Produced by Kent Cooper
The RIVALS
A Comedy
By Richard Brinsley Sheridan
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A preface to a play seems generally to be considered as a kind ofcloset-prologue, in which—if his piece has been successful—the authorsolicits that indulgence from the reader which he had beforeexperienced from the audience: but as the scope and immediate object ofa play is to please a mixed assembly in representation (whosejudgment in the theatre at least is decisive,) its degree of reputationis usually as determined as public, before it can be prepared for thecooler tribunal of the study. Thus any farther solicitude on the partof the writer becomes unnecessary at least, if not an intrusion: and ifthe piece has been condemned in the performance, I fear an address tothe closet, like an appeal to posterity, is constantly regarded as theprocrastination of a suit, from a consciousness of the weakness of thecause. From these considerations, the following comedy would certainlyhave been submitted to the reader, without any farther introductionthan what it had in the representation, but that its success hasprobably been founded on a circumstance which the author is informedhas not before attended a theatrical trial, and which consequentlyought not to pass unnoticed.
I need scarcely add, that the circumstance alluded to was thewithdrawing of the piece, to remove those imperfections in the firstrepresentation which were too obvious to escape reprehension, and toonumerous to admit of a hasty correction. There are few writers, Ibelieve, who, even in the fullest consciousness of error, do not wishto palliate the faults which they acknowledge; and, however triflingthe performance, to second their confession of its deficiencies, bywhatever plea seems least disgraceful to their ability. In the presentinstance, it cannot be said to amount either to candour or modesty inme, to acknowledge an extreme inexperience and want of judgment onmatters, in which, without guidance from practice, or spur fromsuccess, a young man should scarcely boast of being an adept. If it besaid, that under such disadvantages no one should attempt to write aplay, I must beg leave to dissent from the position, while the firstpoint of experience that I have gained on the subject is, a knowledgeof the candour and judgment with which an impartial publicdistinguishes between the errors of inexperience and incapacity, andthe indulgence which it shows even to a disposition to remedy thedefects of either.
It were unnecessary to enter into any further extenuation of what wasthought exceptionable in this play, but that it has been said, that themanagers should have prevented some of the defects before itsappearance to the public—and in particular the uncommon length of thepiece as represented the first night. It were an ill return for themost liberal and gentlemanly conduct on their side, to suffer anycensure to rest where none was deserved. Hurry in writing has long beenexploded as an excuse for an author;—however, in the dramatic line,it may happen, that both an author and a manager may wish to fill achasm in the entertainment of the public with a hastiness notaltogether culpable. The season was advanced when I first put the playinto Mr. Harris's hands: it was at that time at least double the lengthof any acting comedy. I profited by his judgment and experience in thecurtailing of it—till, I believe, his feeling for the vanity of ayoung author got the better of his desire for correctness, and he leftmany excrescences remaining, because he had assisted in pruning so manymore. Hence, though I was not uninformed that the acts were still tool