The School for Scandal

Produced by Gary R. Young








THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL


A COMEDY

A PORTRAIT<1>

BY R. B. SHERIDAN, ESQ.


Transcriber's Comments on the preparation of this E-Text:

SQUARE BRACKETS:

The square brackets, i.e. [ ] are copied from the printed book, without
change, except that a closing bracket "]" has been added to the stage
directions.


FOOTNOTES:

For this E-Text version of the book, the footnotes have been
consolidated at the end of the play.

Numbering of the footnotes has been changed, and each footnote is given
a unique identity in the form <X>.


CHANGES TO THE TEXT:

Character names have been expanded. For Example, SIR BENJAMIN was SIR
BEN.




THE TEXT OF THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL

The text of THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL in this edition is taken, by Mr.
Fraser Rae's generous permission, from his SHERIDAN'S PLAYS NOW PRINTED
AS HE WROTE THEM. In his Prefatory Notes (xxxvii), Mr. Rae writes: "The
manuscript of it [THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL] in Sheridan's own handwriting
is preserved at Frampton Court and is now printed in this volume. This
version differs in many respects from that which is generally known,
and I think it is even better than that which has hitherto been read and
acted. As I have endeavoured to reproduce the works of Sheridan as he
wrote them, I may be told that he was a bad hand at punctuating and very
bad at spelling. . . . But Sheridan's shortcomings as a speller have
been exaggerated." Lest "Sheridan's shortcomings" either in spelling
or in punctuation should obscure the text, I have, in this edition,
inserted in brackets some explanatory suggestions. It has seemed best,
also, to adopt a uniform method for indicating stage-directions and
abbreviations of the names of characters. There can be no gain to the
reader in reproducing, for example, Sheridan's different indications for
the part of Lady Sneerwell--LADY SNEERWELL, LADY SNEER., LADY SN., and
LADY S.--or his varying use of EXIT and EX., or his inconsistencies in
the use of italics in the stage-directions. Since, however, Sheridan's
biographers, from Moore to Fraser Rae, have shown that no authorised or
correct edition of THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL was published in Sheridan's
lifetime, there seems unusual justification for reproducing the text of
the play itself with absolute fidelity to the original manuscript. Mr.
Ridgway, who repeatedly sought to obtain a copy corrected by the author,
according to Moore's account (LIFE OF SHERIDAN, I. p. 260), "was told
by Mr. Sheridan, as an excuse for keeping it back, that he had been
nineteen years endeavouring to satisfy himself with the style of The
School for Scandal, but had not yet succeeded." Mr. Rae (SHERIDAN, I. p.
332) recorded his discovery of the manuscript of "two acts of The School
for Scandal prepared by Sheridan for publication," and hoped, before his
death, to publish this partial revision. Numberless unauthorized changes
in the play have been made for histrionic purposes, from the first
undated Dublin edition to that of Mr. Augustin Daly. Current texts may
usually be traced, directly or indirectly, to the two-volume Murray
edition of Sheridan's plays, in 1821. Some of the changes from the
original manuscript, such as the blending of the parts of Miss Verjuice
and Snake, are doubtless effective for reasons of dramatic economy, but
many of the "cuts" are to be regretted from the reader's standpoint. The
student of English drama will prefer Sheridan's own text to editorial
emendations, however clever or effective for dramatic ends.





THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL


ADDRESSED TO MRS. CREWE,

WITH THE COMEDY OF THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL

     Tell me, ye prim adepts in Scandal's school,
     Who rail by precept, and detract by rule,
     Lives there no character, so tried, so known,
     So deck'd with grace, and so unlike your own,
     That even you assist her fame to raise,
     Approve by envy, and by silence praise!--
     Attend!--a model shall attract your view--
     Daughters of calumny, I summon you!
     You shall decide if this a portrait prove,
     Or fond creation of the Muse and Love.--
     Attend, ye virgin critics, shrewd and sage,
     Ye matron censors of this childish age,
     Whose peering eye and wrinkled front declare
     A fixt antipathy to young and fair;
     By cunning, cautious; or by nature, cold,
     In maiden madness, virulently bold!--
     Attend! ye skilled to coin the precious tale,
     Creating proof, where innuendos fail!
     Whose practised memories, cruelly exact,
     Omit no circumstance, except the fact!--
     Attend, all ye who boast,--or old or young,--
     The living libel of a slanderous tongue!
     So shall my theme as far contrasted be,
     As saints by fiends, or hymns by calumny.
     Come, gentle Amoret (for 'neath that name,
     In worthier verse is sung thy beauty's fame);
     Come--for but thee who seeks the Muse?