• The Play and Its Context
  • Emily Mann on She Stoops to Conquer
  • Oliver Goldsmith: A Biography
  • Goldsmith and Georgian Comedy
  • A Comparison Between Sentimental and Laughing Comedy
  • Life and Art in Georgian England
  • Country Homes, Travel, and Inns
  • Marriage in Eighteenth-Century England
• About this Production
  • Who’s Who
  • Character Profiles
  • Interview With Nicholas Martin
• Theater in the Classroom
  • Core Curriculum Standards
  • Pre-Show Discussion Questions and Activities
  • Post-Show Discussion Questions and Activities
• Additional Resources

Goldsmith and Georgian Comedy

Though She Stoops to Conquer, by Oliver Goldsmith, is often dubbed a “Restoration comedy” by publicists and reviewers, in fact, it opened in 1773—over a hundred years after restoration of the monarchy in England, which occurred in 1660.  The similarity between She Stoops to Conquer and Restoration comedies is no accident.  With She Stoops to Conquer (and his essay on sentimental and laughing comedies), Goldsmith was, in fact, attempting to bring back Restoration-type “laughing comedies,” which had fallen out of favor as “sentimental comedies” had taken over the stage.  Along with Richard Brinsley Sheridan, the author of two later comedies, The School for Scandal (1776) and The Rivals (1775), Goldsmith led a reaction against sentimentalism on the stage.  The sentimental plays had arisen partly in response to the seeming immorality of Restoration comedies, which typically depicted a rakish, decidedly unvirtuous hero whose vices go unpunished.  In contrast, sentimental comedies generally portrayed resistance to temptation and virtue’s final triumph.

In reacting against the trend of didactic and moralistic sentimental comedies, Goldsmith drew inspiration from his past.  Goldsmith would have been very well steeped in the English drama that preceded him—during Goldsmith’s time, the repertory at the theater companies consisted of approximately 1/3 English Renaissance plays (such as Shakespeare, Jonson and Marlowe), 1/3 Restoration plays (by writers such as Dryden, Wycherley, and Congreve), and 1/3 new plays by writers such as Goldsmith, Sheridan, and their contemporaries.  Goldsmith and Sheridan drew upon their antecedents (particularly the Restoration comedies), writing comedies which mocked the social mores and behavior of the upper class.  Their comedies emphasized wit, often took a somewhat critical view of romantic love, and generally prized nimble social skills and adept self-promotion over virtue and honest dealing.  With She Stoops to Conquer, it is clear that Goldsmith cannot entirely leave the sentimental comedy behind (indeed, there are traces of it throughout the play). Nevertheless, his play marks a significant departure from the form, an innovation which was not emulated by the playwrights who followed him—the plays written after Goldsmith’s time became even more sentimental, eventually developing into the form “melodrama.”

(Adapted from McCarter Theatre’s The School for Scandal Audience Resource Guide)