ABSTRACT
Through their laughter at and applause for A.R.Gurney’s Sylvia, audiences celebrate both novelty and familiarity. This balance of the fresh and the familiar suggests Gurney, in an appeal deeper than simply laughter, has achieved what Alexander Pope proffered as one definition of wit: “What oft was Thought, but ne’er so well Exprest” (Essay on Criticism, 298). The concept of the play constitutes the truth we often think: freedom, sensory response, unquestioning love, and nonrational enjoyment of life might well be the antidote to an overintellectualized, formal, and restrictive existence. Often thought, as well, is the solace and sturdy virtue a dog brings as humanity’s best friend. “Ne’er so well Exprest” is that, here, the dog can talk in words and sentences the human brain is accustomed to processing. With her heightened language, the dog talks the way wits in Restoration comedy and Oscar Wilde talk. Out of the mouth of Sylvia comes the way genuinely witty human beings would express themselves if they could.
