The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-12 00:00:00

TL e Prince and Princess of Wales.

The Princess of Wales, attended by the Han•
Mrs. F. Stonor, took a carriage drive on Saturday.
The Prince and Princess of Wales had a dinner
party on Saturday evening.

~.

Their Royal Highnesses the Duchess of Cam-
bridge and the Princess Mary of Cambridge intend to hon-
our Sir Ralph and Lady Howard with their company at
dinner on Tuesday, 20th inst. A select party are invited
to meet their royal highnesses.
His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge had
a dinner party on Saturday evening at Gloucester House•
Covers were laid for 20.
The Marquis and Marchioness of Bath entertained
the Marquis of Lansdowne, Viscount and Viscountess
Royston, and a select party at dinner on Saturday at their
residence in Belgrave-square.
The Earl and Countess Granville received a dis-
tinguished circle at dinner on Saturday at their residence in
Bruton- street.
The Earl of. Sefton's party at Crosteth Park
separated on Friday. Owing to the recent death of his
lordship's aunt, the customary hospitalities at Croxtetb,
during the Liverpool race meeting, were considerably
abridged.
The Earl and Countess of Carnarvon received a
small party on Saturday at their residence in Grosvenor-
street.

PRINCE ALFRED AND THE MERCANTILE MARI°
SERVlCE.—Liverpool is to be honoured in June nest
by a visit from H.R.H. Prince Alfred, who has signified
his willingness to distribute the midsummer prizes 00
board the school frigate Conway. The precise (141
on which the ceremony is to take place has not yet been
fixed, but it will be towards the and of the month. Our
"Sailor Prince," who has for some time past been an hono
rary member of the Mercantile Marine Service ASSOC/at/OA'
has most kindly complied with the earnest wish of the corn"
mittee of management that his royal highness should hot:L
our their ship by a visit. It is stated that Mr. S. R. Graves,
M.P., is to have the honour of entertaining his royal high"
ness during his stay in Liverpool.

Goldsmith's " She Stoops to Conquer."

-0-

REVIEWED BY THE " TIMES" IN MII, 1866.
Though less talked about than either of She'
ridan's celebrated comedies, u She Sto'ops to Con
quer," brought out in 1773, two years before the
Rivals," remains one of the few works of the last
century which no change of taste or fashion call
utterly banish from the stage. At the Haymarket
Theatre it is usually played several times in the
year during the intervals that separate the arrival
of successive " stars" or the production of impn
tant novelties, and invariably, we believe, it i 5
found attractive. Its enduring popularity stands
as a monument to managerial fallibility, for Col-
man, who ruled Covent-garden when it was offereel,
for acceptance, considered that it had no chance °l*
success, and reluctantly consents I to its production
through the mere influence of Goldsmith's stanch
friend, Dr. Johnson. Nor does it seem that Col-
man's opinion widely differed from the standard 0
taste acknowledged in his day, for the established
actors Woodward and Smith refused to play the
leading characters of Tony Lumpkiu and Young
Marlow, making way, by their refusal, for the early
advancement of Quick and Lee Lewis, and, though
there is no doubtthat the play was triumphant on the,
first night, there is on record such a full account of
the personal efforts made by Johnson and his
friends, who went to Covent Garden in a body Win-
sure its success, that we can scarcely tell whether it
.
was legitimately admired by the audience, or forced,
upon the public by a powerful clique. The prein-
dices that existed nearly a century ago against
piece which, though it reflects manners totally dig
reent from our own, is now universally esteem%
has been ascribed to a transient rage for a gray
sentimental sort of comedy, the chief writer ef
.'
which was Hugh Kelly. This gentleman, great 1,11
his day, is now scarcely remembered even by paw";
his plays being nether represented on the stage In
studied in the closet. It is, however, just possibu
that some of our readers may recollect that inis
old school-book called " Enfield's Speaker" there
a scene from " False Delicacy," extracted as a thint!
proper to be committed to memory by an ingeeii°,4,
youth. The same "False Delicacy" was Ilet"
Kelly's earliest and most celebrated work.
" She Stoops to Conquer" pleases neither by the
sparkle of its dialogue, like the " School for Sea;
dal," nor by the ingenuity of its combinations all'
the force of its principal situations, like the " t
clai;
lous Wife." Indeed the plot is at once so sir
and so improbable as to favour the conjecture thee.
some primitive farce has been worked up into a 'rfor
act comedy. The mistake of a country mansionef
an inn, deemed a sufficient foundation for a playi
considerable length, the position taken by '''ihe
Hardcastle, the very marked contrast between tsv,
two phases in the character of Young Alarl°.he
almost seem to point to some old production 0f viin
Italian stage, and we can fancy that the lady wnd
" stoops to conquer" was once a Columbine7.a to
Tony Lumpkin an Arlecchino. Of course, it 1-q,r,
the plot alone that we refer. The charaetc,
whencesoever their functions have been derived, ar
inch
coloured by Goldsmith with a native humour w
is perhaps more telling than wit, and which re:
ders the whole one of the most thoroughly 114 Pia
lish works to be found on the stage.
This humour in the dialogue and the firm Prec-
ision with which the personages are drawn, distilit
without exaggeration, are, perhaps, sufficient
account for the lasting popularity of " She Stew
to Conquer ;" but we may also call attention t°
0,5
circumstances amid which the action takes place
he pry
especially appealing to the sympathies of the P
sent day. Old-fashioned travellers not unfreque'_,,,er
enliven their journeys by rail with lamentations.tud
the joys of the " coaching days," and the mai°l.l2ent
Englishmen have a sort of archaeological setoff
about them which is probably unknown to r e
t ..
o
American cousins, and which prompts theta kept
gard the time when town and country were
uld not
wide apart as an idyllic age which they co
they
indeed recall, but which, in dreamy moments,
specL7,
fiddle
fancy must have been productive of a
simple but hearty enjoyment unknown to the ulTrai
of the 19th century. Mr. Hardcastle, with his r Aci
predilections, is a country squire whose old
hard'
prejudices are of the popular sort, and Mrs. tolt'L'rn,
how
castle, with her fancy for a London life, is D. cs
garded as the less abnormal because her w woo
jump with modern notions of progress.
w..-Li.onit
Lumpkiu is country-bred to the backbone,. :tojj,
the sentimentality that belonged to rustic
T a
win ted
smoamineswahaftavlaotueiriteg,rothwotuhg,
hanthde, tlhevierteyfTl, alwa° ?esL his
mu nadyubt ief
ecgoanrddue cdt
atso
aa doati ng
moral
d emf
eoetth ei rn itshte7lai
fri,.n,i
A his Then the circumstances that Marlow and
lties of
lose their way on the road, and the difficurepo-
travel invented by Tony Lumpkin, exactlY.,cone
rneys
sent those peculiar perils that belonged to joue
of the olden time. The whole story would h 0
mpo
morally, if not mathematically, issible were vi
ef
to suppose Mr. Hardcastle's house in the Oen/it `iv.
a " Station,"