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The Rival Generals

1722 play

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ104857740 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Rival Generals is a 1722 tragedy by the Irish writer James Sterling.

It premiered at the Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin. The original cast included Francis Elrington as Spinloi, Richard Elrington as Lorenzo, Henry Giffard as Honorio and Nancy Lyddal as Sygismunda.

Sterling dedicated his play to William Conolly, a leading Irish Whig and Speaker of the Irish House of Commons.

References

Bibliography

Greene, John C. & Clark, Gladys L. H. The Dublin Stage, 1720-1745: A Calendar of Plays, Entertainments, and Afterpiece. Lehigh University Press, 1993.

Walsh, Patrick. The Making of the Irish Protestant Ascendancy: The Life of William Conolly, 1662-1729. Boydell & Brewer, 2010.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “The Rival Generals” as 1722 play. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Rival, Generals and play.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1722, 1720, 1745, 1993—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Rival, Generals and play providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “The Rival Generals”, the useful work is to connect “1722 play” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q104857740. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1722, 1720, 1745 and 1993.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Rival Generals”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Rival Generals primary sources, The Rival Generals archive and Rival research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Rival Generals”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The Rival Generals” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.