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Geoffrey. Mrs. Sealand is in a hurry to marry
Lucinda to Cimberton while her husband is away, she begins proceedings for a wedding. When Mr. Sealand arrives at Isabella and Indiana's lodgings, Isabella recognizes him, but he does not recognize her. He talks to Indiana, listens to her sad story, and while she is in a crying fit she drops a bracelet on the floor, and Mr. Sealand recognizes it as the bracelet he gave his first wife just before they were separated. Mr. Sealand is happy to be reunited with his daughter and sister, and in this moment insists that Indiana marry Bevil Jr. Isabella leaves that instant to get Bevil Jr. and arrives with Sir John Bevil, Bevil Jr., Mrs. Sealand, Cimberton, Myrtle disguised as Sir Geoffrey, and Lucinda. In this final scene, Mr. Sealand says he would rather have Myrtle marry Lucinda because he never liked Cimberton, and Cimberton will not marry Lucinda because her dowry has just been halved by Mr. Sealand's discovery of his long-lost daughter Indiana. He leaves, and Myrtle reveals himself. In the end, the moral of the story, given by Sir John, is that the happiness of the young is provided by good virtue, honesty and "Providence."
344:. So Bevil Jr. and Myrtle devise a scheme where Myrtle and Bevil Jr.'s servant, Tom, will disguise themselves as Sir Geoffrey's lawyers, Bramble and Target, in order to delay the wedding proceedings. They arrive at Mr. Sealand's house in disguise, and convince Cimberton and Mrs. Sealand that the marriage absolutely cannot proceed without Sir Geoffrey's physical presence to sign away part of the estate. In the meantime, Sir John and Mr. Sealand discuss Bevil Jr.'s morals, for it has been discovered that he has been visiting a woman of lower class on a frequent basis. Mr. Sealand decides to go and visit this young woman so that he may judge Bevil Jr.'s moral conduct for himself, and Sir John and his servant Humphrey discuss the implication of marrying his son off as a
427:. One of these innovations is a new conception of social morality that values restrained passion and patient reflection over bold, contentious behavior. The play marks an attempt by Steele to distinctly separate his work from the moral baseness of the comedies that preceded it. He claimed in the preface that the whole play was written around the scene in act 4 where Bevil Junior overcomes his passions and thus avoids a duel with his friend Myrtle. The ethics of dueling was an issue of debate in the public sphere during this time, including other publications by Steele himself. However,
391:. Steele knew that his audience would be familiar with the Roman source, as Terence's plays were in heavy circulation during this time, being published in hundreds of editions between 1700 and 1800. These adaptations were an attempt among playwrights to lend a type of legitimacy and authority to the contemporary theater by drawing from a body of familiar classical stories. Steele was also aware that comparisons would be made between his adaptation and the original.
407:. In this reading, the goal of his new dramatic style is for the audience to throw off the barbarous traditions of the past, both theatrical and political, and become more like the civilized Romans. By drawing from the classical dramatic tradition and refining its models, Steele hoped that he could refine British culture in the same way that his journalistic publications provided readers with moral guidance.
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morality. Bevil Junior's regularity and upstanding ethics did not allow the accustomed sense of ridicule to develop, and therefore the action of comedy was disrupted. Dennis also considered the characterizations too improbable, and their actions or inactions too unlikely, which detracted from the unity of the structure. In his mind, the sentimental comedy incorporated too much
328:, for though he is set to marry Lucinda, he is not in love with her, but his good friend Myrtle is. Bevil Jr. is in love with Indiana, a poor woman whose mother died when Indiana was seven. Indiana has been raised by her Aunt Isabella (Mr. Sealand's sister). She is the daughter of Mr. Sealand by his first wife, though no one realizes it.
