The Wheel of Fortune (play)

The Wheel of Fortune: A Comedy is a comedy in five acts written by playwright Richard Cumberland and first presented at the Drury Lane Theatre in London on 28 February 1795,[1] with a prologue and an epilogue.[2]

The Wheel of Fortune
Written byRichard Cumberland
Date premiered28 February 1795
Place premieredTheatre Royal, Drury Lane
Original languageEnglish
GenreComedy

John Philip Kemble was praised for his portrayal of the misanthropic, embittered Roderick Penruddock, who cannot forget but learns to forgive.[3] The famous playwright August von Kotzebue claimed that the misanthropic character was stolen from his Menschenhass und Reue. Elizabeth Inchbald was in some measure of agreement with Kotzebue, but Cumberland objected.[4] Weazel the lawyer was one of Richard Suett's best roles.[5]

The play is mentioned in Jane Austen's 1814 novel Mansfield Park:

All the best plays were run over in vain. Neither Hamlet, nor Macbeth, nor Othello, nor Douglas, nor the Gamester, presented any thing that could satisfy even the tragedians; and the Rivals, the School for Scandal, Wheel of Fortune, Heir at Law, and a long et cætera, were successively dismissed with yet warmer objections.[6]

In December 1796 Ann Brunton Merry played the role of Emily Tempest at the Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia.[7]

Characters
  • Sir David Daw — Wealthy man that Emily Tempest's father wants Emily to marry
  • Tempest — Father of Emily Tempest
  • Roderick Penruddock — An embittered former suitor of Arabella, who married Woodville
  • Woodville — Husband of Arabella
  • Sydenham — Friend of Woodville
  • Henry Woodville — Son, and only child, from Arabella's marriage and love interest of Emily
  • Timothy Weazel — Lawyer
  • Attendant in the house of Woodville
  • Jenkins — Butler in charge of the deceased Sir George Penruddock's servants
  • Livery servant
  • Servants of the deceased Sir George Penruddock
  • Servant to Tempest
  • Mrs. Woodville — Arabella, who married Woodville
  • Emily Tempest — Love interest of Henry Woodville
  • Dame Dunckley — Roderick Penruddock's elderly servant at his cottage
  • Maid of the lodging

Plot summary

Roderick Penruddock's rural cottage is the location for the first act. The scenes of other four acts are in London.[8] The comic lawyer Timothy Weazel finds Roderick Penruddock, who has been living for twenty years in isolated misanthropy, embittered against Arabella and his enemy Woodville. Weazel informs Penruddock that he is the heir of the deceased Sir George Penruddock, a cousin of Roderick. This unexpected inheritance and Woodville's ruin at the gaming tables create a possibility. Roderick plots his revenge and searches for his enemy Woodville in London, where he encounters Henry Woodville. Arabella and his enemy Woodville's friend Sydenham make appeals to Penruddock. The appeals and his own pangs of conscience cause Penruddock to repent, turn to forgiveness, abandon his plans for revenge, and bestow a fortune upon Henry Woodville and Emily.[9]

References
  1. Williams, Stanley Thomas (1917). Richard Cumberland: His Life and Dramatic Works. Yale University Press. p. 231.
  2. Cumberland, Richard (1805). The wheel of fortune: a comedy. Performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. London: J. Mawman.
  3. Williams, S.T. (1917). Richard Cumberland: His Life and Dramatic Works. Yale University Press. p. 240. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
  4. Williams, S.T. (1917). Richard Cumberland: His Life and Dramatic Works. Yale University Press. p. 243. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
  5. Genest, John (1832). Some account of the English stage: from the Restoration in 1660 to 1830, in ten volumes. Vol. VII. Bath: H. E. Carrington. p. 654.
  6. Austen, Jane (1847). Mansfield Park. London: Richard Bentley. p. 116.
  7. Reck, Rima Drell (1990). Drieu La Rochelle and the Picture Gallery Novel: French Modernism in the Interwar Years. LSU Press. p. 54. ISBN 9780807125120.
  8. Cumberland, Richard (1805). "Dramatis Personae". The wheel of fortune: a comedy. Performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. London: J. Mawman. p. 4.
  9. Williams, S.T. (1917). Richard Cumberland: His Life and Dramatic Works. Yale University Press. p. 238. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
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