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SHERIDAN
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SHERIDAN , the name of an Anglo-Irish See also:family, made illustrious by the dramatist See also:Richard Brinsley (No. 4 below), but prominently connected with literature in more than one See also:generation before and after his.
1. See also: Through Swift's See also:influence he obtained a living near See also:Cork, but damaged his prospects of further preferment by a feat of unlucky See also:absence of mind. Having to preach at Cork on the anniversary of See also:Queen See also:Anne's See also:death he hurriedly See also:chose a See also:sermon with the See also:text, " Sufficient unto the See also:day is the evil thereof," and was at once struck off the See also:list of chaplains to the See also:lord-See also:lieutenant and forbidden the See also:castle. In spite of this mishap, for which the See also:archdeacon of Cork made amends by the See also:present of a See also:lease See also:worth £250 per annum, he " still remained," said the See also:earl of See also:Orrery (Remarks on the See also:Life and Writings of See also:Jonathan Swift, 1751), " a punster, a quibbler, a fiddler and a wit," the only See also:person in whose genial presence Swift relaxed his habitual gloom. His latter days were not prosperous, probably owing to his having " a better knowledge of books than of men or of the value of See also:money." He offended Swift by fulfilling an old promise to tell the dean if he ever saw signs of avarice in him, and the friends parted in anger. He died in poverty on the loth of See also:October 1738. The See also:original source of See also:information about Dr Sheridan is his 'son's Life of Swift (vol. i. pp. 369-395), where his scholarship is dwelt upon as much as his improvident conviviality and See also:simple kindliness of nature. 2. THOMAS SHERIDAN (1719-1788), son of the above, was born• in Dublin in 1719. His See also:father sent him to an See also:English school (See also:Westminster); but he was forced by stress of circumstances to return to Dublin and See also:complete his See also:education at Trinity College, where he took his B.A. degree in 1739. Then he went on the See also:stage, and at once made a See also:local reputation. He even wrote a See also:play, See also:Captain O'Blunder, or the Brave Irishman, which became a stock piece, though it was never printed. There is a tradition that on his first See also:appearance in See also:London he was set up as a See also:rival to See also:Garrick, and See also:Moore countenances the See also:idea that Garrick remained jealous of him to the end. For this tradition there is little See also:foundation. Sheridan's first appearance in London was at Covent See also:Garden in See also: But the scheme did not make way, and we find him in 176o acting under Garrick at Drury Lane. His merits as an actor may be judged from
1 Published in See also:Nichols's Supplement to the See also:works of Swift (1779).
the description of him in the Rosciad (1. 987) at this See also:period. He is placed in the second See also:rank, next to Garrick, but there is no hint of possible rivalry. See also:Churchill describes him as an actor whose conceptions were See also:superior to his See also:powers of See also:execution, whose See also:action was always forcible but too mechanically calculated, and who in spite of all his defects See also:rose to greatness in occasional scenes. Churchill never erred on the See also:side of praising too much, and his description may be accepted as correct, supported as it is by the fact that the actor eked out his income by giving lessons in elocution. Sheridan solicited a See also:pension for See also:Samuel See also: Sheridan's See also:indictment of the established See also:system of education was that it did not See also:fit the higher classes for their duties in life, that it was See also:uniform for all and profitable for none; and he urged as a matter of vital See also:national concern that See also:special training should be given for the various professions. See also:Oratory came in as part of the special training of men intended for public affairs, but his See also:main contention was one very See also:familiar now—that more time should be given in See also:schools to the study of the English See also:language. He rode his See also:hobby with See also:great See also:enthusiasm, published an elaborate and eloquent treatise on education, and lectured on the subject in London, Oxford, Cambridge, See also:Edinburgh and other towns. In 1764 he went to live in See also:France, partly for See also:economy, partly for Mrs Sheridan's See also:health, and partly to study the system of education. His wife died in 1766 and soon after-wards he returned to England. In 1769 he published a matured See also:Plan of Education for the Young See also:Nobility and Gentry with a See also:letter to the See also: When only fifteen years of See also:age she wrote a See also:story, Eugenia and See also:Adelaide, published after her death in two volumes. She took Sheridan's part in the so-called Kelly riots, See also:writing some verses and a pamphlet in his See also:defence. This led to her acquaintance, and finally in 1747 to her marriage, with the unpopular manager. It was by See also:Richardson's See also:advice that she wrote the See also:Memoirs of See also:Miss See also:Sidney Bidulph. . . . It was issued anonymously in 1761 with a See also:dedication to Richardson, and had great success, both in England and France. A second part (2 vols.) was published in 1767. Two of her plays were produced in 1763 at Drury Lane, The See also:Discovery and The Dupe. We have it on the authority of Moore that, when The Rivals and The See also:Duenna were See also:running at Covent Garden, Garrick revived The Discovery at Drury Lane, as a See also:counter-attraction, " to play the mother off against the son, taking on himself to See also:act the principal part in it." But the statement, intrinsically absurd, is inaccurate. The Discovery was not an old play at the time, but one of Garrick's stock pieces, and See also:Sir See also:Anthony Branville was one of his favourite characters. It was first produced at Drury Lane in 1763. So far from being jealous of the See also:elder Sheridan, Garrick seems to have been a most useful friend to the family, accepting his wife's play—which he declared to be" one of the best comedies he ever read "—and giving the See also:husband several engagements. The Dupe was a failure and was only played once. Her last work was an See also:Oriental See also:tale, Nourjahad, written at See also:Blois, where she died on the 26th of See also:September 1766. Her third play, A See also:Journey to Bath, was refused by Garrick, and R. B. Sheridan made some use of it in The Rivals.
