The play is a favourite for study by English literature and theatre classes in the English-speaking world.

The play is notable for being the origin of the common English phrase, "Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies."

Mrs. Hardcastle complains to her husband that they never leave their rural home to see the new things happening in the city.

Tony enters on his way to a pub, and his mother follows him offstage, begging him to stay and spend time with them.

Kate reminds him of their deal: she wears what she likes in the morning and dresses in the old-fashioned style he prefers at night.

Kate likes all but the last part of this description and resolves to try to make a good impression on Marlow.

Constance tells Kate that she pretends to be willing to marry Tony so that Mrs. Hardcastle won’t suspect she loves Hastings.

Hardcastle enters and tries to engage his guests in conversation, but the two young men ignore what he says, believing him to be a lowly innkeeper.

Hastings urges Constance to elope with him, but she is reluctant to lose her fortune: the jewels, which she will only inherit if she marries with her aunt’s permission.

Kate convinces her father that they should give Marlow another chance to see what his true character is.

Tony reassures Constance privately, telling her that he gave her jewels to Hastings, who is preparing for their elopement.

Kate enters accompanied by her maid Pimple and wearing the old-fashioned dress her father prefers.

Marlow enters, congratulating himself on thinking to give the box of jewels to the landlady (i.e., Mrs. Hardcastle) to keep it safe.

Constance is utterly distraught and begs Hastings to stay faithful to her even if they have to wait several years to marry.

After Constance leaves, Tony tells Hastings to meet him in the garden in two hours, promising to make it all up to him.

In Act V, Hardcastle and the newly arrived Sir Charles laugh over Marlow’s having mistaken the home for an inn.

She tells the two fathers to hide behind a screen in half an hour to see proof of Marlow’s feelings.

Out in the garden, Tony arrives and tells Hastings that he has driven his mother and Constance in a circle instead of taking them to Aunt Pedigree’s house.

Inside the house, Hardcastle and Sir Charles hide behind a screen and watch Marlow and Kate talk.

Marlow kneels before her, and the two fathers burst out from behind the screen, asking why he lied to them about his feelings for Kate.

[2] The original production premiered in London at Covent Garden Theatre on 15 March 1773 with Mary Bulkley as Constantia Hardcastle,[3] and was immediately successful.

[9][10] Perhaps one of the most famous modern incarnations of She Stoops to Conquer was Peter Hall's version, staged in 1993 and starring Miriam Margolyes as Mrs.

The most famous TV production is the 1971 version featuring Ralph Richardson, Tom Courtenay, Juliet Mills, and Brian Cox, with Trevor Peacock as Tony Lumpkin.

[11] The series was funded in the U.S. by the National Endowment for the Humanities and used as a study aid on video tape by thousands of U.S. students.

[13] 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".

[14][15] 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] 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] Kate's stooping and Marlow's nervousness are also examples of romantic comedy, as are Constance Neville's and George Hastings' love and plan to elope.

[citation needed] The title refers to Kate's ruse of pretending to be a barmaid to reach her goal.

In Chesterfield's version, the lines in question read: "The prostrate lover, when he lowest lies, But stoops to conquer, and but kneels to rise."