The Critic was Sheridan's response to a very specific political and
theatrical situation. In the summer of 1779, a Franco-Spanish invasion
seemed imminent and patriotic fervour superseded party divisions and
personal animosities. The Critic satirises the panic of the summer in
the form of the comically misconceived tragedy 'The Spanish Armada'
that is in rehearsal in the second and third acts, but The Critic ends
with genuine patriotic feeling. This edition traces both the political
and the theatrical objects of Sheridan's satire and discusses its
reliance (and improvement) on earlier meta-theatrical burlesques like
The Duke of Buckingham's Restoration romp The Rehearsal.