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new dramatic form as a "radical correction to the libidinous exuberance of
Restoration comedy". Some critics have suggested that deeper parallels to the Romans are deliberately constructed into the play. Rather than simply adopting the emotional tone of classical works, it has been argued that Steele idealizes the
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which accompanied brides leading into the mid-18th century put the wife in a more powerful position than she had ever been in before. And as more marriages deteriorated because of a lack of affection between the husband and wife, many younger people coming of age in mid-18th century
England started
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did not even feel like a comedy. Steele's innovations in sentimental comedy were intended to incorporate elements of tragedy, but for Dennis, the play was too "tragical". Mixing emotional responses by evoking sadness at the end of the play was considered a violation of the principle that comedy and
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Many readers have found the end of the play to be the pivotal point of the drama rather than the narrowly averted duel. In fact, 18th-century audiences reacted much more strongly to
Indiana's reuniting with her long-lost father than any other part of the plot. This was the moment that consistently
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offers a new system of morals, one that can guide the nation into the future and protect its integrity under the weight of the growing empire. In another major innovation, the classical theory of comedy is altered by making the protagonist a positive, exemplary hero rather than a negative example
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that Steele incorporated into his revised version of comedy, known today as sentimental comedy. Steele considered
Terence's serious tone, and the different effect it produces on the viewing audience from the more light-hearted comedy of the era, to be an essential component in the function of his
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The next day, Phillis, Lucinda's maid, arrives at Bevil Jr.'s lodgings with news that Sir
Geoffrey is expected in town at any moment, and suggests that Myrtle disguise himself as Sir Geoffrey in order to further delay the marriage proceedings. Myrtle arrives at Mr. Sealand's house disguised at Sir
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and the rakes of the previous era are made relics, costumes that are to be ridiculed in public, as is Bevil's father when he attends the masquerade. Formally, the new sentimental comedy "tends to the monumental, both in plot details and dialogue". Characters speak in "sentiments", or pithy moral
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Mr. Sealand is intent on marrying his daughter
Lucinda to Bevil Jr., but Mrs. Sealand, Mr. Sealand's second wife and Lucinda's mother, is intent on her marrying the young coxcomb Cimberton, because of his vast fortune and also because he is Mrs. Sealand's cousin. However, because of his fortune,
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up until that time. The public largely did respond to the play in the way that Steele had intended. However, despite Steele's claims about the importance of the scene where the duel is averted by Bevil's moment of composed reflection, critics disagree about whether or not audiences received this
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had little effect on the play's popularity. He strongly disapproved of what he perceived to be Steele's attempt to market bad entertainment as a commercial enterprise. Dennis especially regarded Steele's departure from the traditions of comedic theater as distasteful. He considered the
British
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was expected to produce moral reflection in the audience. With the exception of
Cimberton, Steele's characters were not ignoble enough to function as instructive objects of satire. He could not accept the behavior of the protagonist, who he found to be neither entertaining nor a benchmark for
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that the play had a particular and deliberate purpose to be an "Example and
Precept" to the audience. By providing paragons of upstanding and righteous character, Steele wanted sentimental comedy to be a source of role models that the public could embrace and emulate. As the ridiculousness of
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received a mixed reception during its initial run. It was extremely popular after its debut, and was highly anticipated even before its first performance. The play ran for eighteen consecutive nights, and received many revivals during the 18th century. It made more money than any other play
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and its followers favored a positive, exemplary hero as a moral beacon. Steele recognized that not everybody in the audience would approve of his changes and the contrivances he employed to deliver them, but also believed that these older definitions were too narrow and excluded sufficient
447:. The play argues that the greatest rewards are reaped by those who maintain the virtue of patience. Bevil Junior and his indifferent restraint represent an ideal of peaceable behavior in sharp contrast to the British theatrical norm of aggressive masculinity and assertiveness.
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conditions that allowed comedy to be a vehicle of reform. These departures from the comedic tradition marked Steele as an iconoclast in the eyes of his contemporaries, but they also earned him the distinction of an innovator in British drama.
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scene in the way that Steele intended. Some have agreed that Steele's comments in the preface are instructive and that the duel in act 4 provides the centerpiece of the action. Others have suggested that the play is constructed to build up
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1. Hynes, Peter. "Richard Steele and the Genealogy of Sentimental Drama: A Reading of The Conscious Lovers." Papers on Language and Literature: A Journal for Scholars and Critics of Language and Literature 40.2 (2004):
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era with a new type of drama that would be more effective in providing moral education for the public. Steele's innovation in this play comes from strategically implemented changes to the traditional
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2. Horejsi, Nicole. "(Re)Valuing the 'Foreign Trinket': Sentimentalizing the Language of Economics in Steele's Conscious Lovers." Restoration and 18th Century Theatre Research 18.2 (2003): 11-36
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seeing marriage as a contract between friends where both partners were equals, rather than a business contract which ultimately left the wife as little more than the husband's personal servant.
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analyzing the history and development of sentimental comedy have found Steele's self-professed key scene to be about more than disapproval of the evil and waste of human life that results from
383:, itself a translation of an older Greek play. Many other 18th-century playwrights created adaptations of ancient Roman plays, particularly favoring the works of
545:. These plays set up a new set of values for the stage. Instead of simply amusing or inspiring the audience, they sought to instruct and ennoble the audience.
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comedy to be the greatest in all the theaters of Europe, in terms of both moral education and entertainment. To him and other critics of his time, T
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builds on the history of drama while attempting to eschew contemporary principles of morality and theatricality to create new sets of values.
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Sir Richard Steele considered himself an innovator and an educator in 18th-century England, working to replace the lewd comedies of the
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in his day, and he is trying to encourage his son to settle down with a wife and start a family. Bevil Jr., however, is faced with a
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Lawrence Stone, "The Companionate Marriage" in The Family, Sex, and Marriage in England, 1500-1800 (New York: Harper and Row, 1977).
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executed as business deals to marriage as an act of love between two people, with limited input from the parents. In his book
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than to the older comedies. These sentiments were easily quotable, widely circulated and often republished in collections.
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tragedy were supposed to be separate entities, each consistent in tone and in the feelings they produced in the audience.
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comedic protagonists is stripped away, so is much of the lightheartedness and wit of Restoration comedies.
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The Broadview Anthology of Restoration and Early Eighteenth Century Drama. Ed. J. Douglas Canfield. 2001
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The Family, Sex, and Marriage in England, 1500-1800
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248:Daniel, a country boy, servant to Indiana
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