Speed the Plough

Speed the Plough is a five-act comedy by Thomas Morton, first performed in 1798 at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden to great acclaim. It is mostly remembered today for the sake of the unseen character, Mrs Grundy.

The play may have been inspired by August Kotzebue's Graf von Burgund ("Count of Burgundy"), which had recently failed at the same theatre. Kotzebue's more serious play also concerns a young man named Henry who is ignorant of his own origins.

Mrs Ashfield is at the market when she is approached by a handsome young nobleman who gives her a letter to deliver to her husband. When Mr Ashfield reads it, he finds that it is from his daughter Susan, and he is astonished to learn that their former servant-girl, the middle-aged woman Nelly, has just married Sir Abel Handy. The gardener Mr Evergreen arrives to tell them that his master, Sir Philip Blandford, has just returned from twenty years abroad to have his daughter marry the son of Sir Abel Handy, Robert. Mr Ashfield starts for Sir Philip's castle to receive Sir Abel and his son.

Sir Abel arrives, encumbered by his inventions, and unrolls a plan of the castle, which his son will receive from Sir Philip as a dowry. Mr Ashfield points out the many problems with the tumbledown place, but the enterprising Sir Abel is untroubled, and mentions that he plans to further local agriculture by holding a ploughing match, so that his jack-of-all-trades son Robert can demonstrate his father's newly invented plough. Robert turns up, and his father asks him why he did not meet him in London. Robert says that he did not wish to disturb him on his honeymoon. He then playfully spars with Mr Ashfield.

Two strangers, Morrington and Gerald, confer in a grove. The ploughman Henry, who is following them, overhears the sentence "The infant certainly died with its mother" which he has reason to think refers to himself: he has no knowledge of his own ancestry. He asks Mr Evergreen about this, but the gardener responds that he is sworn to silence, and warns him to avoid Sir Philip forever after.

Robert Handy soliloquizes about his dilemma: whether to marry Miss Blandford (for money) or Susan Ashfield (for love). He encounters Mrs Ashfield, who is making lace, and wishing to demonstrate his skill at all tasks he sits down to show her the "Mechlin method", causing Sir Abel much embarrassment when he arrives with Miss Blandford. However, she is not bothered, and they are soon happily absorbed in conversation about London. After a few minutes, Mr Ashfield comes to tell his wife that their daughter has returned home with Lady Handy, and also to warn Sir Abel that his wife has "ordered" him to come too.

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Wikipedia