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the best-known play (1773) by Oliver Goldsmith . It is a comedy based on a misunderstanding. Marlow, a shy young man, goes with a friend to visit the Hardcastle family because their parents hope that he will marry Miss Hardcastle. The friends get lost on the way and look for an inn (= a pub that is also a small hotel) but actually arrive at the Hardcastles’ house. Most of the humour comes from the way Marlow treats the family when he thinks that their house is an inn and that Miss Hardcastle is a servant.