4. RICHARD,BRINSLEY See also: He had See also:fencing and See also:riding lessons at Angelo's. After leaving Harrow he kept up a correspondence with a school friend who had gone to Oxford. With this youth, N. B. See also:Halhed, he concocted various See also:literary plans, and between them they actually executed and published (1771) metrical See also:translations of See also:Aristaenetus. In See also:conjunction with Halhed he wrote a See also:farce entitled See also:Jupiter, which was refused by both Garrick and See also:Foote and remained in MS., but is of See also:interest as containing the same See also:device of a See also:rehearsal which was afterwards worked out with such brilliant effect in The Critic. Some of the See also:dialogue is very much in Sheridan's mature manner. Extracts given from papers written in the seven years between his leaving Harrow and the appearance of The Rivals—sketches of unfinished plays, poems, See also:political letters and See also:pamphlets—show that he was far from idle. The removal of the family to Bath in 1770–1771 led to,an acquaintance with the daughters of the composer Thomas See also:Linley. The eldest daughter, Elizabeth See also:Ann (b. 1754), a girl of sixteen, the prima donna of her father's concerts, was exceedingly beautiful,) and had many suitors, among them Sheridan, N. B. Halhed and a certain See also:Major See also:Mathews. To protect her from this man's persecutions, Sheridan, who seems to have acted at first only as a confidential friend, carried out the romantic plan of escorting Miss Linley, in March 1772, to a nunnery in France. Sheridan returned and fought two duels with Mathews, which made a considerable sensation at the time. The pair had gone through the ceremony of marriage in the course of their See also:flight, but Sheridan kept the marriage See also:secret, and was sternly denied See also:access to Miss Linley by her father, who did not consider him an eligible suitor. Sheridan was sent to See also:Waltham See also:Abbey, in See also:Essex, to continue his studies, especially in See also:mathematics. He was entered at the See also:Middle See also:Temple on the 6th of See also:April 1773, and a See also:week later he was openly married to Miss Linley. His daring start in life after this happy marriage showed a ,confidence in his See also:genius which was justified by its success. Although he had no income, and no See also:capital beyond a few thousand pounds brought by his wife, he took a house in See also:Orchard See also:Street, Portman Square, furnished it " in the most costly See also:style," and proceeded to return on something like an equal footing the hospitalities of the fashionable See also:world. His first See also:comedy, The Rivals, was produced at Covent Garden on the 17th See also:January 1775. It is said to have been not so favourably received on its first See also:night, owing to its length and to the See also:bad playing of the part of Sir See also:Lucius O'Trigger. But the defects were remedied before the second performance, which was deferred to the 28th of the See also:month, and the piece at once took that See also:place on the stage which it has never lost. His second piece, St Patrick's Day, or the Scheming Lieutenant, a lively farce, was written for the benefit 1 Her portrait, by See also:Gainsborough, one of the best examples of the artist's work, hangs at Knole, See also:Sevenoaks, See also:Kent.
performance (znd of May 1775) of See also:Lawrence Clinch, who had succeeded as Sir Lucius. In See also:November 1775, with the assistance of his father-in-See also:law, he produced the comic See also:opera of The Duenna, which was played 75 times at Covent Garden during that See also:season. Sheridan now began to negotiate with Garrick for the See also:purchase of his See also:share of Drury Lane, and the bargain was completed in See also:June 1776. The sum paid by Sheridan and his partners, Thomas Linley and Dr See also:Ford, for the See also:half-share was £35,coo; of this Sheridan contributed £10,000. The money was raised on See also:mortgage, Sheridan contributing only £1300 in See also:cash.' Two years afterwards Sheridan and his friends bought the other half of the See also:property for £35,000.
