1741

THE YEAR 1741



1741 found England under the reign of King George II, the successor to his father George I. Like his father, George II was born outside of England in Herrenhausen, Hanover. Because of the rocky relationship between George II and his predecessor as well as his limited ability with the English language, the king relied heavily on the prime minister - the first, in fact - Robert Walpole. Walpole was retained from George I’s reign and essentially ruled England in his time in office, which lasted from the 1720s to 1742. In 1741, Walpole was on his last legs as minister, and opposition to him was strong. This is reflected in the headlining articles in //The Gentleman’s Magazine//, which ran in full the debates in Parliament over whether or not Walpole should be removed from office. These articles ran across multiple monthly issues, and debates mostly centered on Walpole’s lack of resolve in fighting French aggression. Relations with France were rocky, as were those with Spain, and England’s ally Austria looked to be in danger. Walpole’s reluctance to engage in battle and conserve England’s resources was widely seen as the wrong attitude to take. The Parliamentary debates frequently cite the public’s general lack of faith in the prime minister. As Walpole resigned in the next year, the criticism was obviously too widespread to be ignored.

**The Gentleman’s Magazine **
D ebates around Walpole were printed at length in //The Gentleman’s // //Magazine//, a new kind of publication that proved extremely popular. The first issue was published in 1731 by Edward Cave in London as //The Monthly Intelligencer //. It is considered the first magazine to refer to itself as a magazine; the word is derived from the Arabic word for “storehouse” to indicate the broad coverage of the paper (Nice). Unlike other papers of the day, Cave’s monthly periodical contained everything from political commentary to poetry. This approach to the magazine’s content was hugely influential, and contributed to the publication’s incredibly long life (the last issue was published in 1922, after over 190 years in print).

The magazine also enjoyed the talents of a group of distinguished writers, most notably Samuel Johnson. Donald Greene writes that Johnson was “one of [the magazine’s] pioneers,” and that “there are times when Johnson seems to have been virtually in editorial control of the journal” (“Samuel Johnson”). Most of the authors in //The Gentleman’s Magazine// wrote under pseudonyms or initials, so it is not always clear who wrote which articles, but Johnson supposedly contributed to the regular features “Foreign Books” and “Foreign History.” He also is supposed to have written a large portion of the transcripts of Parliamentary debates that became a prominent fixture of the magazine for seven years, and helped “establish its lasting prosperity and authority” (Greene).

These importance and popularity of these published debates is apparent looking at the magazine itself; every issue featuring a debate transcript (which is all but one in the year 1741) has the debate as the front page story, completely taking over the first twenty or so pages of the issue. The text also makes reference to the public’s voracious appetite for the transcripts; the August 1741 issue begins with a debate about the treatment and wages of seamen, with the author (probably Johnson) writing that “we cannot doubt but an accurate account of the whole proceedings will be received by the publick with uncommon approbation” (“Untitled item”).

These articles, however, were not direct transcripts; because of a law passed by Parliament banning publication of the debates, //The Gentleman’s Magazine// had to come up with a workaround. The solution was a creative one; the debates were presented not as transcripts of what was happening in England, but transcripts of debates happening in the country of Lilliput – the fictional country described in Jonathan Swift’s //Gulliver’s Travels//. All the names of the M.P.s and countries involved in the debates were altered accordingly (France became Blefuscu), and the debates were published with a wink. The writers had some fun with the thin premise, too – the April issue of the magazine began with this short preface:

Whenever we have to Mr. Gulliver’s Account of the Lilliputian Debates, taken the Liberty to add some parallel Instances in the British, our Readers, we find, have not been displeased with the Opportunity given them to remark the surprising Conformity still subsisting between the two Nations, and never fail to attribute every prudent Precaution in that People to the Example set them by our Legislators and Patriots; so partial are our Reflections for the Honour of our own Country (“Protest on the Pension-Bill”). Despite the fictional veneer, “recent study shows, by comparing [the debates] with other extant reports, that their substance corresponds fairly well to what the speakers are supposed actually to have said” (Greene).

