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Historical/Political Context of Theatre in England

The Married Philosopher is a wonderfully whimsical satire of middle-class life in the
eighteenth century. It comments on the boundaries of social roles, etiquette, marriage, and the
trappings of inheritance. In the end, morality and good behavior is awarded through the character
of Melissa. A chaste and good woman, she captures the intentions of all through her charming
and pious manners. Her husband chooses love over inheritance, and after many trials and
comedic tribulations, Melissa shows that a good woman is of infinite worth when she wins the
heart of her husband’s ever angry uncle and in so doing, inadvertently wins back her husband’s
inheritance. The Married Philosopher falls in the early sentimental genre, lighthearted and
humorous, intended to bring tears and draw out sympathy from the audience, often while
showing that humans can be both led astray and reconciled or rewarded for doing the right thing.
Perhaps sentimentalism and the period of preference for sentimental comedy in
eighteenth century England was part of a necessary social evolution, a sort of prophylactic for a
country that had survived a civil war (1642-1651) and a Puritan-driven ban on theatre for twenty
years in its midst (1642-1660).1At the start of the English Civil War, King Charles I was
beheaded. His family, including the future Restoration King, Charles II, spent time in France
during the war. In France, the future king witnessed the accomplishments of French theatre.
Upon his return and the beginning of the Restoration, he allowed theatre back into the social life
of his subjects. New theatres were erected and the plays performed in them were often
adaptations of Elizabethan, French, and Italian drama.
Much of eighteenth-century Europe was influenced by French neoclassicism, which arose
in tandem with archeological discoveries that uncovered and widely circulated classical
architectural and design styles throughout the European continent. 2 Neoclassical moralistic
drama was likely a safe stepping-stone for entertainment in England that moved forward from
the total ban of performance upheld by the Puritans toward more lighthearted and fun humor.
Humorous plays in the English theatre arose in the atmosphere of the Drury Lane Theatre, which
was owned and operated by the famous actor David Garrick (1717-1779). It was in this
environment where sentimentalism and sentimental comedies entered English society in reaction
to neoclassical dramas. The first to appear before 1750 was The Married Philosopher.3
The Married Philosopher (1732) was an English adaptation of the French play Le
Philosophe Marie by Destouche (1727).4 Le Philosophe Marie was of the sentimental genre
comédie larmoyante or “tearful comedy.”5 Destouche drew the story from his own life, he too
had secretly married and the play reflected some of his trials. 6 True to its form, the play poked
fun at eccentricities of contemporary aristocratic and middle-class society with lively characters
that inspired laughter and sympathy from the audience. The emotion in the original play was said
to be deep, subtle and nuanced. Some argued later that much of the subtlety and depth of
emotion was lost in translation.

1
Jacobus, Lee A. 2009. The Bedford Introduction to Drama, Sixth Edition. Bedford/ST. Martin’s: NY.
2
ibid.
3
Loftis, John. The Revels History of Drama in English, Volume 5. Methuen, 1976; Nicoll, Allardyce. British Drama.
Barnes & Noble Books, 1978, p. 144.
4
Bernbaum, Ernest. A Sketch of the History of English Sentimental Comedy and Domestic Tragedy 1696-1780. Ginn
and Company, 1915. Hathitrust, https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000559341.
5
Loftis, John. The Revels History of Drama in English, Volume 5. Methuen, 1976, p. 209, footnote 187.
6
Kinne, Willard Austin. Revivals and Importations of French Comedies in England, 1749-1800. AMS Press, 1967.
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Indeed, it appears that The Married Philosopher did not attract much attention or
“stimulate the progress of the genre”7 in London. Indeed, the play only ran for one season,
followed by a second season with just one recorded performance. 8 Commenting on the history of
the play in 1915, Bernbaum argued that the author of The Married Philosopher, John Kelly, did
not successfully translate the delicacy and depth of the emotion expressed in the French version.
Kinne called Kelly’s translation “obtuse.”9 Prior to 1750, though, sentimental comedies in
England generally were less nuanced than they were in France. They “hesitated to respond
deeply to the promptings of sensibility,”10 the heart of which rests on arousing deep emotion in
the audience. In this way, Kelly may have simply been responding to the theatrical climate in
England. Whether or not this was the case and despite the differences created in translation, The
Married Philosopher is still a joy to read and comments on the foibles of love, marriage,
inheritance, and lust.
The lack of emotional delicacy in Kelly’s translation visible to historical dramatists when
compared to the French original was likely an effect of both the superficial early English style of
sentimentalism and the author’s legal education. Legal education is based on reading factual
cases and juridical processes and outcomes, not necessarily conducive for training one in the
subtleties of the intricately emotional style of sentimentalism. Kelly was also a member of the
Bar of Ireland. He was one of many Irishmen who were educated in the legal profession but
never practiced in a court of law.11 He was also a member of the prestigious Inner Temple, or
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, an organization that began with the Knights
Templars in the twelfth century and still trains lawyers in London today. 12 Interestingly, Kelly
did not sign his name to The Married Philosopher in the 1732 version; it was attributed to a
“Gentlemen of the Temple.”13
Apart from a legal man, Kelly was a journalist and a playwright. He regularly
contributed to a weekly paper called The Universal Spectator, which was in print from 1728-
1739.14 Twenty-eight out of 149 papers in the publication have been ascribed to Kelly, 15 but the
authorship of each contribution is not marked within the issues. He published five known
sentimental comedies: The Married Philosopher (1732), Timon in Love (1733), The Plot (1735),
The Fall of Bob or The Oracle of Gin (1736), and The Levee (1741). At least two of his plays
were performed.16 Timon in Love, another French adaptation, played at The Drury Lane Theatre
in 1733. The Married Philosopher played at Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre in 1732. Lincoln’s Inn

