The Rivals and Polly Honeycombe (1775,1760)
Richard Brinsley Sheridan author George Colman the Elder author David Brewer editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Broadview Press Ltd
Published:30th Jul '12
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
The Rivals and Polly Honeycombe revolve around young women who wish the world would conform to novelistic convention. Unlike most eighteenth-century heroines keen on novel reading, however, Lydia Languish and Polly Honeycombe are neither deluded nor in any real danger. Rather, they inhabit a world in which everyone is engaged in some sort of quixotic performance; the more appealing characters are just willing to admit it. Both farcical and wise, these plays teasingly celebrate the perennial appeal of fiction, while never letting us forget how much it relies upon the everyday rituals of performance.
The introduction to this Broadview edition explores the interrelations between print and performance in the eighteenth century, including a detailed and well-illustrated account of what it was like to go to the theater. Appendices include material on the original casts, the often dubious reputation of novel reading and circulating libraries, Sheridan’s high-profile elopement with Elizabeth Linley (which made him a celebrity before he ever staged a word), and the narrative possibilities conjured up by setting The Rivals in the resort city of Bath.
“These two comedies, about ‘novel-reading girls gone wild,’ make for an inspired pairing; in this edition, David A. Brewer makes the pairing pay off handsomely. With its revelatory illustrations, its deft notes, its brief biographies of the plays’ original performers, its varied and very amusing supplementary readings, and its ingenious, down-to-earth introduction, Brewer’s edition does the best job I’ve seen of getting readers not only through the plays but to the playhouse: of helping them to imagine the daily experiences—of work and leisure, print and public life—that shaped both actors and audiences, and that inflected their interactions during the first runs of these two hugely entertaining shows.” — Stuart Sherman, Fordham University
“David A. Brewer’s new edition of The Rivals and Polly Honeycombe is a fantastic resource for scholars and students studying eighteenth-century British literature and culture. The plays are, in themselves, two of the most entertaining works of the period, and they remain remarkably relevant for our own time, given their focus on the impact of popular culture. But what really make this edition stand out are the editorial apparatus and the rich historical and visual materials provided in the introduction and appendices. This edition can’t teach itself, but it will certainly help others teach this material to best effect.” — Matthew J. Kinservik, University of Delaware
ISBN: 9781554810062
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
324 pages