She Stoops to Conquer

Oliver Goldsmith's uproarious 1773 comedy of manners, *She Stoops to Conquer*, plunges two well-bred city gentlemen, Charles Marlow and George Hastings, into a delightful maelstrom of mistaken identity. Intending to court the eligible Miss Hardcastle and Miss Neville at a respectable country estate, they are deliberately misdirected by the mischievous Tony Lumpkin to believe the Hardcastle family home is, in fact, a common inn. This crucial deception sets the stage for Marlow, cripplingly shy around women of his own class but brazen with barmaids, to treat Miss Hardcastle with shocking impropriety, leading to her ingenious scheme to "stoop to conquer" his affections by masquerading as a servant girl. Meanwhile, Hastings plots to elope with Miss Neville, whose fortune is tied to her formidable stepmother, Mrs. Hardcastle.