The Recruiting Officer - Plot

Plot

The play opens with the recruiter, Captain Plume's Sergeant Kite, recruiting in the town of Shrewsbury. Plume arrives, in love with Sylvia, closely followed by Worthy, a local gentleman who is in love with Sylvia's cousin Melinda. Melinda was about to marry Worthy a year previously but then changed her mind after coming into an inheritance of £20,000 and it seems to Worthy that she is now welcoming the attentions of Captain Brazen, another recruiter – actually, however, Melinda's maid Lucy is responding to Brazen's advances under the guise of being Melinda, hoping to marry him herself. This leads Melinda and Sylvia to argue and part.

In the aftermath Sylvia leaves her father's house to mourn her brother Owen's death. She tells her father Balance that she is going to the Welsh countryside but in fact goes into Shrewsbury dressed as a man, under the name Jack Wilful. There Brazen and Plume compete to recruit 'Wilful', unaware of 'his' real identity - Kite abducts 'him' for Plume while Plume duels with Brazen. Still disguised as Wilful, Sylvia goes on to spend the night in bed with Rose, a local wench previously courted by Plume to get Rose's brother Bullock to join up. An action is brought against 'Wilful' for ravishing Rose and 'he' finds 'himself' on trial before Sylvia's father Balance and his two fellow magistrates Scruple and Scale. The three magistrates also look into Kite's dubious recruiting practices but finally acquit him and force Wilful to swear to the Articles of War.

Meanwhile Melinda continues to discourage Worthy, until going to a fortune teller (in fact Kite in disguise), where she is convinced to relent to his courtship. She is also tricked by being given a sample of her handwriting by the 'fortune teller', who takes it from a 'devil' he has conjured up under the table (in fact Plume). Kite is then visited by Brazen, who gives him a love letter from (as he thinks) Melinda. However, by comparing the handwriting sample, Worthy discovers that the letter is in fact from Melinda's maid Lucy, who hopes to ensnare Brazen as a husband.

Worthy then goes to visit Melinda but, on going to tell Plume the good news, finds out that Melinda seems to be eloping with Brazen after all. Worthy intercepts Brazen and a disguised woman - Worthy takes this to be Melinda and challenges Brazen to a duel, but this is prevented when the woman drops her disguise and reveals herself to be Lucy. Sylvia drops her disguise, Plume agrees to leave the army and marry her, Melinda relents towards Worthy, and Plume transfers his twenty recruits to Brazen to compensate him for the loss of a rich marriage with Melinda.