SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER

She Stoops to Conquer, first performed at Covent Garden in March 1773, is the celebrated comedy by Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774), the Anglo-Irish writer who also gave English literature The Vicar of Wakefield. Subtitled The Mistakes of a Night, the play follows young Charles Marlow, painfully shy with women of his own class, who is tricked by the prankster Tony Lumpkin into mistaking the Hardcastle family home for a country inn; Kate Hardcastle then poses as a barmaid to draw him out. Goldsmith dedicated the printed text to Samuel Johnson and wrote it as a direct challenge to the tearful sentimental comedies then dominating the London stage. Still revived constantly after 250 years, it remains one of the most performed comedies in English. Free PDF download available on BDeBooks.