Play: The Duenna

Overview

Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s The Duenna (1775) is a comic opera set in Seville that blends sparkling dialogue with a generous array of songs. Written to music largely supplied by Thomas Linley the elder and his son, it became one of the smash theatrical hits of late eighteenth‑century London. Subtitled The Double Elopement, it turns on disguises, misdirected courtship, and the subversion of mercenary marriage plans, delivering a brisk satire on parental tyranny, social pretension, and religious hypocrisy.

Setting and Premise

Don Jerome, a wealthy, overbearing merchant, intends to marry his daughter Louisa to Don Isaac Mendoza, a rich financier whose fortune and connections tempt the calculating father. Louisa, however, loves Antonio, a young nobleman without money. Meanwhile Don Jerome’s son, the hot‑blooded Ferdinand, adores the heiress Clara, but his jealousy and her precarious guardianship keep their union uncertain. Both matches collide with the paternal will, setting the stage for a pair of clandestine elopements.

Plot Summary

Under tight surveillance by her duenna (the household chaperone), Louisa devises a classic ruse. She bribes the duenna to exchange clothes and identities with her, so that Louisa can escape her father’s house unseen. The masked and veiled duenna, now dressed as Louisa, receives Don Isaac’s courtship in dim light and at a distance. He, dazzled by the promise of dowry and alliance, mistakes age and features for modesty and coyness, and is led, step by artful step, toward a marriage he thinks will make him Don Jerome’s son‑in‑law.

Louisa, once free, seeks refuge in a convent, where pliable, wine‑loving friars and a venal prior provide a gently irreverent comic setting for further negotiations. Antonio joins her there, and they plot to be married under the sanctuary’s protection, turning holy walls into a shield against paternal interdiction. At the same time Ferdinand, consumed by suspicion that Clara favors a rival, blunders through confrontations and reconciliations, only to discover that her reserve was self‑protection rather than betrayal.

The knot tightens as Don Jerome presses the alliance with Don Isaac, who believes he is wooing the demure Louisa while actually securing the hand of the disguised duenna. Ceremonies proceed in parallel: Louisa and Antonio arrange their clandestine union at the convent, and Ferdinand and Clara, once jealousy is cleared, agree to join their fate as well. The trick ripens into revelation when identities are unmasked. Don Isaac finds himself, to general laughter, married to the duenna; Louisa stands before her father with a legal husband and an unassailable vow; Ferdinand secures Clara. Outmaneuvered and mollified by the cheerful inevitability of youthful choice, Don Jerome grudgingly forgives and embraces the new order.

Characters and Voices

Louisa’s audacity and quick wit drive the action, matched by Antonio’s gallantry. Ferdinand’s jealousy supplies comic volatility, while Clara’s dignity anchors the lovers’ subplot. Don Jerome embodies blustering authority softened by farce, and Don Isaac, drawn in the broad, period fashion of the grasping suitor, becomes the butt of the central deception. The title duenna, far from a mere foil, proves an opportunist with an appetite for comfort and security, seizing a marriage of convenience for herself.

Themes and Style

Sheridan marries brisk intrigue to song, using musical numbers to color mood and counterpoint motive. The opera mocks marriages built on money, tweaks clerical worldliness with convivial friars, and delights in the theatricality of masks, veils, and overheard exchanges. Though some characterizations reflect eighteenth‑century stereotypes, the prevailing tone is buoyant, celebrating wit, choice, and comic justice.

Reception and Legacy

The Duenna enjoyed a record run on its debut and helped cement Sheridan’s early fame. Its tuneful score, nimble plotting, and expert use of disguise kept it a favorite in repertory for decades, and its double elopement remains a model of well‑oiled comic contrivance.