Sidney Bidulph has been doing this thing recently (last 50 pages or so) where Mr. OrlandoFaulkland, Sidney's old suitor, pretends to be a knight-errant. At one point in his letter to Sir George, O.F. writes,
You may soon expect to have the second part of this my delectable history; 'Shewing how Orlando, not being able to prevail, with all his eloquence, on the as fair and beautiful, as fierce and inexorable Princess Gerrardina, to put the finishing hand to his adventures and most wonderful exploits, did, his wrath being moved thereby, like an ungentle knight, bury his sword in her snow-white, but savage and unrelenting breast; whereat, being stung with remorse, he afterwards kills himself.'
Would not this be a pretty conclusion of my adventures? No, no, Sir George, expect better things from thy friend. I hope my knight-errantry will not end so tragically.
He's pretending to be a knight-errant because he's run after Mrs. Gerrard, and convinced her to leave Mr. Arnold, and he's doing all this for Sidney's benefit. It's an extended piece of selfless gallantry, which Mr. F seems to find pretty funny because he's used to thinking of himself as a rake—he and Mrs. G's niece Miss B had an illegitimate baby together, after which Mr. F declined to marry Miss B, and as a result, Lady Bidulph declined to let Sidney marry him, for being an immoral, untrustworthy young man.
But the novel really thinks Mr. F is really this selfless, this impossibly good—because it has named him ORLANDO, as in Orlando Furioso, as in that crazy Renaissance knight who rides around after a woman he's in love with but won't ever have sex with (ever EVER), all while doing extravagant strange benevolent things for her benefit. When Cervantes wrote about Orlando Furioso in Quixote, he was making fun of him (or making fun of people who model themselves after him)—but Sheridan's novel is taking Furioso and knighthood seriously enough to suggest that it's going to be a matter of tragedy at some point. (Mr. F thinks his extravagant actions are funny, when he compares himself to a knight-errant—but the novel will think it's really really SAD that he and Sidney will never have a chance to have hot-hot-hot sex all over Continental Europe.)
Anyway, all this is interesting because I suspect that Sidney Bidulph (pub. 1761) is interested in making-fun-of-gallantry-but-also-taking-it-seriously because of Smollett's translation ofDon Quixote (pub. 1755) had made Orlando Furioso current and interesting enough that Mr. F's first name works as a subtle bit of foreshadowing about his future (or non-future) with Sidney.
