A Select Collection of Novels and Histories. London, 1729.) The British Museum has several early eighteenth-century editions of The Whole Comical Works of Mons. Scarron (including "All his novels and histories"). There is abundant proof that Scarron's work was well known in English translations.1

The History of Lord Aimsworth, and the Honourable Charles Hanford, Esq., in a series of letters.

1 Brander Matthews, Sheridan's Comedies, p. 321, asserts: "The 'Innocent Adultery' was the second title of Southerne's tragedy, the 'Fatal Marriage,' revived as 'Isabella; or, the Fatal Marriage,' for Mrs. Siddons, after Sheridan became manager of Drury Lane theatre.” G. A. Aitken, Temple edition of The Rivals, p. 168, repeats the first statement. In the first place, the context of the play itself is a strong presumption against this theory, for many other novels, including several translations from the French, are mentioned, but no other plays. Definite proof, however, may be had. The Fatal Marriage; or The Innocent Adultery was produced at the Theatre Royal in 1694 (Genest, II, 56). It was revived at Drury Lane in 1757.

"Dec. 2. On this evening will be revived a Tragedy called the Fatal Marriage, altered from Southerne. . . . Garrick omitted the comic underplot." (Genest, IV, 511.)

The printed version of the play reads "Isabella; or The Fatal Marriage. A play. Alter'd from Southern (by David Garrick). London, 1757."

March 31, 1770

Covent Garden. "Mrs. Bellamy's bt. [i.e. benefit] Never acted there, (that is as altered by Garrick) Isabella. (Genest, V, 286.)

November 25, 1774 - Drury Lane. years, Isabella." (Genest, V, 443.)

"Acted but once these 14

Other references in Genest and elsewhere are needless as additional proof that the version known in Sheridan's day, both on the stage and in the library, was Garrick's, and that the play was regularly called Isabella. I have been unable to discover any reference whatsoever in Sheridan's day to Southerne's play by its original sub-title, The Innocent Adultery. Garrick's revision (1757) dropped the old sub-title entirely. It is doubtful if Sheridan knew any version save Garrick's: it is sure that theatre-goers in 1775 could not have understood a recondite allusion to a sub-title. Sheridan's reference to Scarron's The Innocent Adultery is clear.

"A novel in three volumes by the author of Dorinda Catesby and Ermina, or the fair recluse." — The Gentleman's Magazine, May, 1773.

In the foot-note quoted at the end of this section of the Introduction (p. lxxvii) from the British Theatre (Leipsic, 1828, p. 654), occurs this clause: "Lord Aimworth (see Maid of the Mill) has debased himself by a mésalliance." The Maid of the Mill, a comic opera, by Isaac Bickerstaffe, was acted at Covent Garden Theatre in 1765. First in the list of Dramatis Persone is Lord Aimworth. The only possible point in favor of this explanation is the spelling "Aimworth," while the novel is spelled "Aimsworth." The context, the date of the novel, its title, and the improbability that the opera would be mentioned by the name of one of the characters instead of by its real title, are some of many reasons for belief that Sheridan refers to the novel. It is hardly necessary to add that Sheridan's text contains many misspellings. Finally, in the General Index to Fifty-six Volumes of the Gentleman's Magazine (London, 1818) the above-quoted book-notice is catalogued (II, 237) with the spelling Aimworth, presumably a correction of the error.

Ovid. For numerous eighteenth-century editions of Ovid in English translation see the British Museum catalogue. Apparently the most popular eighteenth-century English translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses was that published by Tonson (1717). Its fifth edition was in 1751. It is thus catalogued in the British Museum: "Ovid's Metamorphoses in fifteen books. Translated [into English verse] by the most eminent hands [viz., J. Dryden, J. Addison, L. Eusden, A. Mainwaring, S. Croxall, N. Tate, J. Gay, W. Congreve, and the editor Sir S. Garth, etc. Adorn'd with sculptures, pp. 548. J. Tonson: London, 1717. fol.] Note Sheridan's pun on the word "Metamorphoses" in the first version of The Rivals, on which two contemporary comments are given, p. 313.

The Man of Feeling (1771), by Henry Mackenzie.

This performance is written after the manner of Sterne; but it follows at a prodigious distance the steps of that ingenious and sentimental writer. It is not however totally destitute of merit; and the Reader, who weeps not over some of the scenes it describes, has no sensibility of mind. - The Monthly Review, May, 1771.

Mrs. Chapone.Letters on the Improvement of the Mind. Addressed to a young Lady. 2 vols., 1773 [by Mrs. Chapone].

