The Critic was Sheridan’s response to a very specific political andtheatrical situation. In the summer of 1779, a Franco-Spanish invasionseemed imminent and patriotic fervour superseded party divisions andpersonal animosities. The Critic satirises the panic of the summer inthe form of the comically misconceived tragedy ‘The Spanish Armada’that is in rehearsal in the second and third acts, but The Critic endswith genuine patriotic feeling. This edition traces both the politicaland the theatrical objects of Sheridan’s satire and discusses itsreliance (and improvement) on earlier meta-theatrical burlesques like The Duke of Buckingham’s Restoration romp The Rehearsal.