An eighteenth century household, a timid suitor, some stolen jewels and a girl pretending to be a barmaid... it's Oliver Goldsmith's "She Stoops To Conquer"
Goldsmith’s She Stoops To Conquer is still part of the comic repertory after more than 200 years, providing a combination of good-humoured comedy and satire on social affectations.
The plot revolves around the arrival of a young man, Marlow, at the country house of Mr. Hardcastle. It has been arranged that he should court Mr. Hardcastle’s daughter Kate, despite the fact that he is so bashful amongst women of his own class (though he is easy enough amongst serving girls) that he can barely speak to them. When Marlow and his friend Hastings appear, however, they have been told that Hardcastle’s house in only a inn on the way to the estate, and are amazed by the host’s treating them as social equals. Kate, who takes a liking to Marlow, pretends to be a barmaid in order to induce him to pay her romantic attentions: in the words of the title, She Stoops To Conquer.
Though written in the 1770s, the play actually has a lot in common with the earlier Restoration comedies, and part of its humour involves poking fun at the “sentimental” plays which were in vogue at the time. The heroine, Kate Hardcastle, doesn’t mope around feeling every emotion with an extraordinarily refined sensibility, she puts on a disguise and plots to win the man she fancies. Likewise her friend Constance Neville schemes to get hold of the jewels her guardian keeps, so she can elope. Much of the play’s appeal lies in these energetic, clever heroines who must find a way round the strictures society has placed upon them, in order to procure the man they want and the fortune they need.
She Stoops to Conquer provides some robust character parts as well: the boorish young gentleman Tony Lumpkin, whose favourite pastime is drinking at the local tavern, frequently intrudes on the attempts at gentility which his mother makes. Mr. Hardcastle himself is a comic caricature of the country gentleman who can’t stand the “vanities and affectations” of London, can’t abide “French frippery”, and wishes that everything could be put back as it was the previous century. These broader comic turns provide a useful change of pace from the intriguing of the young women.
Recent years have seen an increase in revivals of Restoration comedies such as The Man of Mode, and The Way of the World, but She Stoops to Conquer is still a staple comedy for both high school students and the London theatres.
