COSTUMES.

SIR PETER.-Drab or salmon-colored velvet coat and breeches, trimmed with silver, white satin vest, white silk stockings, shoes, buckles, lace ruffles, etc.

SIR OLIVER.-Brown coat and waistcoat with embroidered button-holes, black satin breeches, silk stockings, shoes, buckles, three-cornered hat, brown camlet over-coat, embroidered.-Second dress: Plain camlet drab Over-coat.

JOSEPH SURFACE.-Blue or black coat, white waistcoat, black pantaloons, black silk stockings, and pumps.

CHARLES SURFACE.-Green coat, white waistcoat, light breeches, white silk stockings, dress shoes.

CRABTREE.-Purple velvet cloak lined with blue satin, satin waistcoat, embroidered satin breeches, white silk stockings.

BACKBITE.-Fashionable colored dress coat, white and crimson waistcoats, flesh-colored tight pantaloons, silk stockings, pumps, and opera hat. ROWLEY.-Great coat, black breeches and waistcoat, gray camlet over-coat. MOSES.-Black velvet coat, waistcoat, and breeches, trimmed with narrow gold lace, black stockings, and shoes with buckles.

CARELESS.-Black coat and pantaloons, white waistcoat, black silk stockings and pumps.

SIR HARRY.-Blue coat, white waistcoat, and black pantaloons.
TRIP.-Handsome dress livery.

SNAKE. Black coat, waistcoat, and trowsers, silk stockings, and pumps. JOSEPH'S SERVANT.-Plain blue coat, yellow waistcoat and breeches, white stockings, and shoes.

LADY TEAZLE.-Elegant white gauze dress, handsomely worked with silver flowers, white satin petticoat and body, and plume of feathers. MARIA.-White satin dress with black trimming.

LADY SNEERWELL.-White dress, neatly trimmed.

MRS. CANDOUR.-White satin petticoat and body, and flowered gauze dress

over.

EXITS AND ENTRANCES.

R. means Right; L. Left; R. D. Right Door; L. D. Left Door; S. E. Second Entrance; U. E. Upper Entrance; M. D. Middle Door.

RELATIVE POSITIONS.

R. means Right; L. Left; C. Centre; R. C. Right of Centre; L. C. Left of Centre.

tionable character in the piece, morally considered; and even he is disposed to make light of the supposed peccadillo of Joseph in the fourth act, until he finds that the lady behind the screen is his own wife. Some exceptionable sentiments are put into the lips of Sir Oliver, in palliation of the extravagances of his fa vorite nephew; but the hypocrisy of Joseph is painted in colors deservedly repulsive.

Successful as this charming comedy is in the representation, it can hardly be regarded as a safe model for a young writer. "There is too much merely ornamental dialogue, and, with some very fine theatrical situations, too much intermission in the action and business; and, above all, there is too little real warmth of feeling, and too few indications of noble or serious passion, thoroughly to satisfy the wants of readers and spectators-even in a comedy."

"When will these people leave talking, and begin to do something?" was the exclamation of an illiterate person in the pit, the first night of the performance of this comedy. But how much more to be admired is the skill of the author, which could supply the defect of situation and action by those dazzling scintillations of wit, which irradiate every page of his immortal work!

In the re-modeled form, as we here print this famous comedy, it was revived by MR. DALY at the Fifth Avenue Theatre on the 12th of September, 1874-nearly ninety-seven years after the original production of the piece at Drury Lane. In the new guise the famous old comedy seemed to gain new life, and we shall be very much mistaken if this does not become the future standard and universal prompt-book wherever and whenever again the School for Scandal is acted.

EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION.

"It seems not a little extraordinary,” says Moore, in his Life of Sheridan, "that nearly all our first-rate comedies should have been the production of very young men. Those of Congreve were all written before he was five-and-twenty; Farquhar produced the Constant Couple in his two-and-twentieth year, and died at thirty; Vanburgh was a young ensign when he sketched out the Relapse and the Provoked Wife; and Sheridan crowned his reputation with the School for Scandal at six-and-twenty. It is, perhaps, still more remarkable to find, as in the instance before us, that works which, at this period of life, we might suppose to have been the rapid offspring of a careless but vigorous fancy-anticipating the results of experience by a sort of secondsight inspiration—should, on the contrary, have been the slow result of many and doubtful experiments, gradually unfolding beauties unforeseen even by him who produced them, and arriving at length, step by step, at perfection. That such was the tardy process by which the School for Scandal was produced, will appear from the first sketches of its plan and dialogue."

This comedy, which, by general consent, seems to be placed at the head of the English Comic Drama, was first acted the eighth of May, 1777, at Drury Lane. It was not printed, however, till many years afterward. Few pieces ever equalled it in success; and it continues to hold its pre-eminent place as the most perfect specimen of an acting comedy in the language.

Fault has been often found with the moral tendencies of the piece; and it must be confessed that the spendthrift injustice of Charles is too leniently dealt with. We could never admire that species of generosity which would rob a creditor to lavish money upon one who might have been in no greater want of it than he to whom it was legally due. Sir Peter Teazle is the least objec