St Patrick's Day

St Patrick's Day, or, The Scheming Lieutenant is an 18th-century play by Irish playwright and poet Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816), first performed on 2 May 1775 at Covent Garden. It is said to have completed by the author within two days. Sheridan wrote the two-act farce for the benefit performance of lead actor Laurence Clinch, who had so successfully played Sir Lucius O'Trigger in his previous play The Rivals. Characters and original cast Lieutenant O’Connor - Mr. Clinch. Dr. Rosy - Mr. Quick. Justice Credulous - Mr. Lewis Sergeant Trounce - Mr. Booth. Corporal Flint Lauretta - Mrs. Cargill. Mrs. Bridget Credulous - Mrs. Pitt. Drummer, soldiers, countrymen, and servant. Scene — a town in country England. Plot The action of the play takes place on St Patrick's day. The farcical Irish hero Lieutenant O'Connor is in love with Lauretta, daughter of Justice Credulous. The lieutenant and his men are billeted on the town where the Justice's family lives, and although the lovers are thus continually in close proximity, Lauretta's jealous father prevents them from often meeting. O'Connor's men complain that "ever since your honour differed with justice Credulous, our inn-keepers use us most scurvily ... so we humbly petition that your honour would make an end of the matter at once, by running away with the justice's daughter". Their complaints are of no serious turn however, one soldier grieving that he is not allowed a "light to go to bed by" at his inn, whereas the provocation they give includes occasionally "fling[ing] a cartridge into the kitchen fire", or "drum[ming] up and down stairs" during the night. Dr Rosy, a man of sentimental character who is obsessively mourning the recent loss of his beloved wife Dolly, is a friend of the Lieutenant's. He now helps him to formulate a plot to elope with Lauretta, by first insinuating himself into the Judge's confidence in disguise. Lauretta, meanwhile, secretly favours the Lieutenant's advances. She tells this to her mother, Mrs. Bridget Credulous, who warns her of what might come of marrying a soldier - "Oh, barbarous! to want a husband that may wed you to-day, and be sent the Lord knows where before night; then in a twelvemonth perhaps to have him come like a Colossus, with one leg at New York, and the other at Chelsea Hospital". She softens, however, when Lauretta says she "heard him say you were the best natured and best looking woman in the world".