Both Sheridan and Goldsmith lamented the popularity of sentimentalcomedy in the later eighteenth century and wrote their witty andsatirical plays (though never lascivious in the manner of Restorationcomedies) to counteract the sentimental mode. The Rivals (1775) was aqualified success: the suave young officer who is 'forced' by hisfather to marry the very girl to whom he is secretly engaged mustalways please; but first audiences were as uncertain as later criticsabout how to evaluate his neurotic friend Faulkland, who invents aseries of caveats for his marriage to the earnest Julia. A...
Both Sheridan and Goldsmith lamented the popularity of sentimentalcomedy in the later eighteenth century and wrote their witty andsatirical plays (...
