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194 Restoration to Romanticism 1660–1789
In Macpherson’s own day, the major critic was Dr Samuel Johnson,
who was highly sceptical of Ossian’s existence. Macpherson, when asked
for the Gaelic originals of the works, fabricated them. In 1805, a committee
chaired by Henry Mackenzie concluded that Macpherson’s work was a
mixture of his own invention with only a few Gaelic insertions. But the
works of Ossian had an imaginative grip on their readers which lasted far
beyond critical debates on their authenticity, and which created an image
of Scotland that was to have an influence on writers, composers, and artists
throughout Europe in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
This ever-expanding influence of literature in English becomes more
and more noticeable as publishing turned into an international business.
The colonies, and Europe, were eager markets for books of all kinds,
and the era of the international bestseller was dawning.
DRAMA AFTER 1737
The Theatres Licensing Act of 1737 did not altogether kill drama, but
did successfully stifle it. The history of eighteenth-century theatre
becomes the history of actors rather than of plays, although most of
the literary figures of the time did try writing for the theatre at one
time or another. Dr Johnson’s tragedy Irene ran for nine performances
in 1749, for example, and Richard Steele, of Spectator fame, left a
heritage of sentimental comedies which held the stage for more than
sixty years after his death in 1729. Oliver Goldsmith and Richard Brinsley
Sheridan were both Irishmen and the only two writers of theatrical
comedy who managed to write lasting masterpieces which go against
the prevailing trend of sentimentalism in the late eighteenth century.
Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer (1773) is seen as the first successful
reaction to the sentimental comedy originated by Steele. The comic
premise is that the hero, Marlow, is shy with ladies of his own social
level, but quite open with servants and barmaids. So the heroine, Miss
Hardcastle, ‘stoops’ to an acceptable level to ‘conquer’ him.
MISS HARDCASTLE. . . his fears were such, that he never once
looked up during the interview. Indeed, if he had, my bonnet
would have kept him from seeing me.
PIMPLE But what do you hope from keeping him in his mistake?