・の『ポリー・ハニコム』は、18 世紀のイギリスに見られた感傷小説愛好の風潮を、巧妙かつ滑稽に風刺した笑劇として一般に評価されている。しかし、この笑劇には、単なる感傷小説批判にはとどまらない、破壊的とも呼べる特徴が見られる。ヒロインのポリーは、幕が下りる最後の瞬間になっても、感傷小説が若者に鼓舞するロマンティックな恋愛を決して放棄しようとしない。そればかりか、エピローグで再び姿を現すと、改めて感傷小説を賞賛し、この笑劇を通して自分の「精神」を知った女性は、裁縫や料理といった伝統的な女性の仕事を放棄し、「従順を求める時代遅れな教訓」を捨て去り、ついには男性の代わりに武器を取り、戦争でも戦うべきだと、観客に向かって主張するのである。本論は、フェミニズムの発想をさえ思わせるポリーの主張に対する当時の観客の受容の様相を明らかにすることを目的とする。この目的のために、本論では、最初に、この笑劇に描き出されている「ロマンティックな恋愛」と、これまでの批評では注意が向けられることのなかった「夫婦愛」のふたつの愛情の形を、コールマンが『鑑定家』の中でどのようなものとして描き出しているのかを検証し、次に、これらふたつの愛情の形を、ロレンス・ストーンが語る「情愛的個人主義の発達」が見られた18 世紀のイギリス社会の文脈の中に位置づけることによって、劇中に描き出されるこれらふたつの愛情が、18 世紀の観客にとってどのような意味を含蓄し得ていたのかを明らかにする。この考察によって、これらふたつの愛情が、『ポリー・ハニコム』の中で嘲笑の対象として描き出されながらも、同時に、未来における実現の可能性を秘めていたことが浮き彫りになり、最終的に、この笑劇が、単なる感傷小説批判にとどまらない、よりダイナミックな反応を観客の中に喚起していたことが明らかになるはずである。

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Oliver Goldsmith's The Good Natur'd Man (1768) has mainly been interpreted as an abortive piece of laughing comedy and often contrasted with False Delicacy (1768), a sentimental comedy by Hugh Kelly. Modern scholars point out that, though critics contemporary with Goldsmith upbraided the former as "low and vulgar" and praised the latter as "refined and sentimental," the two plays actually share the same ambivalent views about sentimentalism. Nevertheless, The Good Natur'd Man greatly differs from False Delicacy in that Goldsmith's play tries to highlight the commercialism latent in sentimental comedy rather than to conceal it. As Sir William Thornhill in The Vicar of Wakefield (1766) does, Honeywood in The Good Natur'd Man suffers from "a sickly sensibility" and his excessive benevolence makes his fortune decay. Thus, Honeywood's distress is always connected with his economic discomfort, especially in Act 3, where he is placed under house arrest for his debts and has to meet his beloved, Miss Richland, who comes to rescue him, in this humiliating situation. Though he tries to disguise a bailiff and his follower as respectable gentlemen, they misinterpret the couple's conversation about the London literary taste as the literal "taste," i.e., food prices in London, making Honeywood feel even more humiliated. In the final scene, Honeywood, remonstrated by his uncle and Miss Richland, vows that he would henceforth bestow charity only for those who deserve it and the play ends in expectation of the marriage between Honeywood and Miss Richland. Even in this conventional ending, the surname of the heroine, whose first name is unknown throughout the play, reminds the audience that his mental happiness is concurrent with his financial success. The Good Natur'd Man exposes the commercialist drive, which is existent but usually concealed in the virtue-in-distress strategy of sentimental comedy. However, at the same time, the fantasy ending of the comedy does admit the utilitarian exercise of sensibility, which seems the last thing the author of The Traveller (1764) and The Deserted Village (1770) would do. Richard Cumberland, in his memoirs, recollects with compassion that Goldsmith even in his final years laboured to write scribbles according to the demand of publishers, resignedly commenting that "Paternoster-Row is not Parnassus." The phrase may also be true of the divided attitude towards the economy of sensibility in The Good Natur'd Man.

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