper, call him which you will, A decade later George Colman ridiculed him again under the name of Dapper, in the periodical papers entitled The Genius. Such facts throw light on the conversation between Dangle and his wife which opens The Critic, and in particular these speeches: MRS. DANGLE. And what have you to do with the theatre, Mr. Dangle? Why should you affect the character of a critic? I have no patience with you! — haven't you made yourself the jest of all your acquaintance by your interference in matters where you have no business? Are you not called a theatrical Quidnunc, and a mock Mæcenas to second-hand authors? DANGLE. True; my power with the managers is pretty notorious. Since Vaughan was in his own day far less conspicuous a personage than Cumberland, whatever personal caricature Sheridan may have intended in Dangle was of far less importance than that in Sir Fretful. Again, as with Sir Fretful, particular caricature in Dangle has been subordinated to enduring general satire satire of the class of theatrical Quidnuncs of which Vaughan was but a type. Even less attention need be paid to the suggestion that Sheridan intended to ridicule Woodfall, the theatrical critic of The Morning Chronicle. The rather considerate and temperate review of the first production of The Rivals in The Morning Chronicle, probably penned by Woodfall, when Sheridan's fate as a dramatist hung in the balance, renders it unlikely that Sheridan would have returned evil for good. Personal caricature in The Critic is confined chiefly to the opening scene of the first act. Sir Fretful Plagiary, by far the most conspicuous caricature in the play, appears here only. Here, too, occur the most important passages in which Dangle is supposed to represent Vaughan. This point, indeed, needs emphasis in view of assertions that Sheridan intended The Critic as a vehicle of personal revenge upon his enemies. One illustration of such charges will suffice. After speaking of the complaints of Cumberland, Watkins adds:1 "and as other literary persons had similar complaints against the conduct of the manager, a common concern was made of the injury, and the newspapers daily exhibited some severe criticisms upon theatrical subjects and the direction of Drury Lane. To counteract these attempts upon his official character, Sheridan took 'The Rehearsal,' as a model for an attack upon his adversaries." That Sheridan was ready to meet his critics with good-humored banter is obvious, but it is idle to maintain that The Critic was designed primarily as a defense. of "his official character" or as "an attack upon his adversaries." Circumstantial evidence of the falsity of such accusations is to be found in the expansion in The Critic of Sheridan's early burlesque, Jupiter; direct evidence is furnished in The Critic itself in the subordination of personal caricature to general burlesque. Had Sheridan's primary object been to pillory Cumberland he would not have dismissed Sir Fretful from the boards in the opening scene, but would have assigned to him the chief role filled by Puff in the remaining acts. In The Rehearsal Dryden is kept ever in the foreground in the part of Bayes. Conspicuous, then, as is the element of personal caricature in the opening scene of The Critic, it is by no means the primary object of the play. In turning the laugh against the absurdities of the stage, Sheridan was ready to expose good-humoredly the foibles of some of his contemporaries, but his wit was sharpened by neither envy nor malice. 1 Memoirs of Sheridan, I, 239. 4. BURLESQUE AND PARODY OF CONTEMPORARY DRAMA IN THE CRITIC In The Rivals and The School for Scandal Sheridan ran counter to the sentimental comedy of the day; in The Critic he turned the laugh against bombastic tragedy. So broad and universal, however, is Sheridan's satire that it strikes not so much at individual plays, or even at the extravagances of tragedy alone, as at the general absurdities of the entire drama. Though Puff's play is A Tragedy Rehearsed, Sheridan did not fail to administer some final blows to the sentimental comedy whose fate had been so largely sealed by Lydia Languish, the sentimental heroine, and Joseph Surface, the "man of sentiment." An excellent example of ridicule of sentimental comedy is in the opening scene of The Critic: DANGLE. (reading) Bursts into tears and exit. — What is this a tragedy? only SNEER. No, that's a genteel comedy, not a translation taken from the French: it is written in a style which they have lately tried to run down; the true sentimental, and