The Play. She Stoops to Conquer no doubt represents Goldsmith's idea of true comedy, and in this he was supported by Dr Johnson, who said of the Play "I know of no comedy for many years that has so much exhilarated an audience or answered so much the great end of comedy in making an audience merry." It was written in accordance with Goldsmith's constant protest* against the sickly sentimentality of the stage at that time; and its production, together with Foote's ridicule and parody of the "genteel" and "sentimental" comedy in his puppet show called The Handsome Housemaid; or, Piety in Pattens, and Garrick's abandonment of it, no doubt led to its final overthrow, which was completed by Sheridan in his School for Scandal in 1775. Much, however, as we delight in the bright and delicious humour and indeed in the fine humanity of this most charming of comedies, we cannot but feel that surely both Johnson and Goldsmith rated the uses of true comedy too low; for, although merriment and humour should have a great, if not a first place in all true comedy, yet we know that it has other and greater purposes to fulfil than "making an audience merry"-an office which seems to us more that of farce than of true comedy. It, however, is worth remarking that the two plays which gave merely sentimental comedy its death-blow, and which entirely depend for their effect upon the audience, on their characterisation and humour, are the only two which have come down to us from the eighteenth century as full of life upon the stage, and as popular to-day as they were in the author's life-time, She Stoops to Conquer and The School for Scandal. * See his Essays on the Theatre and references in his preface to Th Good-natured Man, the Epilogue to this Play, and In Retaliation, &c., &c TO SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. DEAR SIR,-By inscribing this slight performance to you, I do not mean so much to compliment you as myself. It may do me some honour to inform the public, that I have lived many years in intimacy with you. It may serve the interests of mankind also to inform them, that the greatest wit may be found in a character, without impairing the most unaffected piety. I have, particularly, reason to thank you for your partiality to this performance. The undertaking a comedy, not merely sentimental, was very dangerous; and Mr Colman, who saw this piece in its various stages, always thought it so. However, I ventured to trust it to the public; and, though it was necessarily delayed till late in the season, I have every reason to be grateful.—I am, dear Sir, your most sincere friend and admirer, OLIVER GOLDSMITH. |