Shadwell was also known as the Restoration's leading advocate of Ben Jonson's style of humour comedy,[2][4] in which each humorous character displays one unique and excessive folly.
Scholars have discerned the influence of Sir Nicholas in the works of numerous subsequent playwrights, including Thomas d'Urfey, Lawrence Maidwell, Susanna Centlivre, Aphra Behn, and Peter Pindar.
[1] Bruce and Longvil, two young men-about-town, described by Shadwell in the cast list as "Gentlemen of wit and sense," have fallen in love with the two nieces of the virtuoso, Sir Nicholas Gimcrack.
To gain admittance to Sir Nicholas's house where they can see their beloveds, Bruce and Longvil feign an interest in Sir Nicholas's absurd experiments, which include learning to swim on dry land by imitating a frog, transfusing the blood of a sheep into a man (resulting in a sheep's tail growing out of the man's anus), and bottling air from various parts of the country to be stored in his cellar like wine.
Meanwhile, Sir Nicholas receives the terrible news that his estates have been seized to pay off debts incurred in his scientific pursuits.