Education: a comedy in 5 acts

by Thomas Morton

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About the author

1764-1838, English dramatist

Reviews

[Surreysmum · Rating 2 out of 5]

[These notes were made in 1992:] This play in five acts appears in the Robarts Library edition I read without any author's name; nor had the cataloguer bothered to track it down. There is no doubt, however, that the play is Morton's, and dates from the early 19th century. It is conventional but vigorous - indeed, it reminded me of Restoration drama as much as anything, altho' without the gross doubles-entendres. The theme of education (the pernicious effects of a bad one, and the ennobling tendencies of a good one) is well-supported throughout, although the author does not in the end allow his catastrophes to arise directly out of the theme. Briefly, the plot: Good-hearted Mr. Templeton, businessman & partner of the play's moralist, Damper, finds himself in financial difficulties. His vain and silly wife lies that they have £50,000 in a chest, and with that assurance, Vincent, Templeton's son, makes off to marry Rosina, the virtuous but now somewhat compromised. A bluff old squire, Sir Guy, also has a marriageable daughter, lively & independent-minded, who wishes to marry her country cousin Suckling. Of course Papa has different ideas, and so does the resident fop/poet/bankrupt, named Aspic, who tries to discredit Suckling by teaching him (education!) a lot of nonsense. Meanwhile, Rosina lives at a farm with a virtuous rustic couple (the Broadcasts) and their son George, who is receiving a proper education, and is too good for words. After turning a French stranger away from his door, Broadcast receives him back with gratitude because he has saved George Jr.'s life. The Frenchman proves to be Rosina's long-lost father, come back to seek the inheritance that is rightfully his and Rosina's, but has been willed by his father-in-law to the elder Templeton. Anyway Rosina flees from the younger Templeton's suggestion of seduction (he has found out he can no longer afford to marry her), there is much quarrelling & misunderstanding, & eventually, tho' sorely tempted to keep the inheritance when the old man dies, Templeton hands it over to the Frenchman & Rosina, who is thereupon betrothed to his son. It moves along at a fair clip. The attitude towards women's education is horrifying, of course. I note that in this prompt copy many of the "moral" speeches were cut.