1776b


 * Great Britain in 1776 **

The Fall of 1776 was a politically-charged period in England’s history. As the American colonies declared their independence from Great Britain, parliament prepared to reconvene in London (Oct. 29), to discuss the ongoing war in North America. As the government discussed ways to contain the war abroad, English servicemen anticipated the inclusion of France and/or Spain as potential threats to Great Britain and allies to America. Shortly after parliament begins session in this year, King George III makes an eloquent appeal explaining the current status of the war (those colonies won and lost), but states that the one great advantage is that Great Britain shall have unanimity at home (in this same appeal he also requests more money for war). During his reign as King during the American Revolution, King George III insisted on taxing the American colonies to pay for military protection, while the American colon ies went without any representation in the British parliament – hence the onset of the American Revolution and the colonies declaring their independence from Great Britain in 1776. It wasn’t until the signing of the Peace at Versailles in 1783 that Great Britain would acknowledge the independence of the United States of America.
 * //__Great Br __//**** //__itain & The America __// **** //__s __// **[[image:restorationand18thcenturydrama/AmeriRevolution.jpg width="425" height="241"]]

The Edinburgh Magazine and Review was a Scottish periodical published monthly from 1773 to 1776. Founded by Gilbert Stuart, the son of a professor at Edinburgh University, Stuart traveled to London in 1768 and worked at another periodical (The Monthly Review) for five years before deciding to launch The Edinburgh Magazine and Review. Early advantages were negated by Stuart's tendency to pursue private vendettas against lawyers and other historians in these articles. The first volume was published in October 1773, but was discontinued just three years later. In the end, it was a series of critical articles written over multiple editions of the paper that led to its publication being discontinued. The Magazine discussed various current events and emerging intellectual theories at that time,
 * //__The Edinburgh Magazine and Review __//**



Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s play //The Rival// debuted at Convent Garden Theatre in January 1775, but was performed in early 1776. The play was not received well at its debut, partly because of its length, but also because of the bad playing of Sir Lucius O’Trigger. The defects were remedied and the play received a much better review by its second performance on the 28th of the month. In Sheridan’s very first play and comedy of manners, we watch as the characters explore familiar topics such as arranged marriages, hidden identities and the indirect manipulation of one another that ultimately leads to key characters obtaining their heart’s desire. The father, Sir Anthony Absolute “is a figure for patriarchal tyranny not at all distant from George III’s manifestation of tyranny at the moment of the play’s first performance in 1775” (Quinn 118). The character of Sir Lucius O’Trigger also emulates a popular government official during the time, as his “advocacy of violence and his manipulation of the rhetoric of honor allegorizes the Ministry’s policy of war and re- conquest” (Quinn 119). In his essay, “Navigating Crisis in Sheridan’s //The Rival//”, Daniel O’Quinn describes ways in which Sheridan’s play forces audiences “to feel and assess the historical impa sse besetting all aspects of the British polity during the American crisis” (Quinn 118). The plot hints at the ideas of both servility and liberty that the colonists were fighting for and the British audience would have been all too familiar with at the time, while never directly addressing the impending war but hinting at it. All in all, Sheridan’s critique of obligation suggests that the audience should re-evaluate and reform previous notions of sovereign control and nostalgic fantasies during a time of cultural vulnerability. Brinsley would later go on to produce many notable plays, including //The School for Scandal// in 1777, and would become part owner of the Drury Lane theater company in 1776.
 * //__The Rivals __// **



The Theater Season of 1776 was not without controversy as James Lacy, one of the supervisors of the Drury Lane theater company, died and left his share of the business to his young son, Willoughby Lacy. Lacy, not having any experience, left the task of running the company to his father’s partner, David Garrick. Garrick was already afflicted with kidney stones that would eventually lead to his death, and accepted a sum of 35,000 euros from three, enterprising investors who purchased the Drury Lane Theater Company – Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Thomas Linley (Sheridan’s father-in-law) and Dr. James Ford (Willoughby Lacy remained a managing partner). There was great concern as to whether these four men could handle the inner workings of the theater, and there were immediate disagreements as Lacy attempted to sell his share of the theater to two of his friends (it was later determined that the agreement was not legally bound). Lacy later convinced his friends to bow out, and wrote a letter of reconciliation to his partners requesting that he be allowed to appear, in various important parts, on stage. Sheridan and Linley took command of running the theater, and Sheridan produced on ninety different nights this season (plays which he had either written or altered). The opening night of Sheridan’s most famous play, //The School for Scandal//, took place on May 8, 1777 (//The London Stage// 5).
 * //__The Theater Season: 1776-1777 __//**

Richard Brinsley Sheridan

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 9pt;">JENYNS, SOAME. "COURAGE, PATRIOTISM, and FRIENDSHIP, Incompatible with CHRISTIANITY." //The Edinburgh magazine and review// 5 (1776): 337-9. //ProQuest.// Web. 13 July 2016.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Sources: **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">O’Quinn, Daniel. “Navigating Crisis in Sheridan’s The Rivals.” //Eighteenth Century: Theory And Interpretation// 55.1 (2014): 117-122. //MLA International Bibliography//. Web. 12 July 2016.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">"Richard Brinsley Sheridan". //Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.//<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 2016. Web. 12 Jul. 2016

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">Sheridan, Richard Brinsley. //The rivals, a comedy, in five acts. As it is performed at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane By Richard Brinsley Sheridan Esq.// London [i.e. York?]: printed for A. Miller, W. Law, and R. Cater, 1797. //Eighteenth Century Collections Online//. Web. 13 July 2016.

__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;">The London Stage, 1660-1800: a Calendar of Plays, Entertainments & Afterpieces, Together With Casts, Box-receipts And Contemporary Comment. __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 10pt;"> [1st ed.] pt. 5, vol. 1. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press,1965.