She Stoops to Conquer

or;

The Mistakes Of A Night.

A Comedy in Five Acts

(1773)

Dedication:

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.

This wonderful comedy by a genius playwright, Oliver Goldsmith, in its time ran to a full playhouse for a long time; heralding the era of laughing comedies and being contemporary to other plays of the time and the same genre like "The Rivals" of Sheridan. The story revolves around the family of Hardcastles and their friends. Goldsmith brings out the comic effect in depicting these characters, their idiosyncrasies and foibles and schemes and manoeuvres which land them in more troubles. All the characters are universal and commonplace, which might have contributed to the success of this comedy. Whether its the selfish and scheming Mrs. Hardcastle, or her pampered but beneficent son Mr. Tony, or her submissive but clever niece Miss Neville, or her niece's funny and shrewd lover Mr. Hastings, all these look like your neighborhood characters you bump into. The story is about Miss Hardcastle, a vain and fashionable typical girl of the times who would try to find a suitable fiance in Mr. Marlow who is sent to Hardcastles by his father. But, he is misguided to deem the house of Hardcastles as an inn, in the process of which he considers Miss Hardcastle a barmaid, and her parents as land-lords. Mr. Hastings, a friend of Mr. Marlow, accompanies him to the house of Hardcastles, with an eye on eloping with his love, Miss Neville. Mrs. Hardcastle plans to marry her niece Neville to her son Tony, so that Neville's property remains in the family. However, Mr. Tony has plans to marry another girl. The main character, Miss Hardcastle remains as meek as a barmaid. How all these plots and counterplots fructify and finally who marries whom is the mainstay of the drama and simultaneously produces hilarity and laughter. Goldsmith, being a domestic playwright, churns out day to day characters of real life which make this rib-tickling comedy an all time play. The genius of Goldsmith is reflected in the words of Mr. Hardcastle to his daughter "I could never teach the fools of this age, that the indigent world could be clothed out of the trimmings of the vain". A great masterpiece of comedy for all lovers of literature to read!--Submitted by K. Rajagopal