The School for Scandal

In fashionable London, Lady Sneerwell and her circle of gossips meet to destroy reputations for fun. Among their targets are two brothers: Joseph Surface, admired by everyone as a man of fine moral sentiments but really a hypocrite, and his younger brother Charles, a cheerful spendthrift with a good heart. Their rich uncle, Sir Oliver, returns from India and tests them both in disguise, while old Sir Peter Teazle quarrels with his young, country-bred wife, who is being drawn into the scandal.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816), an Irish playwright who also ran the Drury Lane Theatre and sat in Parliament, wrote the comedy in 1777. Its 'screen scene', in which hidden characters are uncovered one by one in Joseph's library, is one of the most famous moments in English comedy. Worth reading alongside it: his The Rivals.