nothing ridiculous in it from the beginning to the end. By thus ridiculing the spirit, rather than the letter, of absurdities prevalent both in tragedy and comedy, The Critic has maintained its vitality. Personal caricature rarely outlives the person caricatured; dramatic travesty rarely outlives the drama travestied. Yet Sir Fretful lives, even if the caricature of Cumberland is unheeded, and The Critic lives, though the particular dramas it burlesqued are familiar to few. A decided contrast may be drawn between the general burlesque of The Critic and the individual parodies of The Rehearsal. In fairness, it must be conceded that many parts of The Rehearsal burlesque general absurdities of the drama of all times. Otherwise it is improbable that even the inter 1 polation into its text of local hits, or the genius of Garrick as Bayes, could have contrived to maintain The Rehearsal on the stage until its final eclipse by The Critic. Discussion of the prevalence of individual parodies of particular plays in The Rehearsal is best furthered by study of the different Keys included in Arber's reprint of the play. Here the "Illustrations from Previous Plays" given on the even-numbered pages come somewhat near to balancing the text of The Rehearsal given on the odd-numbered pages. Among the plays from which, according to the table of contents, the illustrations are "principally taken," are seven plays of Dryden, three of D'Avenant, two of Killigrew, and single plays of Mrs. Behn, Fanshaw, J. Howard, Col. H. Howard, Porter, Quarles, and Stapylton. Though comparison of some of these extracts with the text of The Rehearsal shows but slight suggestion of parody, there remain enough unquestionable parallels to prove that specific parody was a vital part in the authors' conception of The Rehearsal. One fact may help to account in large measure for the prevalence of direct parody in The Rehearsal, and its comparative absence in The Critic. The Rehearsal grew into final form not merely from the collaboration of various authors, but from years of evolution. Though said to have been commenced in 1663,2 it was not produced until December 7, 1671. The hero seems to have been intended, at first, to burlesque D'Avenant, then Howard, and finally Dryden, who had meantime been appointed poet-laureate. The gradual progress of the burlesque invited constant additions to the exact parodies of contemporary dramas. On the other hand, The Critic may fairly be said to have been composed with a rapidity which practically precluded a con 1 English Reprints, London, November 2, 1858. 2 Ward, A History of English Dramatic Literature, revised ed. 1899, III, 363. stant succession of such elaborate specific parodies as are found in The Rehearsal. 2 In the Memoirs of John Bannister, Comedian,1 John Adolphus writes: "I have heard Mr. Holcroft say, that he could make a key to 'The Critic' similar to that which is published with The Rehearsal,' by selecting from the works of contemporary tragic writers, passages and lines exactly similar to those in the burlesque drama." This remark, more or less distinctly referred to by some of Sheridan's biographers, has seemingly been allowed to pass, with little comment, as proof that The Critic abounds in direct parody of specific passages in contemporary tragedy. In this vein writes Sigmond: "It would not be difficult for any one in the habit of reading the plays of the period to show the different passages that are burlesqued. Holcroft had at one time an idea of publishing a key to the Critic; such has been done for the Rehearsal." Whoever attempts the task pronounced so easy will conclude that Sigmond himself never made the test. Nor should too much stress be laid on a chance remark whose truth Holcroft himself never demonstrated. The next sentence of Adolphus after that already quoted implies some doubt at least of Holcroft's assertion, for it begins, "If that were so." Prolonged though necessarily incomplete, investigation of the tragedies that preceded The Critic on the London stage suggests the general subjects of Sheridan's burlesque rather than "passages and lines exactly similar to those in the burlesque drama." The only definite suggestion of Sigmond himself is this: 3 "The family recognition of the Justice, and the wife of the highwayman, is admirable. It is a supposed hit at the tumid language of Home, the author of 'Douglas,' in the 'Fatal Discovery,' a tragedy of bombast and nonsense." Significant is 1 I, 49-50. 2 Life of Sheridan, Bohn's Standard Library (1848), p. 86. 3 Ibid., p. 87. |