School For Scandal | Page 3

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ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*
This etext was prepared by Gary R. Young, Mississauga, Canada.
Comments on the preparation of this E-Text:
SQUARE BRACKETS:
The square brackets, i.e. [ ] are copied from the printed book, without

change, except thata closing bracket "]" has been added to the stage
directions.
FOOTNOTES:
For this E-Text version of the book, the footnotes have been
consolidated at the end of the play.
Numbering of the footnotes has been changed, and each footnote is
given a unique identity in the form .
CHANGES TO THE TEXT:
Character names have been expanded. For Example, SIR BENJAMIN
was SIR BEN.
THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL
THE TEXT OF THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL
The text of THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL in this edition is taken, by
Mr. Fraser Rae's generous permission, from his SHERIDAN'S PLAYS
NOW PRINTED AS HE WROTE THEM. In his Prefatory Notes
(xxxvii), Mr. Rae writes: "The manuscript of it [THE SCHOOL FOR
SCANDAL] in Sheridan's own handwriting is preserved at Frampton
Court and is now printed in this volume. This version differs in many
respects from that which is generally known, and I think it is even
better than that which has hitherto been read and acted. As I have
endeavoured to reproduce the works of Sheridan as he wrote them, I
may be told that he was a bad hand at punctuating and very bad at
spelling. . . . But Sheridan's shortcomings as a speller have been
exaggerated." Lest "Sheridan's shortcomings" either in spelling or in
punctuation should obscure the text, I have, in this edition, inserted in
brackets some explanatory suggestions. It has seemed best, also, to
adopt a uniform method for indicating stage-directions and
abbreviations of the names of characters. There can be no gain to the
reader in reproducing, for example, Sheridan's different indications for
the part of Lady Sneerwell--LADY SNEERWELL, LADY SNEER.,

LADY SN., and LADY S.-- or his varying use of EXIT and EX., or his
inconsistencies in the use of italics in the stage-directions. Since,
however, Sheridan's biographers, from Moore to Fraser Rae, have
shown that no authorised or correct edition of THE SCHOOL FOR
SCANDAL was published in Sheridan's lifetime, there seems unusual
justification for reproducing the text of the play itself with absolute
fidelity to the original manuscript. Mr. Ridgway, who repeatedly
sought to obtain a copy corrected by the author, according to Moore's
account (LIFE OF SHERIDAN, I. p. 260), "was told by Mr. Sheridan,
as an excuse for keeping it back, that he had been nineteen years
endeavouring to satisfy himself with the style of The School for
Scandal, but had not yet succeeded." Mr. Rae (SHERIDAN, I. p. 332)
recorded his discovery of the manuscript of "two acts of The School for
Scandal prepared by Sheridan for publication," and hoped, before his
death, to publish this partial revision. Numberless unauthorized
changes in the play have been made for histrionic purposes, from the
first undated Dublin edition to that of Mr. Augustin Daly. Current texts
may usually be traced, directly or indirectly, to the two-volume Murray
edition of Sheridan's plays, in 1821. Some of the changes from the
original manuscript, such as the blending of the parts of Miss Verjuice
and Snake, are doubtless effective for reasons of dramatic economy,
but many of the "cuts" are to be regretted from the reader's