These letters are ten in number, 1. On the first principles of religion. 2 and 3. On the study of the Holy Scriptures. 4 and 5. On the regulation of the heart and affections: these are contained in the first volume Letter 6. On the government of the temper. 7. On œconomy. 8. On politeness and accomplishments. 9. On geography and chronology. 10. On the manner, and course of reading history, with the conclusion, make up the second. They are addressed from an aunt to her niece, (a young lady in the 15th year of her age) for whose happiness she expresses the most tender concern, and for whose use the letters seem originally to have been written. The language is the language of the heart; and the instructions are conveyed in so kind and engaging a manner, that they cannot fail of being extensively useful. The Gentleman's Magazine, May, 1773.

Fordyce's Sermons. - Sermons to Young Women. 2 vols., 1765. By James Fordyce [Fordyce was a popular Presbyterian divine (1720-1796), whose popularity was waning, however, at the time of The Rivals.]

A series of free but affectionate addresses. The Gentleman's Magazine, June, 1766.

There are indeed, to the best of our recollection, no compositions of this kind in the English language, in which are to be found greater delicacy of sentiment, correctness of imagination, elegance of taste, or that contain such genuine pictures of life and manners. — The Monthly Review, June, 1766.

Lord Chesterfield's Letters. Letters written by the Earl of Chesterfield to his son, Philip Stanhope, published by Mrs. Eugenia Stanhope, 2 vols. London, 1774.

The famous Letters of Philip Dormer Stanhope, fourth Earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773), were sold by his son's widow to the publisher, Dodsley, for fifteen hundred pounds. Their immediate popularity is attested by the fact that the fifth edition (in 4 vols.) appeared within a year.

In final review of the books of Lydia Languish's circulating library may be quoted this quaint foot-note from the British Theatre (Leipsic, 1828, p. 654):

These books are introduced in such a manner, that they produce either a very whimsical contrast, or an aptness of allusion; for instance, Peregrine Pickle, as a lady's man, can have no better place than the toilet; Roderick Random's peregrinations are confined to the closet; the innocent Adultery is not the most proper thing in the whole duty of man; Lord Aimworth, (see Maid of the Mill) has debased himself by a mésalliance; Ovid is to attend the dreams of the love-sick maid; and the Man of Feeling is to direct our charities. Mrs. Chapone has written advice to young women upon marriage,

etc.

Comparison of these explanations with the accompanying phrases in Sheridan's text will disclose that the "etc." of the commentator brings to an untimely end a discussion worthy of high rank among the curiosities of criticism.

THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL

I. THE SOURCES OF THE SCHOOL FOR Scandal

The same ingenuity of commentators which would deprive The Rivals of almost all claim to originality has assailed the originality of The School for Scandal, with almost equal fervor, and perhaps fully equal success. Watkins, the earliest biogra

1

pher of Sheridan, insinuates 1 that The School for Scandal was written either by Mrs. Sheridan or by "a young lady, the daughter of a merchant in Thames Street," who put her manuscript into the hands of Sheridan as manager of Drury Lane

"soon after which the fair writer, who was then in a stage of decline, went to Bristol Hot-Wells, where she died."

On the other hand, to claim for The School for Scandal strict originality in every detail would be absurd. One of the commonest suggestions that the Surface brothers resemble the Blifil and Tom Jones of Fielding's novel, Tom Jones (1749) dates back to the first performance of the play, since The London Chronicle, May 8-10, 1777, asserts that "Joseph and Charles Surface are the Blifil and Tom Jones of the piece." So obvious, indeed, is the similarity that, though Sheridan may quite possibly have had Fielding immediately in mind, it is well to remember that the hypocrite and his foil are stock characters, common alike to novel and drama. This latter truth is reinforced by the remembrance that different critics have found the original of Joseph Surface in hypocrites so little akin as Fielding's Blifil, Molière's Tartuffe, and Arthur Murphy's Malvil, in Know Your Own Mind.2

Investigation, further, has been concerned largely with the origin of the scandal-scenes. Again, numerous originals have been suggested. Among them are Molière's scene (ii, 5) in 1 Memoirs of Sheridan, I, 218.

2 Lloyd C. Sanders well says in this connection (Life of Sheridan, p. 79): "Tartuffe and Joseph Surface are both hypocrites, but there the resemblance ends. As to the Malvil theory, which has the authority of Hazlitt, it is more tenable. But all that can safely be asserted is that Sheridan may have seen the play it was produced at Covent Garden on February 22, 1777 while he was writing The School for Scandal.' From a solitary sentence uttered by Malvil, 'To a person of sentiment like you, madam, a visit is paid with pleasure,' Sheridan may have conceived the idea of making Joseph Surface a sententious hypocrite, but otherwise the two characters have nothing in common beyond being hypocrites."