1778

= = 1778 was a nervous time for Great Britain. The American Revolution was entering its third year of fighting, and now its hated rival France, no longer gave informal aid to the rebels; it joined the fray by declaring war on Britain. Concern about an invasion of Britain began to grow. The King ceased to worry about the Americas, as his European enemies began to increase. The theatre reflected this, as the most popular play of the 1778-1779 season was about a military camp worrying about French invasion. =**The American Revolution**= Now in its third year the American Revolution taxed the already financially overburdened England. The average English citizen was against the war in the first place. England had also recently been dealt a string of defeats including a massive surrender under General Burgoyne in New York. England was already suffering a heavy tax burden from the Seven Years War and so tried to collect taxes from their North American colonies. The American Revolution now further increased Britain’s war debt and increased taxes to the natives of Great Britain. Britain’s newspapers would report on the events of the war throughout the year, and Britain lacked any large success till the following year. Britain had begun what appeared to be a losing streak. The entry of their powerful enemy France into the war did little to ease British worries. =**The Threat of Invasion**=

England in 1778 was in an almost untenable position. Its colonies were in rebellion and the threat of a World War was being realized. King George said "It was a joke to think of keeping Pennsylvania." Britain attempted to negotiate peace and when that failed they intended to defeat the Americans by waging a war of attrition. Spain, seeking to recover Gibraltar and France looking to bloody England both planned an invasion in conjunction with the American Navy. The Americans were to feint while the Spaniards and French were to capture several strategic naval bases. Britain began fretting over this invasion. Fear of French invasion becomes more prevalent in the newspapers and =**The General Evening Post**= This newspaper, published on a relatively frequent basis, frequently covered news from the war in the United States. Reports of supposed American privateers pop in the news as warnings to those who would sail. The newspaper covers the actions of Parliament to prevent European war from erupting. The month of January all the news pertains to the military, in relation to the struggle in the colonies. The opinion articles call to the citizens of their country to take a side on the American Revolution. General opinion being that the American South would remain loyal and that the loyalists in the South could turn the American Revolution back in Britain's favor. Many opinions written called for the country to continue fighting America as a measure of patriotic duty. The King continued to desire to hold the colonies, so it seems the newspaper agreed with his Majesty. The post does not address theatre a great deal, though it occasionally offered reviews of new productions and had an arts section which included poems and other news about musical performances. Still the performance of //The Camp// and the frequent military news shows how intently the public thought about these affairs. Their theatre and their news reflected what was most on their minds. =**General John Burgoyne**= Sheridan, the author of //The School for Scandal//, is not the sole author of //The Camp//. General John Burgoyne, pictured above, was the British general in command of the massive British defeat at Saratoga, which is widely credited with drawing the French into the war outright. Because of this, Burgoyne would never command troops in battle again. He returned to writing for the stage, which he had done previously in 1774. He loved theatre and after the death of his wife he would have four children by his mistress, who was an opera singer. The result of Burgoyne’s return to theatrics was a collaboration with Sheridan and David Garrick that would become a success in its time. =**Theatre in 1778**=