7
Bernbaum, Ernest. 1915. A Sketch of the History of English Sentimental Comedy and Domestic Tragedy 1696-
1780. Ginn and Company, Hathitrust, p. 151).
8
Link, Frederick M. English Drama, 1660-1800: A Guide to Information Sources. Gale Research Company, 1976,
p. 227.
9
Kinne, Willard Austin. Revivals and Importations of French Comedies in England, 1749-1800. AMS Press, 1967,
p. 210, footnote 187.
10
Bernbaum, Ernest. A Sketch of the History of English Sentimental Comedy and Domestic Tragedy 1696-1780.
Ginn and Company, 1915. Hathitrust, p. 188.
11
The Irish Law Times and Solicitors’ Journal, Volume 29. J. Falconer, 1895, p. 473.
12
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple < https://www.middletemple.org.uk/about-us >
13
Cushing, William. Initials and Psuedonyms: A Dictionary of Literary Disguises, Volume 1. T.Y, p. 115.
14
Link, Frederick M. English Drama, 1660-1800: A Guide to Information Sources. Gale Research Company, 1976,
p. 227; Wikisource: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Kelly,_John_(1680%3F-1751)_(DNB00)
15
Wikisource https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Kelly,_John_(1680%3F-1751)_(DNB00)
16
The Thespian Dictionary, Or, Dramatic Biography of the Present Age. Chapple, 1805.
(https://books.google.com/books/content?id=n_NdAAAAcAAJ&pg=PP233&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&sig=ACfU3
U0plhj2U372cP03ExAbQHXTg9EjuQ&ci=63%2C391%2C420%2C482&edge=0 |
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Fields is still the largest public square in London, though the theatre was demolished in 1848. 17
The square has a long history of housing law firms because it is close to the Inns of Court.
Perhaps Kelly’s legal background furnished him with connections to the theatre located there.
No collected edition of Kelly’s works exists. What is written about him consists of
intermittent mentions in books of historical drama or snippets of news clippings. These mentions
are usually as part of one type of list or another of legally educated Irishmen or as part of the
early English sentimentalist period of drama in London. He died on July 16, 1751 in Hornsey,
England.
18 19

Editorial Notes

We performed a basic encoding of the text, capturing lexical information only. We maintained
the original hyphenation, punctuation, and variant spellings. Text formatting was maintained as
closely as possible. No layout information is preserved.

Additionally, an addition was made to this document. An Epilogue was added from the 1734
edition of the play. We found that the 1732 edition did not have an epilogue, and we wished to
include this wonderful soliloquy at the end of the play.

We have elected to make the following changes to the text:

1) We have normalized all Long S’s and ligatures.
2) The page breaks are not completely in line with the text. In order to maintain a good
visual aesthetic, we moved all page breaks to below the line where the page break occurs.
3) We have not encoded any additional front material, including the book advertisement list,
a perceived letter to the publisher, and the title page.

17
Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln%27s_Inn_Fields
18
Hunt, Leigh. 1859. The Town; its memorable characters and events. Smith, Elder, and Company: London.
19
There is no specific date or author available, but it is located at:
< http://www.londonancestor.com/views/lincoln-theatre.htm >