From the first the direction of the theatre would seem to have been mainly in the hands of Sheridan, who derived very material assistance from his wife. In See also:February 1777 he produced his version of See also:Vanbrugh's Relapse, under the See also:title of A Trip to See also:Scarborough. This is printed among Sheridan's works, but he has no more title to the authorship than See also:Colley See also:Cibber to that of Richard III. His See also:chief task was to remove indecencies; he added very little to the dialogue. The School for See also:Scandal was produced on the 8th of May 1777. Mrs See also:Abington, who had played Miss Hoyden in the Trip, played See also:Lady Teazle, who may be regarded as a Miss Hoyden See also:developed by six months' experience of marriage and See also:town life. The lord See also: There are tales of the haste with which the conclusion of The School for Scandal was written, of a stratagem by which the last act was got out of him by the anxious See also:company, and of the fervent " See also:Amen " written on the last See also:page of the copy by the prompter, in response to the author's " Finished at last, thank See also:God!" But, although the conception was thus hurriedly completed, we know from Sheridan's See also:sister that the idea of a " scandalous college " had occurred to him five years before in connexion with his own experiences at Bath. His difficulty ,was to find a story sufficiently dramatic in its incidents to See also:form a subject for the machinations of the See also:character-slayers. He seems to have tried more than one See also:plot, and in the end to have desperately forced two See also:separate conceptions together. The dialogue is so brilliant throughout, and the See also:auction See also:scene and the See also:screen scene so effective. that the construction of the comedy meets with little See also:criticism. The School for Scandal, though it has not the unity of The Rivals, nor the same See also:wealth of broadly humorous incident, is universally regarded as Sheridan's masterpiece. He might have settled the doubts and worries of authorship with Puff's reflection: " What is the use of a See also:good plot except to bring in good things?" Sheridan's farce, The Critic, was produced on the 29th of October 1779, The School for Scandal meantime continuing to draw larger houses than any other play every time it was put on the stage. In The Critic the laughable infirmities of all classes connected with the stage—authors, actors, patrons and See also:audience—are touched 8ff with the lightest of hands; the fun is directed, not at individuals, but at absurdities that grow out of the circumstances of the stage as naturally and inevitably as weeds in a garden. It seems that he had accumulated notes for another comedy to be called Affectation, but his only dramatic See also:composition during the remaining See also:thirty-six years of his life was See also:Pizarro, produced in 1799—a tragedy in which he made liberal use of some of the arts ridiculed in the person of Mr Puff. He also revised for the stage See also:Benjamin See also:Thompson's translation, The Stranger, of See also:Kotzebue's Menschenhass and Reue. He entered See also:parliament for See also:Stafford in 1780, as the friend and ally of Charles James See also:Fox. Apparently he owed his See also:election for Stafford to substantial arguments. He is said to have paid the burgesses five guineas each for the See also:honour of representing them, beside gifts in dinners and See also:ale to the non-voting part of the community, for their interest and See also:applause. His first speech in parliament was to defend himself against the See also:charge of See also:bribery, 1 For the elucidation of these transactions, see See also:Brander See also:Matthews's edition (1885) of Sheridan's Comedies (pp. 29-31).and was well received. He spoke little for a time and chiefly on See also:financial questions, but soon took a place among the best speakers in the House. See also:Congress recognized his services in opposing the See also:war in See also:America by offering him a See also:gift of £20,000 which, however, he refused. Under the wing of Fox he filled subordinate offices in the See also:short-lived ministries of 1782 and 1783. He was under-secretary for See also:foreign affairs in the See also:Rockingham See also:ministry, and a secretary of the See also:treasury in the See also:Coalition ministry. In debate he had the keenest of eyes for the weak places in an opponent's See also:argument, and the happy art of putting them in an irresistibly ludicrous See also:light without losing his good See also:temper or his presence of mind. In those heated days of See also:parliamentary strife he was almost the only man of See also:mark that was never called out, and yet he had no match in the weapon of ridicule. Sheridan found his great opportunity in the See also:impeachment of See also:Warren See also:Hastings. His speeches in that proceeding were by the unanimous See also:acknowledgment of his contemporaries among the greatest delivered in that generation of great orators. The first was on the 7th of February 1787, on the charges brought against Hastings with regard to the begums or princesses of Oude. Sheridan spoke for more than five See also:hours, and the effect of his oratory was such that it was unanimously agreed to adjourn and postpone the final decision till the House should