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38-445: The Rivals is a comedy of manners by Richard Brinsley Sheridan in five acts which was first performed at Covent Garden Theatre on 17 January 1775. The story has been updated frequently, including a 1935 musical and a 1958 episode of the TV series Maverick (see below) starring James Garner and Roger Moore , with attribution. The Rivals was Sheridan's first play. At the time, he

76-421: A collector's item. Hughes also composed a limited amount of original chamber music (a violin sonata is mentioned in a letter to Hughes from Bernard van Dieren dated 4 April 1932), and some scores for the stage (like And So to Bed by John Bernard Fagan ) and film. Hughes and John Robert Monsell also created songs for a musical version of Richard Brinsley Sheridan 's The Rivals called Rivals! , which

114-589: A comedy of manners. Herbert Hughes (musicologist) Herbert Hughes (16 May 1882 – 1 May 1937) was an Irish composer, music critic and a collector and arranger of Irish folksongs. He was the father of Spike Hughes . Hughes was born and brought up in Belfast , Ireland, but completed his formal music education at the Royal College of Music , London, where he studied with Charles Villiers Stanford and Charles Wood , graduating in 1901. Subsequently, he worked as

152-446: A duel and kill him. Acres goes along, and writes out a challenge note – despite his own rather more pacifist feelings, and the profound misgivings of his servant David. Sir Lucius leaves, Jack arrives, and Acres tells him of his intent. Jack agrees to deliver the note to "Beverley", but declines to be Acres' second. Mrs. Malaprop again presents Jack to Lydia, but this time with Sir Anthony present, exposing Jack's pose as "Beverley". Lydia

190-530: A marriage for Jack, but Jack demurs, saying he is in love already. They quarrel violently. But Jack soon learns through the gossip of Lucy and Fag that the marriage arranged by Sir Anthony is, in fact, with Lydia. He makes a great show of submission to his father, and is presented to Lydia with Mrs. Malaprop's blessing. Jack confides to Lydia that he is only posing as Sir Anthony's son. She annoys Mrs. Malaprop by loudly professing her eternal devotion to "Beverley" while rejecting "Jack Absolute". Jack's friend Faulkland

228-620: A music critic, notably for The Daily Telegraph from 1911 to 1932. Described as having an "ardent and self-confident manner", Hughes is first heard of in an Irish musical capacity (beyond being honorary organist at St Peter's Church on Antrim Road at the age of fourteen) collecting traditional airs and transcribing folksongs in North Donegal in August 1903 with his brother Fred, F.J. Bigger , and John Campbell . Dedicated to seeking out and recording such ancient melodies as were yet to be found in

266-455: A purely romantic love affair. To court her, Jack pretends to be "Ensign Beverley", a poor army officer. Lydia is enthralled with the idea of eloping with a poor soldier in spite of the objections of her guardian, Mrs. Malaprop, a moralistic widow. Mrs. Malaprop is the chief comic figure of the play, thanks to her continual misuse of words that sound like the words she intends to use, but mean something completely different (the term malapropism

304-503: Is Delia, but Sir Lucius recoils in horror, realising that he has been hoaxed. Sir Anthony consoles Mrs. Malaprop, Julia is reconciled to Faulkland, and Acres invites everyone to a party. A successful musical production - titled Rivals! , with songs by Herbert Hughes and lyrics by John Robert Monsell - was staged by Vladimir Rosing at London's Kingsway Theatre in October 1935. The musical ran for 86 performances. Queen Mary attended one of

342-405: Is enraged by the puncturing of her romantic dreams, and spurns Jack contemptuously. Sir Lucius has also learned of the proposed marriage of Jack and Lydia, and determines to challenge Jack. He meets Jack, who, smarting from Lydia's rejection, agrees to fight him without even knowing the reason. They will meet at the same time as Acres is scheduled to fight "Beverley". At the duelling ground, Acres

380-476: Is in love with Julia, but he suffers from jealous suspicion. He is constantly fretting himself about her fidelity. Faulkland and Julia quarrel foolishly, making elaborate and high-flown speeches about true love that satirise the romantic dramas of the period. Bob Acres tells Sir Lucius that another man ("Beverley") is courting the lady of Acres' choice (Lydia, though Sir Lucius does not know this). Sir Lucius immediately declares that Acres must challenge "Beverley" to

418-515: Is very reluctant to fight, but Sir Lucius will have no shirking. Jack and Faulkland arrive. Acres learns that "Beverley" is actually his friend Jack, and begs off from their duel. However, Jack is quite willing to fight Sir Lucius, and they cross swords. David informs Mrs. Malaprop, Lydia, Julia, and Sir Anthony of the duel, and they all rush off to stop it. Sir Lucius explains the cause of his challenge, but Lydia denies any connection to him, and admits her love for Jack. Mrs. Malaprop announces that she

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456-681: The National Theatre, London in April 2020, however due to the COVID-19 pandemic , the production eventually opened on 15 July 2022. The play has been updated to July 1940 to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Britain . Comedy of manners The comedy-of-manners genre originated in the New Comedy period (325–260 BC) of Classical Greece (510–323 BC), and is known from fragments of works by

