The Critic: or, a Tragedy Rehearsed is a satire

Satire

Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...

 by Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan was an Irish-born playwright and poet and long-term owner of the London Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. For thirty-two years he was also a Whig Member of the British House of Commons for Stafford , Westminster and Ilchester...

. It was first staged at Drury Lane Theatre

Theatre Royal, Drury Lane

The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...

 in 1779. It is a burlesque on stage acting and play production conventions, and Sheridan considered the first act to be his finest piece of writing. One of its major roles, Sir Fretful Plagiary, is a comment on the vanity of authors, and in particular a caricature

Caricature

A caricature is a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others.Caricatures can be...

 of the dramatist Richard Cumberland

Richard Cumberland (dramatist)

Richard Cumberland was a British dramatist and civil servant. In 1771 his hit play The West Indian was first staged. During the American War of Independence he acted as a secret negotiator with Spain in an effort to secure a peace agreement between the two nations. He also edited a short-lived...

 who was a contempary of Sheridan.

Based on George Villiers

George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham

George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, 20th Baron de Ros of Helmsley, KG, PC, FRS was an English statesman and poet.- Upbringing and education :...

' The Rehearsal

The Rehearsal (play)

The Rehearsal was a satirical play aimed specifically at John Dryden and generally at the sententious and overly ambitious theatre of the Restoration tragedy. The play was staged in 1671 and published anonymously in 1672, but it is certainly by George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and others...

, it concerns misadventures that arise when an author, Mr Puff, invites Sir Fretful Plagiary and the theatre critic

Critic

A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...

s Dangle and Sneer to a rehearsal of his play The Spanish Armada, Sheridan's parody of the then-fashionable tragic drama.

In 1911, Herbert Beerbohm Tree

Herbert Beerbohm Tree

Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree was an English actor and theatre manager.Tree began performing in the 1870s. By 1887, he was managing the Haymarket Theatre, winning praise for adventurous programming and lavish productions, and starring in many of its productions. In 1899, he helped fund the...

 mounted a star-studded production of The Critic at Her Majesty's Theatre

His Majesty's Theatre

His Majesty's Theatre in Aberdeen is the largest theatre in north-east Scotland, seating more than 1400. The theatre is sited on Rosemount Viaduct, opposite the city's Union Terrace Gardens. It was designed by Frank Matcham and opened in 1906...

 starring George Alexander

George Alexander (actor)

Sir George Alexander , born George Alexander Gibb Samson, was an English actor and theatre manager.Alexander was born in Reading, Berkshire. He began acting in amateur theatricals in 1875. Four years later he embarked on a professional acting career, making his London debut in 1881...

, Cecil Armstrong, George Barrett, Arthur Bourchier

Arthur Bourchier

Arthur Bourchier was an English actor and theatre manager. He married and later divorced the actress Violet Vanbrugh....

, C. Hayden Coffin

C. Hayden Coffin

Charles Hayden Coffin was an English actor and singer known for his performances in many famous Edwardian musical comedies, particularly those produced by George Edwardes....

, Kenneth Douglas, Lily Elsie

Lily Elsie

Lily Elsie was a popular English actress and singer during the Edwardian era, best known for her starring role in the hit London premiere of Franz Lehár's operetta The Merry Widow....

, Winifred Emery

Winifred Emery

Winifred Emery , born Maud Isabel Emery, was an English actress and actor-manager of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She was the wife of the actor Cyril Maude....

, George Graves

George Graves (actor)

George Windsor Graves was an English comic actor. Although he could neither sing nor dance, he became a leading comedian in musical comedies, adapting the French and Viennese opéra-bouffe style of light comic relief into a broader comedy popular with English audiences of the period...

, George Grossmith, Jr.

George Grossmith, Jr.

George Grossmith, Jr. was a British actor, theatre producer and manager, director, playwright and songwriter, best remembered for his work in and with Edwardian musical comedies...