be in a calmer See also:mood. Of this, and of his last great speech on the subject in 1794, only brief abstracts have been preserved; but with the second, the four days' speech delivered in his capacity of manager of the trial, in Westminster See also: When the See also:prince became See also:regent in 1811 Sheridan's private influence with him helped to exclude the Whigs from power. Throughout his parliamentary career Sheridan was one of the +boon companions of the prince, and his See also:champion in parliament in some dubious matters of See also:payment of debts. But he always resented any imputation that he was the prince's confidential adviser or See also:mouthpiece. A certain proud and sensitive See also:independence was one of the most marked features in Sheridan's parliamentary career. After a coolness arose between him and his Whig See also:allies he refused a place for his son from the government, lest there should be any suspicion in the public mind that his support had been bought. His last years were harassed by See also:debt and disappointment. He sat in parliament for Westminster in 18o6-18o7. At the general election of 1807 he stood again for Westminster and was defeated, but was returned as member for See also:Ilchester, at the expense apparently of the prince of See also:Wales. In 1812 he failed to secure a seat at Stafford. He could not raise money enough to buy the seat. He had quarrelled with the Prince Regent, and seems to have had none but obscure friends to stand by him. As a member of parliament he had been safe against See also:arrest for debt, but now that this See also:protection was lost his creditors closed in upon him, and the See also:history of his life from this time till his death in 1816 is one of the most painful passages in the biography of great men. It may be regarded as certain, however, that the description of the utter destitution and misery of the last weeks of his life given in the See also:Croker Papers (i. pp. 288-312, ed. L. J. Jennings) is untrue. In any See also:attempt to See also:judge of Sheridan as he was apart from his works, it is necessary to make considerable deductions from the See also:mass of floating anecdotes that have gathered See also:round his name. It was not without See also:reason that his See also:grand-daughter Mrs See also:Norton denounced the unfairness of judging of the real man from unauthenticated stories. The real Sheridan was not a See also:pattern of decorous respectability, but we may fairly believe that he was very far from being the Sheridan of vulgar See also:legend. Against the stories about his reckless management of his affairs we must set the broad facts that he had no source of income but Drury Lane theatre, that he See also:bore from it for thirty years all the expenses of a fashionable life, and that the theatre was twice rebuilt during his proprietorship, the first time (1791) on See also:account of its having been pronounced unsafe, and the second (1809) after a disastrous See also:fire. Enough was lost in this way to account ten times over for all his debts. The records of his See also:wild bets in the betting See also:book of See also:Brooks's See also:Club date from the years after the loss, in 1792, of his first wife, to whom he was devotedly attached. He married again in 1795, his second wife being See also:Esther Jane, daughter of See also:Newton Ogle, dean of See also:Winchester. The reminiscences of his son's tutor, Mr See also:Smyth, show anxious and fidgetty family habits, curiously at variance with the accepted tradition of his imperturbable recklessness. He died on the 7th of See also:July 1816, and was buried with great pomp in Westminster Abbey. Sheridan's only son by his first marriage, THOMAS SHERIDAN (1775-1817), was a poet of some merit. He became colonial treasurer at the Cape of Good See also:Hope. His wife, See also:Caroline Henrietta, nee See also:Callander (1779-1851), wrote three novels, which had some success at the time. She received, after her husband's death, quarters at See also:Hampton See also:Court, and is described by Fanny See also:Kemble as more beautiful than anybody ' but; her daughters. The eldest See also:child, See also:HELEN SELINA (1807-1867), married See also:Commander See also:Price See also:Blackwood, afterwards See also:Baron Dufferin. Her husband died in 1841, and in 1862 she consented to a ceremony of marriage with George See also:Hay, Earl of See also:Gifford, who died a month later. Her Songs, Poems and Verses (1894) were published, with a memoir, by her son, the See also:marquess of Dufferin. The second daughter, CAROLINE, became Mrs Norton (q.v.). The youngest, JANE GEORGINA, married See also:Edward See also:Adolphus See also:Seymour, afterwards 12th See also:duke of See also:Somerset. Among the numerous See also:modern See also:editions of Sheridan's plays, of which only The Rivals was published by the dramatist himself, may be mentioned: Sheridan's Plays now printed as he wrote them (1902), edited by W. Fraser Rae, who quotes at length the criticisms in the contemporary press; The Plays of R. B. Sheridan (1900), edited by Mr A. W. See also:Pollard; and Sheridan's Comedies (See also:Boston, U.S.A., 1885), with a valuable introduction by Mr Brander Matthews. For further details consult the extensive bibliography by Mr J. P. See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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