494-547: The Colonies (it was George Washington 's favourite play). It became a standard show in the repertoires of 19th-century companies in England and the US. The play is now considered to be one of Sheridan's masterpieces, and the term malapropism was coined in reference to one of the characters in the play. She was first played by Jane Green . The play is set in 18th-century Bath , a town that

532-522: The Day , Barbara Pym 's Excellent Women , Douglas Carter Beane 's As Bees in Honey Drown , The Country Club , and The Little Dog Laughed . In Boston Marriage (1999), David Mamet chronicles a sexual relationship between two women, one of whom has her eye on yet another young woman (who never appears, but who is the target of a seduction scheme). Periodically, the two women make their serving woman

570-661: The Salley Gardens , which were published as part of his four collections of Irish Country Songs , his key achievement. These were written in collaborations with the poets Joseph Campbell and Padraic Colum , and Yeats himself. A dispute with Hamilton Harty over copyright on My Lagan Love was pursued on Bigger's advice, but failed. Married to Lillian Florence (known as Meena) Meacham and Suzanne McKernan, Herbert had three children: Patrick (known professionally as Spike Hughes ), Angela and Helena. He died in Brighton , England, at

608-416: The annotation be rude, he may rely upon the justness of the comment. Sheridan also apologised for any impression that O'Trigger was intended as an insult to Ireland. Rewritten and with a new actor, Laurence Clinch , in the role of O'Trigger, the play reopened on 28 January to significant acclaim. Indeed, it became a favourite of the royal family, receiving five command performances in ten years, and also in

646-706: The butt of haughty jokes, serving to point up the satire on class. Though displaying the verbal dexterity one associates with both the playwright and the genre, the patina of wit occasionally erupts into shocking crudity. Comedies of manners have been a staple of British film and television. The Carry On films are a direct descendant of the comedy of manners style, and elements of the style can be found in The Beatles ' films A Hard Day's Night and Help! . Television series by David Croft in collaboration with Jimmy Perry ( Dad's Army ) and with Jeremy Lloyd ( Are You Being Served? ) might also be considered examples of

684-584: The comedy of manners reappeared in the plays of the British dramatists Noël Coward ( Hay Fever , 1925) and Somerset Maugham . Other early twentieth-century examples of comedies of manners include George Bernard Shaw 's 1913 play Pygmalion (later adapted into the musical My Fair Lady ), E. M. Forster 's A Room with a View , and the Jeeves and Wooster stories of P. G. Wodehouse . The term comedy of menace , which British drama critic Irving Wardle based on

722-506: The first comedy of manners In England , but the genre really flourished during the Restoration period. Restoration comedy , which was influenced by Ben Jonson 's comedy of humours , made fun of affected wit and acquired follies of the time. The masterpieces of the genre were the plays of William Wycherley ( The Country Wife , 1675) and William Congreve ( The Way of the World , 1700). In

760-462: The first to record them on gramophone records. An admirer of James Joyce 's poetry, Hughes in 1933 edited The Joyce-Book , a volume of settings of Joyce's poetry, with 13 pieces by 13 composers including, besides Hughes himself, Arnold Bax , Arthur Bliss , Herbert Howells , John Ireland , and non-British composers such as George Antheil , Edgardo Carducci-Agustini , and Albert Roussel . The large-format, blue-cloth covered volume has since become

798-522: The genre. Television series such as George and Mildred , Absolutely Fabulous , The Young Ones , and The League of Gentlemen also contain many elements of the genre. Though less common as a genre in American television, series such as Frasier , King of the Hill , Ugly Betty , Soap , and The Nanny are also comedies of manners. Larry David 's Curb Your Enthusiasm has also been described as

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836-466: The hypocrisies and pretensions of the ancien régime that ruled France from the late 15th century to the 18th century. The comedy of manners has been employed by Roman satirists since as early as the first century BC. Horace 's Satire 1.9 is a prominent example, in which the persona is unable to express his wish for his companion to leave, but instead subtly implies so through wit. William Shakespeare 's Much Ado about Nothing might be considered

874-520: The late 18th century Oliver Goldsmith ( She Stoops to Conquer , 1773) and Richard Brinsley Sheridan ( The Rivals , 1775; The School for Scandal , 1777) revived the form. The tradition of elaborate, artificial plotting, and epigrammatic dialogue was carried on by the Irish playwright Oscar Wilde in Lady Windermere's Fan (1892) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). In the 20th century,

912-471: The more remote glens and valleys of Ulster , he produced Songs of Uladh (1904) with Joseph Campbell , illustrated by his brother John and paid for by Bigger. Throughout his career, he collected and arranged hundreds of traditional melodies and published many of them in his own unique arrangements. Three of his best-known works are the celebrated songs, My Lagan Love , She Moved Through the Fair , and Down by

950-499: The only craft that could gain him the remuneration he desired in a short time: he began writing a play. Over the years, he had written and published essays and poems, and among his papers were numerous unfinished plays, essays and political tracts, but never had he undertaken such an ambitious project as this. In a short time, however, he completed The Rivals . The Rivals was first performed at Covent Garden , London, on 17 January 1775, with comedian Mary Bulkley as Julia Melville. It