, Edmund Gurney

Edmund Gurney

Edmund Gurney was an English psychologist and psychic researcher.-Early life:He was born at Hersham, near Walton-on-Thames. He was educated at Blackheath and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took a high place in the classical tripos and obtained a fellowship. His work for the tripos was...

, John Harwood

John Harwood

John Harwood is an American journalist who is the Chief Washington Correspondent for CNBC and a writer for The New York Times. He writes a weekly column entitled "The Caucus" that appears on Monday about Washington politics and policy...

, Charles Hawtrey, Helen Haye

Helen Haye

Helen Haye was a British stage and film actress.She began acting on the stage in 1898 and debuted in London in 1911 as Gertrude in Hamlet. Her film career began in 1917. She often worked with director Alexander Korda...

, Laurence Irving, Cyril Maude

Cyril Maude

Cyril Francis Maude was an English actor-manager.-Biography:Maude was born in London and educated at the Charterhouse School. In 1881, he was sent to Adelaide, South Australia, on the clipper ship City of Adelaide to regain his health...

, Gerald Du Maurier

Gerald du Maurier

Sir Gerald Hubert Edward Busson du Maurier was an English actor and manager. He was the son of the writer George du Maurier and brother of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. In 1902, he married the actress Muriel Beaumont with whom he had three daughters: Angela du Maurier , Daphne du Maurier and Jeanne...

, Gertie Millar

Gertie Millar

Gertrude "Gertie" Millar was one of the most famous English singer-actresses of the early 20th century, known for her performances in Edwardian musical comedies....

, Edmund Payne

Edmund Payne

Edmund Payne , was an actor, comedian, singer and dramatist best known for his comic appearances in Edwardian Musical Comedy. His father was Edmund Payne, a master cabinet builder and his mother was Eliza Payne née Ince....

, Courtice Pounds

Courtice Pounds

Charles Courtice Pounds , better known by the stage name Courtice Pounds, was an English singer and actor known for his performances in the tenor roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and his later roles in Shakespeare plays and Edwardian musical comedies.As a young member...

, Marie Tempest

Marie Tempest

Dame Marie Tempest DBE was an English singer and actress known as the "queen of her profession".Tempest became the most famous soprano in late Victorian light opera and Edwardian musical comedies. Later, she became a leading comic actress and toured widely in North America and elsewhere...

, Violet Vanbrugh

Violet Vanbrugh

Violet Vanbrugh was an English actress who had a career spanning more than 50 years. Despite her many successes, her career was overshadowed by that of her more famous sister Irene Vanbrugh...

 and Arthur Williams

Arthur Williams (actor)

Arthur Williams was an English actor, singer and playwright best remembered for his roles in comic operas, musical burlesques and Edwardian musical comedies...

. In 1946, Laurence Olivier

Laurence Olivier

Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...

 played the role of Mr. Puff in a famous production of the play at the Old Vic

Old Vic

The Old Vic is a theatre located just south-east of Waterloo Station in London on the corner of The Cut and Waterloo Road. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, it was taken over by Emma Cons in 1880 when it was known formally as the Royal Victoria Hall. In 1898, a niece of Cons, Lilian...

, alternating with Sophocles

Sophocles

Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides...

's Oedipus Rex. In 1982, Hywel Bennett

Hywel Bennett

Hywel Thomas Bennett is a Welsh film and television actor. Bennett is best known for his recurring title role as James Shelley in the television sitcom Shelley from 1979 to 1984 and its sequel The Return of Shelley from 1988 to 1992....

 starred in a BBC television production which was also broadcast in the U.S., on the A&E

A&E Network

The A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...

 channel.

The play was adapted as an opera in two acts by Sir Charles Villiers Stanford

Charles Villiers Stanford

Sir Charles Villiers Stanford was an Irish composer who was particularly notable for his choral music. He was professor at the Royal College of Music and University of Cambridge.- Life :...

; it received its premiere in London in 1916.

External links

• The Critic, Free e-text at Project Gutenberg