It is no easy matter to adjust the claims to originality between this comedy and the "School for Scandal." Murphy asserts that he had written Know your own Mind many years prior to its production; and thus much is certain; the comedy was for a long time in the possession of Sheridan before he brought out his play on the boards of his own theatre. This fact, though not conclusive, is at least fourable to the claims of Murphy, coupled as it is with the singular circumstance, that Sheridan, neither before nor after, wrote any thing at all comparable to the School for Scandal. The "Duenna" and the "Rivals," the best of his remaining productions, are yet far inferior to this celebrated comedy, and, if report speaks truly, Sheridan himself was not slow in acknowledging the fact. The striking likeness between the two pieces seems to be a result beyond all the possible calculations of chance, the similarity is extended to so many points, to individual characters as well as to the general substance. Yet with all this circumstantial evidence on one ride, and I he purposely placed it in its strongest colours, it is scarcely possible to come to a decision.
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