988-467: The performances. The play was rewritten as a 1958 episode of the comedic Western television series Maverick , starring the remarkably similar-looking James Garner and Roger Moore , and was the only episode of the series in which Garner and Moore appeared together (Moore did not portray " Beau Maverick ," Bret Maverick 's cousin, until after Garner had left the series two seasons later). The Absolutes were renamed "Vandergelt" with Neil Hamilton as

1026-466: The play and in the next 11 days, rewrote the original (the Larpent manuscript) extensively, including a new preface in which he allowed: For my own part, I see no reason why the author of a play should not regard a first night's audience as a candid and judicious friend attending, in behalf of the public, at his last rehearsal. If he can dispense with flattery, he is sure at least of sincerity, and even though

1064-569: The play was taken to be the identity of the hero of a series of historic fictional adventure books by actor/novelist Chris Humphreys . These take place in Cornwall, London, Quebec, the American colonies during both the Seven Years' War and the American Revolution, and Portugal. A new adaptation written by Richard Bean and Oliver Chris titled Jack Absolute Flies Again was due to premiere at

1102-478: The playwright Menander , whose style of writing, elaborate plots, and stock characters were imitated by Roman playwrights , such as Plautus and Terence , whose comedies were known to and staged during the Renaissance . In the 17th century, the comedy of manners is best realised in the plays of Molière , such as The School for Wives (1662), The Imposter (1664), and The Misanthrope (1666), which satirise

1140-458: The relatively early age of fifty-four. Hughes had a unique approach to arranging Irish traditional music. He called upon the influence of the French impressionist Claude Debussy in his approach to harmony: "Musical art is gradually releasing itself from the tyranny of the tempered scale. […] and if we examine the work of the modern French school, notably that of M. Claude Debussy, it will be seen that

1178-407: The subtitle of The Lunatic View: A Comedy of Menace (1958), by David Campton , is a jocular play-on-words derived from the "comedy of manners" ( menace being manners pronounced with a somewhat Judeo-English accent). Harold Pinter's play The Homecoming has been described as a mid-twentieth-century "comedy of manners". Other more recent examples include Kazuo Ishiguro 's The Remains of

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1216-523: The tendency is to break the bonds of this old slave-driver and return to the freedom of primitive scales." He regarded arrangements as an independent art form on an equal level with original composition: "[…] under his [i.e. the arranger's] hands it is definitively transmuted into an art-song, an art-song of its own generation.". Hughes's folksong arrangements have been sung all across the English-speaking world; John McCormack and Kathleen Ferrier were

1254-668: The wealthy father. Patricia "Pat" Crowley plays the leading lady , whose name is changed from the original play's "Lydia Languish" to "Lydia Lynley." The episode, telecast midway through the series' second season, was called "The Rivals" and the playwright Sheridan was given due credit. In 1962, a radio production by R. D. Smith for the BBC Third Programme featured Fay Compton as Mrs Malaprop, Baliol Holloway as Sir Anthony Absolute, Fenella Fielding as Lydia Languish, Hugh Burden as Captain Absolute and John Hollis as Thomas. It

1292-582: Was a young newlywed living in Bath . At Sheridan's insistence, upon marriage his wife Eliza (born Elizabeth Linley ) had given up her career as a singer. This was proper for a gentleman's wife, but it was difficult because Eliza would have earned a substantial income as a performer. Instead, the Sheridans lived beyond their means as they entertained the gentry and nobility with Eliza's singing (in private parties) and Richard's wit. Finally, in need of funds, Richard turned to

1330-475: Was coined in reference to the character). Lydia has two other suitors: Bob Acres (a somewhat buffoonish country gentleman), and Sir Lucius O'Trigger, an impoverished and combative Irish gentleman. Sir Lucius pays Lucy to carry love notes between him and Lydia (who uses the name "Delia"), but Lucy is swindling him: "Delia" is actually Mrs. Malaprop. As the play opens, Sir Anthony arrives suddenly in Bath. He has arranged

1368-408: Was legendary for conspicuous consumption and fashion at the time. Wealthy, fashionable people went there to " take the waters ", which were believed to have healing properties. Bath society was much less exclusive than London, and hence it provides an ideal setting for the characters. The plot centres on the two young lovers, Lydia and Jack. Lydia, who reads a lot of popular novels of the time, wants

1406-695: Was repeated on 23 December 1963 on the Home Service as part of the "National Theatre of the Air" series. The play was adapted for Australian television in 1961 . The BBC produced a version which was broadcast in 1970 as part of their Play of the Month series, starring Jeremy Brett as Captain Jack Absolute. Another BBC production was broadcast in 1989 as part of their Theatre Night series, starring Donald Sinden as Sir Anthony Absolute. The leading character of

1444-420: Was roundly vilified by both the public and the critics for its length, for its bawdiness and for the character of Sir Lucius O'Trigger being a meanly written role played very badly. The actor, John Lee , after being hit with an apple during the performance, stopped and addressed the audience, asking "By the pow'rs, is it personal ? — is it me, or the matter?" Apparently, it was both. Sheridan immediately withdrew

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