//The Gentleman’s Magazine //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">covered more than slightly fictionalized Parliamentary debates, however. It positioned itself as a general magazine with useful information as well as political and social commentary, as reflected in sections reserved for recording the births, deaths, and marriages of the month and which books were recently released. Field pieces that described foreign lands like Cuba or Malta were regularly published as well. The magazine also frequently printed letters of all sorts, from those that took issue with an author or work to “Dear Abby” style advice columns. One humorous letter is addressed to Alexander Pope, Esq. with the subtitle “The Muse’s Complaint,” and in verse laments the poet’s lack of output:

Bless Us! ‘tis strange, three tedious Years, They say, and not a Line appears; Not one Poetick Cobweb spun, From Thirty-eight to Forty-one (“To Alexander Pope, Esq.”)

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Lying Valet **
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">David Garrick, the author of the two-act farce //The Lying Valet//, which premiered on November 30, 1741, has some connection to //The Gentleman’s Magazine//; Garrick and Samuel Johnson were friends, and Garrick even put on a play written by Johnson as a favor of sorts (Greene). Garrick was primarily known, however, as an actor. Douglas White calls him “one of the true theatrical geniuses of all time,” and his acting style was seen as more natural and internalized than many of his contemporaries (“David Garrick”).

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">In 1741, Garrick was still in the very early part of his career – his debut on the stage was on October 19, 1741, just a little over a month before the debut of //The Lying Valet// (White). The debut of this new actor coincided with the debut of a new stage, “the Late Theatre” in Goodman’s Fields (Lennep). This new venue was created by Henry Giffard, and provided a third venue for performances in addition to Drury Lane and Convent Garden. The Licensing Act prevented Giffa <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1.5;">rd from advertising the place as a theater for plays exclusively, so he presented concerts – ostensibly the main attraction and what people bought tickets for – which were interrupted by free plays (Lennep). One of these free plays was Garrick’s own work, a shorter two-act piece that provides a good dose of farcical humor and not much else.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">There weren’t too many original plays that debuted in 1741; the calendar was dominated by Shakespeare standards like //Richard III, As You Like It, Hamlet//, and other popular hits like //The// //Beggar’s Opera// and //The Country Wife//. Two <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1.5;"> adaptations of popular novels - Richardson’s //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1.5;">Pamela //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1.5;"> and Behn’s //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1.5;">Ooronoko //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1.5;"> - debuted this year, but //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1.5;">The Lying Valet //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1.5;"> remains one of the few original plays written and performed in 1741.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The play aligns itself with the popular sentimental plays of the day. While cynicism in the theater had something of a revival with //The Beggar’s Opera// and //The Country Wife// back on stage, //The Lying Valet// – despite its title – contains no biting satire or immoral rakishness. The plot features Gayless, his servant Sharp, and Melissa and her servant Kitty. Gayless is set to marry Melissa the next day, but he’s hopelessly broke and paranoid that Melissa might find out and cancel the union. In order to protect his master (and keep the marriage on so that he’ll get paid), Sharp goes to Melissa and lies that her reputation has been ruined in the eyes of Gayless’s neighbors, keeping her from having a pre-marriage party at Gayless’s house. Kitty, who doesn’t approve of her master’s marrying a broke man, tries to sabotage the marriage by having the party anyway, without Melissa. When the party guests arrive in number G <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 1.5;">ayless and Sharp try to distract them with cards while failing in various ways to mooch money off whoever they can. Their luck seems to favor them when a drunk cook stumbles into their house by mistake, conveniently prepared to prepare food for a party; they anger him, though, when they insist that he’s paid tomorrow. Gayless and Sharp’s last ditch attempt to hide their poverty has them lying that they saw a guest on his way to the party possibly in mortal danger. The male guests all run out to help the guest, but when they see that nothing is wrong the game is up. Since this is a comedy, though, of course things turn out well in the end: the cook and the last guest are revealed to be Melissa (as the guest) and Gayless’s old friend Dick (as the cook). They say that they wanted to “teaze [Gayless] a little, that you might have a greater Relish for a happy Turn in your Affairs” (Garrick 32). This “happy turn” is a letter from Gayless’s father, swearing that he will no longer disown his son, allowing Gayless to enjoy wealth and happily enter into marriage.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">While Garrick’s play is not very political, it does reflect the ideas of gender and marriage of the time. Melissa’s servant Kitty has a pronounced distrust of men, calling them “a Parcel of barbarous, perjured, deluding, bewitching Devils” (Garrick 8). Sharp does not favor marriage and only wants Gayless to marry to escape poverty, while Gayless’s friend Mr. Trippet seems to have changed his views on marriage: “My dear Charles, I am very angry with you […] so near marriage and not let me know, ‘twas barbarous; you thought, I suppose, I should rally you upon it; but dear Mrs. Trippet here has long ago eradicated all my antimatrimonial Principles” (20). Melissa has a good deal of agency in the play and is ultimately the one who has the power to decide whether or not she will marry; when she does decide to marry Gayless, he gets on his knees in gratitude before she raises him up.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">A greater appreciation of women seems to be connected to the moment the play was made; earlier in the same year, pieces in //The Gentleman’s Magazine// focused on woman are mostly celebratory; “In Praise of Women,” a poem in the August issue, portrays women as nearly perfect beings only let down by men’s influence on them:

