9. If you were designing a production of She Stoops to Conquer what setting would you devise? 10. Do the minor characters in She Stoops to Conquer

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1 86 REVISION QUESTIONS Each of the following revision questions is intended to redirect students to the text of She Stoops to Conquer. Quite often the question will suggest an idea which you need to trace through several scenes or through the whole play. Make notes of these threads of references, not forgetting to include a reminder to yourself of where a particular reference occurs in the play. It is advisable to make a skeleton answer in note form from your initial jottings and from this to write the final answer. If time is short, it is more valuable to compose a number of skeleton answers than to attempt only a limited number of finished answers. I. Account for the longevity on the stage ofshe Stoops to Conquer when other eighteenth-century plays are now forgotten. 2. To what effect does Goldsmith use disguise and mistaken identity in She Stoops to Conquer? 3. Is Marlow, Hastings or Lumpkin the true hero of the play? 4. Compare and contrast the characters of the two pairs of lovers in She Stoops to Conquer. S. Does Kate or Hardcastle have the truer estimate of Marlow's character? 6. To what extent is She Stoops to Conquer an essay on Marlow's self-discovery? 7. How does Goldsmith use stock comic devices to advance the plot of his play? 8. In spite of his dislike of sentimental comedy, did Goldsmith in reality write one in She Stoops to Conquer?

2 9. If you were designing a production of She Stoops to Conquer what setting would you devise? 10. Do the minor characters in She Stoops to Conquer have any real part in the plot? 11. What facets of Georgian life does Goldsmith present to his audience in She Stoops to Conquer? 12. Comment on Horace Walpole's criticism of She Stoops to Conquer: '... it is not the subject I condemn, though very vulgar, but the execution. The drift tends to no moral, no edification of any kind'. 13. 'The English seem to us to have excelled... in the strength of their characters, the warmth and bustle of their plots, and the variety of their incidents'. Examine She Stoops to Conquer in the light of this claim. 14. '... when [Goldsmith] has thrust his people into a situation, he makes them talk very funnily.' Illustrate and comment on this contemporary critic's remark. 15. Write a review of a production of She Stoops to Conquer which you have seen, bearing in mind Goldsmith's intentions in writing the play. 87

3 88 FURTHER READING 9.1 WORKS BY OLIVER GOLDSMITH The Collected WorksofOliver Goldsmith, ed. Arthur Friedman (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966). Goldsmith's works complete in five volumes. There is a full introduction to each of his writings, as well as copious footnotes. This collected edition is invaluable for reference purposes. Plays and Poems, ed. Tom Davis (London. Dent, 1975). The Introduction gives a useful survey of Goldsmith's two plays and the more important of his poems. 9.2 LITERARY AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND, CRITICISM AND BIOGRAPHY Balderston, Katherine A. (ed.), The Collected Letters of Oliver Goldsmith (Cambridge University Press, 1928). In addition to the letters this little book contains an important section on the first production of She Stoops to Conquer, as well as Mrs Hodson's brief memoirs of her brother. Ginger, John, The Notable Man (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1977). An authoritative biography of Goldsmith. Goldsmith: The Critical Heritage, ed. G. S. Rousseau (London: Routledge, 1974). Contemporary reviews of stage performances and of the publication of She Stoops to Conquer are given. Jeffares, A. Norman, Oliver Goldsmith (London: Longman, 1959, revised 1965). A brief survey of Goldsmith's life and writings in the British Council's series, Writers and their Work.

4 Novak, Maximillian E., Eighteenth-Century EnglishLiterature (London: Macmillan, 1983). A useful survey, with the help of which Goldsmith may be placed in his literary context. Porter, Roy, English Society in the Eighteenth Century (London: Penguin, 1982). The Revels History ofdrama in English, Volume VI : , ed. Clifford Leech and T. W. Craik, (London: Metheun, 1975). This illustrated work describes in detail the theatrical conditions that prevailed in Goldsmith's day. A copious bibliography is given. Reynolds, Joshua, Portraits, ed. Frederick W. Hilles (London: Heinemann, 1952). A brief life of Goldsmith by his contemporary and friend. Sells, A. Lytton, Oliver Goldsmith. His Life and Works (London: Allen & Unwin, 1974). A comprehensive critical biography. Sherbo, Arthur, English Sentimental Drama (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1957). Although the references to Goldsmith are in passing, this study relates Goldsmith's comedies to the prevailing literary tastes. Trevelyan, G. M., Illustrated English Social History: III (London; Penguin, 1964, reprinted 1966). The eighteenth-century background to Goldsmith's life and writing. 89

5 MACMILLAN STUDENTS' NOVELS General Editor: JAMES GIBSON The Macmillan Students' Novels are low-priced, new editions of major classics. aimed at the first examination candidate. Each volume contains : enough explanation and background material to make the novels accessible - and rewarding to pupils with little or no previous knowledge of the author or the literary period: detailed notes elucidate mailers of vocabulary. interpretation and historical background: eight pages of plates comprising facsimiles of manuscripts and early editions. portraits of the author and photographs of the geographical selling of the novels. JANE AUSTEN: MANSFIELD PARK Editor: Richard Wirdnam JANE AUSTEN: NORTHANGER ABBEY JANE AUSTEN : PRIDE AND PREJUDICE JANE AUSTEN: SENSE AND SENSIBILITY JANE AUSTEN : PERSUASION Editor: Richard Wirdnam CHARLOTTE BRONTE: JANE EYRE Editor: F. B. Pin ion EMI LY BRONTE: WUTHERING HEIGHTS Editor: Graham Handley JOSEPH CONRAD: LORD JIM Editor: Peter Hollindale CHARLES DICKENS: OLIVER TWIST Editor: Guy Williams CHARLES DICKENS: A TALE OF TWO CITIES GEORGE ELIOT: SI LAS MARNER Editor: Norman Howlings GEORGE ELIOT: THE MILL ON THE FLOSS Editor: Graham Handley D. H. LAWRENCE: SONS AND LOVERS D. H. LAWRENCE: THE RAINBOW MARK TWAIN: HUCKLEBERRY FINN Editor: Christopher Parry CHARLES DICKENS: GREAT EXPECTATIONS CHARLES DICKENS: HARD TIMES