The Tender Husband: Or the Accomplished Fools
“Oportet ut is qui audiat cogitet plura quam videat.”77
Cicero de Oratore.
Steele’s third play, The Tender Husband: or, the Accomplished Fools, a Comedy, was given to Rich, of the Theatre Royal, in March, 1705, and was produced on April 23, when it ran for five nights, “with several entertainments of singing by Mrs. Tofts, and dancing”; and again in May and June. The profits were but small. The play was published by Tonson on the 9th of May. It was acted several times nearly every year between 1705 and 1736, and occasionally afterwards. In 1760, Garrick appeared as Sir Harry Gubbin, and in 1802, Charles Kemble and Mrs. Jordan acted in the piece. Mills (Clerimont, Sen.), Wilks (Capt. Clerimont), Estcourt (Pounce), Bullock (Sir Harry Gubbin), Pinkethman (Humphry Gubbin), Norris (Tipkin), Mrs. Powell (Aunt), and Mrs. Oldfield (Niece), were in the original cast. Steele was indebted for some ideas in the fourth Act to Molière’s Sicilien: ou, l’Amour Peintre, and possibly to Cibber’s Careless Husband, which had recently appeared. In No. 555 of the Spectator he said that “many applauded strokes” in the piece were from Addison’s hand. Fielding, Goldsmith, and Sheridan had Steele’s play in view when they created the characters of Squire Western, Tony Lumpkin, and Lydia Languish. The phrase “accomplished fools” had been used by Steele in the Lying Lover (p. 148).