She Stoops to Conquer is a comedy by the Anglo-Irish author Oliver Goldsmith, first performed in London in 1773. The play is a favourite for study by English literature and theatre classes in the English-speaking world. It is one of the few plays from the 18th century to have retained its appeal and is regularly performed. The play has been adapted into a film several times, including in 1914 and 1923. Initially the play was titled Mistakes of a Night and the events within the play take place in one long night. In 1778, John O’Keeffe wrote a loose sequel, Tony Lumpkin in Town.
Wealthy countryman Mr. Hardcastle arranges for his daughter Kate to meet Charles Marlow, the son of a rich Londoner, hoping the pair will marry. Unfortunately, Marlow prefers lower-class women, finding them less intimidating than women of high society. On his first acquaintance with Kate, the latter realises she will have to pretend to be ‘common’ to get Marlow to woo her. Thus Kate ‘stoops to conquer’, by posing as a maid, hoping to put Marlow at his ease so he falls for her. Marlow sets out for Mr. Hardcastle’s manor with a friend, George Hastings, an admirer of Miss Constance Neville, another young lady who lives with the Hardcastles. During the journey the two men get lost and stop at an alehouse, The Three Jolly Pigeons, for directions.
Tony Lumpkin, Kate’s step-brother and Constance’s cousin, comes across the two strangers at the alehouse and realising their identity, plays a practical joke by telling them that they are a long way from their destination and will have to stay overnight at an inn. The ‘inn’ he directs them to is in fact the home of the Hardcastles. When they arrive, the Hardcastles, who have been expecting them, go out of their way to make them welcome. Marlow and Hastings, believing themselves in an inn, behave extremely disdainfully towards their hosts. Hardcastle bears their unwitting insults with forbearance, because of his friendship with Marlow’s father.
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