SEASON OF
:777-:778
HE most remarkable event of this season was the continuing
triumph of The School for Scandal. It achieved 45 performances :
a record not surpassed for a new play, as distinct from a comic
opera or a melodrama, in the entire century. The very large
1 °USes that it drew saw it acted without change by the same cast that had
8lven such lustre to its famous opening night in May 1777. Of this original
Cast a few statistics may prove of interest. On 10 June 1800 The School for
Scandal was performed at Drury Lane for the 254th time1. At every one
°f these performances Miss Pope acted the part she had originally appeared
|n that of Mrs Candour. As Sir Peter Teazle, Thomas King, both times
ccause of illness, missed only two performances ; as Charles Surface, William
fenilh, until his retirement in June 1788, missed only one. And so did
0 ert Baddeley, the original Moses, up to the time of his death in November
794. With one exception Mrs Abington acted Lady Teazle until she
w'thdrew from Drury Lane in 1782; thereafter Miss Farren, with no
Xceptions at all, represented the part until she left the stage in April
797- Clearly the play meant as much to its interpreters as it did to its
audiences.
^ 1 also to the new Drury Lane proprietors. Success smoothed their
’ a’fe ’fee difficulties that had harassed them early in the preceding
th S°n entirely vanished. In the Folger Shakespeare Library are two or
on 1 ° n0t:e~kocfes that contain, some of them in Sheridan’s hand, odds and
s °f jottings that reveal a genuine fascination for and absorption in the
31 S operating a large theatre. For example,
Throughout this
period the play was given 7 performances at other theatres.
103