In 1778, a number of plays came out. //The Battle of Hastings//, which was a tragedy, debuted in Drury Lane. Its author received such criticism that Sheridan would mock him in the 1779 play //The Critic//. //The School for Scandal// entered its second year and received many performances. Two other new plays also debuted, //The Princess of// Parma, which does not survive to this day, and //Tony Lumpkin Comes to Town,// by O’Keefe which was a sequel to a comedy by another playwright. Many Italian operas continued to be put on and several older plays also appeared. Most notable among these was //The School for Scandal// which now entering its second year remained a popular production and was only defeated by Sheridan’s latest work in terms of number of performances. Overall it was a good year for theatre, with four new shows debuting this is double the number that came out in 1777. Drury Lane managed to hold onto its most coveted and most popular theatre title as it was the birthplace of the two most popular plays of the season, as well as being the debut spot for //The Battle of Hastings.// //The Camp// however was the most performed work of the year. =**The Camp**= //The Camp// defeated Sheridan’s other work in production in popularity in 1778. //The School for Scandal// was bested by this play focusing on the very contemporary fear of invasion. It premiered in the Drury Lane theatre in October of that year. Sheridan was behind both of the most popular plays of that season. //The Camp// and //The School for Scandal// were the most popular performances of the season. //The Camp// however beat it handily. The camp focuses on the lives of the civilians near a military camp and how the presence of the military has affected their lives. Gage, the camp’s quartermaster, is a cheat and a con. He has bribed his way into the office and attempts to silence other characters with bribes, such as a pound of tea, and then threatening people with arrest if they continue discussing his corruption. His corruption even seems humorous, as in one instance he replaces the soldiers wig powder with lime to cut costs and his deception went unnoticed until it rains. Lime when mixed with water is used to create the building material mortar. The play opens with the civilians stealing chickens to sell back to the army once again. All the civilians seem to be corrupted by the money and the camp nearby. They discuss how they will side with whosever’s army is the strongest. They lack the conviction and patriotism the newspaper opinions are telling them to display. The very beginning of this play it looks to be lighter and happier than it is. We even have characters disguising themselves as men to meet with their lovers clandestinely. It opens like a comedy in the first act and then becomes much darker in the second act. The play is darker than normal comedies as it deals with the very real subject matter of corruption and many of the worries about foreign invasion that were prevalent in the day. One of the most interesting character is the Irish painter O’Daub, who is mistaken for a spy. He takes note of the workings of the camp and is taken off to be hung for it. O’Daub lacks any malice whereas Gage is nothing but slime. O’Daub is only saved by an upper class woman confirming his identity to prevent him from being hung. He like Corporal William and his lover Nancy seems to be one of the few who is not teeming with corruption throughout this play. The women of this play, particularly Nell, are actually the most virtuous characters. Nell calls out Gage for his corruption. She also refuses to be bribed by him. She passes along news to Corporal William about his lover Nancy and is a strong independent female character. That is not to discredit Nancy however, she disguises in a manner similar to Sir Oliver in //The School for Scandal// to test her lover. She is thrilled when he assures her of his faithfulness. Again like Sir Oliver, when they meet again William does not immediately see through the disguise. This play has several interesting elements. The army itself does not appear corrupt, even if they are a tad paranoid due to the threat of invasion, and women seem to be above the temptation of corruption, but the civilians nearby are made into horrible people by the coin of the army. They lack patriotism and moral complications about scamming their clientele. The comedy definitely discusses the flaws of the lower classes as Oliver Goldsmith thought they ought, in his “An Essay on Theatre.” =**Conclusion**= 1778 was a year of uncertainty and fear in Britain. They were very quickly fighting a war all over the world and the majority of people were unsure if they could win such a conflict. Fear gripped the nation as their neighbor across the channel made deals with Spain to try and invade Britain. Britain became less enamored with the idea of winning the American Revolution as even the King became more concerned with dangers closer to home. The theatre was filled with recent works the two most popular productions being less than five years old and both of them were written by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Sheridan would follow up with another immensely popular play the following year as well, giving him three successes within three years. The issues of contemporary society proved the most popular as these two comedies ruled the productions and performances at the Drury Lane theatre. England looked to the present and the issues of the day. If they were to be the most powerful empire in the world, they would need to focus on the here and now, not the issues of yesteryear. =**Works Cited**= 1: Sheridan, Richard Brinsley. __The__ __camp, a musical entertainment, as performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. By__ __R. B. Sheridan, Esq.__ London, Printed in the Year M,DCC,XCV. [1795]. __Eighteenth Century Collections Online__. Gale. University of Maryland College Park. 10 July 2014 . 2:Trevelyan, George Otto. //George the Third and Charles Fox: the concluding part of The American revolution// Longmans, Green, 1912. 3:Ennis, Daniel J. & Slagle, Judith Bailey. //Prologues, Epilogues, Curtain-Raisers and Afterpieces//. Rosemont Publishing, 2007 4:Burgoyne, John. //The Dramatic and Poetical Works of the Late Lieut. Gen. J. Burgoyne//. 1st Edition. London: C. Whittingham, 1807. Web. [] 5: Kurlat, Charles, perf. //The Revolutionary War//. The Learning Channel: 1997. Television. [] 6: //General Evening Post// [London, England] 1778: n. pag. //17th-18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers//. Web 7://[Ticket of Drury Lane Theatre, 1778,9 ]//. N.d. Photograph. Oxford Digital Library, Oxford. Web. 10 Jul 2014. http://www2.odl.ox.ac.uk/gsdl/cgi-bin/library?e=d-000-00---0bodjjo05--00-0-0-0prompt-10---4dtt--0-1l--1-en-50---20-about-18th Century Entertainment Ephemera Zz- Ticket of Drury Lane Theatre, 1778--00001-001-1-1isoZz-8859Zz-1-0&a=d&cl=search&d=bodjjo005-aio.1 8: Reynolds, Joshua. //Portrait of John Burgoyne//. N.d. Painting. WikipediaWeb. 10 Jul 2014. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Burgoyne #mediaviewer/File:BurgoyneByReynolds.jpg 9: Vellejo,. //The British convoy of sixty-three ships and all but eight ships captured by the fleet under Luis de Cordova//. Late 18th Century. Painting. Wikipedia, National Maritime Museum. Web. 10 Jul 2014. []