Man was a happy favourite above, When heav’n endow’d him with the pow’r to love; For God ne’er thought him in a perfect state, ‘Till woman made his happiness complete!

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">An essay in the January issue entitled “Reflections on the Female Sex” is slightly less exuberant, but it still refutes the idea that women are flawed because of their fickleness: “to judge impartially, Men are less constant in their Affections than Women.”

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Both of these pieces suggest that women are only as flawed or even less flawed than men, and that kind of thinking is borne out in Garrick’s play, in which Melissa is a thoroughly moral character even as she sympathizes with the comparatively selfish Gayless. Sharp’s deceits are forgiven in the end because they were in service to his master, but his constant scheming and trickery also put him in a poor light compared to his female counterpart Kitty, whose objections to the marriage (that Gayless is destitute and deceitful) are completely true until the end of the play.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">While Garrick’s status as a writer pales in comparison to his legacy as a stage actor, //The Lying Valet// proves that he was able to write an entertaining piece in the sentimental style of the time. It was probably a refreshing interlude on the Goodman’s Fields stage, which unfortunately did not last long; it closed in 1742. Garrick went on to Drury Lane to great success and accolades, while Robert Walpole was pushed out of office and ended his time as leader of England. 1741 could be seen as a year of transition – in the theater and politically.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Works Cited

<span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Garrick, David. //The lying valet; as it is now performing with great applause, at the theatre in Goodman's-Fields. By D. Garrick.// Dublin, MDCCXLI. [1741]. __Eighteenth Century Collections Online__. Gale. University of Maryland College Park. 6 July 2015.

"George II." //Chambers Biographical Dictionary//. Liam Rodger and Joan Bakewell. London: Chambers Harrap, 2011. //Credo Reference.// Web. 9 July 2015.

Greene, Donald. "Samuel Johnson." //British Prose Writers, 1660-1800//: //Second Series//. Ed. Donald T. Siebert. Detroit: Gale, 1991. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 104. //Literature Resource Center//. Web. 7 July 2015.

"In Praise of WOMAN." //The Gentleman's Magazine: and historical chronicle, Jan.1736-Dec.1833// 11 (1741): 437. //ProQuest.// Web. 9 July 2015.

Lennep, William Van, ed. //The London Stage, 1660-1800: a Calendar of Plays, Entertainments & Afterpieces, Together With Casts, Box-receipts And Contemporary Comment.// [1st ed.] Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1968.

Nice, Liz. "British Magazines." //Encyclopedia of Journalism//. Christopher H. Sterling. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2009.//Credo Reference.// Web. 9 July 2015.

"PROTEST on the PENSION-BILL." //The Gentleman's Magazine: and historical chronicle, Jan.1736-Dec.1833// 11 (1741): 115-20.//ProQuest.// Web. 7 July 2015.

"REFLECTIONS on the FEMALE SEX." //The Gentleman's Magazine: and historical chronicle, Jan.1736-Dec.1833// 11 (1741): 27-8.//ProQuest.// Web. 9 July 2015.

"To ALEXANDER POPE, Esq;" //The Gentleman's Magazine: and historical chronicle, Jan.1736-Dec.1833// 11 (1741): 545-6.//ProQuest.// Web. 8 July 2015.

"Untitled Item." //The Gentleman's Magazine: and historical chronicle, Jan.1736-Dec.1833// 11 (1741): 451-73. //ProQuest.// Web. 4 July 2015.

"Walpole, Robert, 1st Earl of Orford." //Britannica Concise Encyclopedia//. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 2014. //Credo Reference.// Web. 5 July 2015.

White, Douglas H. "David Garrick (19 February 1717-20 January 1779)." //Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Dramatists//: //Second Series//. Ed. Paula R. Backscheider. Vol. 84. Detroit: Gale, 1989. 146-180. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 84. //Dictionary of Literary Biography Main Series//. Web. 8 July 2015.