OR, THE SCHEMING LIEUTENANT
A FARCE
St. Patrick’s Day was first performed on 2 May 1775 at Covent Garden. The playwright is believed to have written the entire work in only a few days, partly for the benefit of one of his friends, who was a celebrated actor. Lawrence Clinch had given a great performance as Sir Lucius O’Trigger, which significantly contributed to the success of The Rivals. The play is a brief, two-act farce, concerning the Irish hero, Lieutenant O’Connor, played by Clinch. Sheridan was born in Dublin and moved to England when he was seven to attend an English Grammar school. Though the playwright never returned to the country of his birth, he did continue to demonstrate a creative and political interest in his homeland. St. Patrick’s Day proved to be highly successful in Ireland and there were frequently productions of the play during the late eighteenth century.
The comedy is set in a town in England on St. Patrick’s Day and follows Lieutenant O’Connor’s attempts to court and marry a young local woman called Lauretta. She is the daughter of Justice Credulous, who is firmly opposed to the marriage; he would rather see Lauretta ‘in a scarlet fever than in the arms of a soldier’. O’Connor, with the assistance of the widowed Dr Rosy, disguises himself in order to get close to his beloved so they can elope. There is an amusing dynamic between Justice Credulous and his wife, Bridget, whom he discovers may not care for him quite as much as he had imagined.