She Stoops to Conquer, or The Mistakes of a Night

She Stoops to Conquer, or The Mistakes of a Night, a comedy by Goldsmith, produced 1773.

The principal characters are Hardcastle, Mrs Hardcastle, and Miss Hardcastle their daughter; Mrs Hardscastle's son by a former marriage, Tony Lumpkin, a frequenter of the Three Jolly Pigeons, idle, ignorant, cunning and mischievous, and doted on by his mother; and young Marlow. His father, Sir Charles Marlow, has proposed a match between young Marlow and Miss Hardcastle, and the young man and his friend Hastings accordingly travel down to pay the Hardcastles a visit. Losing their way they arrive at night at the Three Jolly Pigeons, where Tony Lumpkin directs them to a neighbouring inn, which is in reality the Hardcastles' house. The fun of the play arises largely from the resulting misunderstanding, Marlow treating Hardcastle as the landlord of the supposed inn, and attempting to seduce Miss Hardcastle, whom he takes for one of the servants. The arrival of Sir Charles Marlow clears up the misconception and all ends well.

The play was seen as a victory in the newly formulated battle against ‘that monster called sentimental Comedy’ (London Magazine, 1773).