Richard Sheridan wrote two prologues for The Rivals. Following his play’s horribly-received opening night performance, Sheridan crafted the second prologue in an attempt to present his work in terms more acceptable to the audience. Delivered by the actress playing Julia (the moral core of the play), the following passage from Sheridan’s re-do soliloquy reflects the mind of an anxious young playwright eager to earn the approval of the public:
Can our light scenes add strength to holy laws!
Such puny patronage but hurts the cause:
Fair virtue scorns our feeble aid to ask;
And moral truth disdains the trickster’s mask.
For here their favourite stands, whose brow – severe
And sad – claims youth’s respect, and pity’s tear;
Who – when oppressed by foes her worth creates –
Can point a poignard at the guilt she hates.
In the quote above, Sheridan takes care to highlight the fact that there is a moral theme within the play, even if its presence may be slight, and furthermore that looking too hard for this theme will ruin the strength of the cause he makes. By suggesting that The Rivals has some merit beyond mere comedy, while frankly acknowledging that the play will not provide a lengthy moral lesson, Sheridan asks his audience to give the story a chance without allowing their prior expectations to cloud their enjoyment.
The play’s ending soliloquy, delivered by the actress playing Julia, is Sheridan’s attempt to make explicit an overall moral to The Rivals that does not necessarily come through in the body of the play due to its humorous tone:
But ye more cautious – ye nice judging few, Who give to beauty only beauty’s due, Though friends to love – ye view with deep regret Our conquests marred – our triumphs incomplete, Till polished wit more lasting charms disclose, And judgment fix the darts which beauty throws! – In female breasts did sense and merit rule, The lover’s mind would ask no other school; Shamed into sense – the scholars of our eyes, Our beaux from gallantry would soon be wise; Would gladly light, their homage to improve, The lamp of knowledge at the torch of love!
The epilogue is more serious, though it maintains a lighthearted tone, as Sheridan imbues the play with enough heft for him to ingratiate himself with the more moralizing members of his audience. With this soliloquy, Sheridan outlines his own position on love, beauty, and proper behaviors for men and women of all classes. After five acts of deception, frivolity, and romantic entanglements, the playwright concludes the show by affirming the value of harmonious and mutually beneficial relationships between couples that respect each other’s intellect as well as their beauty.
