Invention is, to summarise Richard Brinsley Sheridan's above justification for The Rivals failings and subsequent revision of, also a learning process, as had he had more, rather than less, fore-knowledge of his subject it would in all likelihood have changed his manner and method of execution, or he may not have seriously attempted it at all, and given it up at the first hurdle.
Invention, it is true, can be hampered by too much knowledge. I have frequently found this to be so if I research a topic too thoroughly. That which I'm attempting gets bogged down as the mind grows too swelled with details and consumed by the responsibility to make the article factually correct. It loses whatever style or creativity it might have had in its making, and I too lose interest when it proves too difficult to recapture what I had originally intended. I now know too much and can only see the flaws in my design or execution, whereas before the notion seemed inspired. I only push through to the bitter end if my research came at a point when it was almost there, since I hate to leave anything unfinished or to have to start again if the end is closer. I may not be entirely satisfied with the outcome, but sometimes some things can't be done over or improved upon. The moment has gone. If however an article's been interrupted before it's begun I will dismiss it and not start over, or perhaps, if it still seems favourable, approach it from a different angle.
So, in the act of inventing, all is lost, or not lost, or lost only sometimes.
Sheridan exercised his inventive skill when writing the role of Mrs Malaprop, a character who is described in The Rivals by a fellow player as someone whose words are 'ingeniously misapplied without being mispronounced', delivered as they are with the unshakeable confidence that she is 'a great mistress of language...the queen of the dictionary'. This method is not new – examples can be found in Shakespeare – but Sheridan appears to take it to a new level of absurdity. Few gentlemen, for instance, 'know how to value the ineffectual qualities in a woman!' And Captain Absolute 'is the very pineapple of politeness!' What makes it even more effective is that those sharing the scene with her don't often remark upon her use of language either deliberately in her hearing or in any subsequent speech put to her, and yet appear to, whatever term she's misappropriated, comprehend her meaning. Nor is there in the script any stage direction to the other players to facially act (for the benefit of the audience), yet surely there must have been some visible response on the stage to engage the audience further; unless perhaps her character taken in all seriousness and humoured proved the funnier. She is, after all, what she is; and thereafter is not remembered for her role as a she-dragon (the chief protector of her niece) but for her hilarious and inappropriate use of terms.
Sheridan in his first attempt at playwrighting achieves a creative dottiness that others since have succeeded or failed to surpass.
Picture credit: Portrait of a Gentleman, traditionally identified as Richard Brinsley Sheridan, John Hoppner (source: Wikipedia).
See The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Developed from journal entries, February 2021 .
