Scandalous on-dits were the 18th- and 19th-century equivalent to a modern "Hard Copy." Society both enjoyed them and feared being the subject of them. Writers from Jane Austen to Thomas Hardy to the lesser known Richard Brinsley Sheridan built careers by skewering society's fondness for the shocking and melodramatic.

While in Bath, I was fortunate enough to attend Richard Brinsley Sheridan's "School for Scandal" at the Theatre Royal, Bath's first theatre, built in 1750. Its elegant crimson and gold interior played backdrop to actors John Kemble and Mrs. Siddons. Thomas Linley, Director of Concerts in Bath during the mid 1750s to the 1770s, was playwright Sheridan's father-in-law.

When Sheridan wrote "School for Scandal" in 1777, it was a satire of popular fashionable life. Scandal was rife in London. Also mirrored in Sheridan's play were the contemporary socially acceptable views on marriage. True love was not then the criteria for a mate. Rather, social advancement, wealth and security were the things to be taken into account when considering a spouse. If love did not bind a couple together, neither did it stand in the way of intrigue.

Divorce was taboo, leading many a person who found themselves in a dreary marriage or faced with a negligent spouse to seek their pleasures elsewhere. While it was understood by society that this was the way things were done, it was also understood that a person must take care to keep news of extra- marital affairs from becoming public knowledge. Not only were the guilty parties gossiped about, but the cuckolded spouses, as well. With so many clandestine romances being played out, it was no wonder that gossip, speculation and scandal provided amusement in many a Georgian drawing room.

In fact, most newspapers and magazines of the day included a gossip section, with The Chronicle advertising itself for what it was, a scandal sheet. Many popular newspapers also offered a "personals" section, which proved both a medium for finding love and a well spring of conjecture. One gentleman placed the following mention in The Morning Chronicle:"If the beauteous fair one who was in the front boxes at the play "Romeo and Juliet" last Wednesday night, dressed in a pink satin gown and with a work'd handkerchief on, and a black feather in her hair with bugles; also a black ribbon round her neck and a solitaire; has a soul capable of returning a most ardent and sincere love to one who thinks he had the honor of being taken notice by her as he sat in the side box; let her with all the frankness of a Juliet appoint in this paper or any other when, how and where she will give her Romeo a meeting."

These rich sources proved to be the perfect vehicle for comedy and satire. Sheridan's characters for "Scandal" walked straight out of the society pages. Sir Peter Teazle marries a simple country girl and is horrified when she turns into the leader of a school for scandal that enjoys nothing more than carelessly speculating over reputations. Sir Peter aims to marry his ward, Maria, to his nephew, Joseph Surface, who, unbeknown to him, is currently wooing his very own wife. Behind-the-scenes machinations, devious relatives and many a character ready to fan the flames of gossip, all make for a most amusing play.

Some 200 years later, "Scandal" still plays to audiences. The Sheffield Theatres Trust production of "Scandal" was remarkable, with actor Richard Garnett playing Joseph Surface in all his comic, underhanded, devious and strangely attractive glory. Fellow cast members included several veteran actors, amongst them Edward de Souza (Crabtree), who can be seen in the film "Jane Eyre," and Dinsdale Sheridan (Sir Oliver Surface), seen recently in Edith Wharton's "The Buccaneers," which aired on PBS.

Several other tour participants saw "The Lady In Black," a Victorian ghost story, in the West End. Such period plays, while rich in their content alone, also provide the opportunity to see a bygone era brought to glorious life.