Speed the Plough

Speed the Plough is a five-act comedy by Thomas Morton, written in 1798 and first performed in 1800 at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden to great acclaim.

[2] [3] The original Covent Garden cast included Alexander Pope as Sir Philip Blandford, Charles Murray as Morrington, Joseph Munden as Sir Abel Handy, John Fawcett as Bob Handy, Henry Erskine Johnston as Henry, Thomas Knight as Farmer Ashfield, George Davenport as Evergreen, John Waddy as Gerald, Charles Klanert as Handy's Servant, Mary Ann Davenport as Dame Ashfield and Nannette Johnston as Miss Blandford.

[4] The play may have been inspired by August Kotzebue's Graf von Burgund ("The Count of Burgundy"), which had recently failed at the same theatre.

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 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 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.

They are interrupted by Henry, who borrows Mr Ashfield's best plough for the contest, in the hope of meeting Sir Philip; then they see Susan crying as she locks away the letter she has received.

He shows Robert a portrait of his brother, and confesses that he stabbed him twenty years before on discovering him kissing his fiancée: this was why he had fled to the Continent.

Sir Abel is astonished, but then Gerald approaches him and asks if he will pay five thousand pounds to be rid of his own tempestuous wife.

Henry rescues Miss Blandford, then rushes back to the ruins to search the east wing, where he finds a knife and a bloody cloth.

"Morrington" is in fact Sir Philip's brother, who survived the attempt on his life, and revenged himself at the card table, only to be filled with remorse ever after.