ABSTRACT
The repertoire of the patent theatres in the last quarter of the eighteenth century contained many more revivals of William Shakespeare and other ‘old’ plays than original works. But there were original plays being written which tried to define the nation at a time of great social and political stress. The playwright who has always been rightly admired is Richard Brinsley Sheridan. The Rivals, after a bumpy start when it was disrupted by a claque organised by Matthews, Sheridan’s vanquished rival for the love of Elizabeth Linley, was an extraordinarily brilliant first play by a twenty-three-year-old. The boisterousness of Shakespeare, or even fielding, was rejected, and the theatre tried to tell stories which in their way of telling would help to define the nation rationally, and this in itself would contribute to public discussion. Racism is entangled with national identity, and there were periodic protests against Jews in theatre audiences.
