Editing She Stoops to Conquer (section)

==Type of comedy==
{{original research section|date=August 2018}}

When the play was first produced, it was discussed as an example of the revival of laughing comedy over the sentimental comedy seen as dominant on the English stage since the success of ''[[The Conscious Lovers]]'', written by Sir [[Richard Steele]] in 1722. An essay published in a London magazine in 1773, entitled "An Essay on the Theatre; Or, A Comparison between Laughing And Sentimental Comedy", argued that sentimental comedy, a false form of comedy, had taken over the boards from the older and more truly comic laughing comedy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Comedy – 17th & 18th Centuries {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/art/comedy/Sentimental-comedy-of-the-17th-and-18th-centuries#ref504663 |access-date=2024-10-15 |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |language=en}}</ref>

Some theatre historians believe the essay was written by Goldsmith as a puff piece for ''She Stoops to Conquer'' as an exemplar of the "laughing comedy".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Donoghue|first=Frank|date=1988|title="He Never Gives us Nothing That's Low": Goldsmith's Plays and the Reviewers|journal=ELH|volume=55|issue=3|pages=665–684|doi=10.2307/2873188|jstor=2873188|issn=0013-8304}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hume|first=Robert D.|date=2005|title=Construction and Legitimation in Literary History|journal=The Review of English Studies|volume=56|issue=226|pages=650–651|doi=10.1093/res/hgi083|jstor=3661220|issn=0034-6551}}</ref> Goldsmith's name was linked with that of [[Richard Brinsley Sheridan]], author of ''[[The Rivals]]'' and ''[[The School for Scandal]]'', as standard-bearers for the resurgent laughing comedy.{{citation needed|date=June 2019}}

The play might also be seen as a [[comedy of manners]] in which the comedy arises from the gap between the standards of behaviour the characters regard as proper in polite society, and the more informal behaviours they are prepared to indulge or deploy in settings they deem less constrained by such standards.{{citation needed|date=June 2019}} Kate's stooping and Marlow's nervousness are also examples of [[Comedy (drama)|romantic comedy]], as are Constance Neville's and George Hastings' love and plan to elope.{{citation needed|date=June 2019}}