Sheridan, Richard Brinsley

1751

1816

Born in Dorset Street, Dublin, on 30 October 1751, Richard Brinsley Sheridan was the son of the theatre manager, actor and teacher of oratory Thomas Sheridan (q.v.) and his wife Frances, a playwright. Though Richard went to grammar school in Dublin and had strong feelings for his Irish heritage, most of his life was spent in England, to which he became equally devoted. His life was fraught with incident, from two duels at Bath for his beloved (singer Elizabeth Linley, with whom he eloped to France), to the success of four sparkling comedies in five years, to the managership and near-financial ruin of Drury Lane Theatre, to dazzling oratory (and protection from creditors) as a Member of Parliament, to regular drunken bouts featuring claret and brandy, to death in debt but burial in Poet’s Corner at Westminster Abbey. He belonged to the world of the theatre, where he brought people more merriment than they had enjoyed since the days of Congreve, as well as to the theatre of the world, where he championed the revolutionary Irish, American and French. He was sometimes irresponsible and disorganized but just as often light-hearted and witty, as when he was accosted by a highwayman and offered the thief an IOU. Though he is not known to have been an actor, much of his life was an act, full of intrigues, wordplay and pretense. Sheridan was asked whether he was a rogue or a fool; he replied that he was somewhere between the two. His life in politics was merely the other side of the theatrical coin. It is difficult to castigate Sheridan for his financial ineptitude after he has entertained you with “The Rivals”, “The School for Scandal”, “The Duenna” and “The Critic”. Yet that part of his life spent in the theatre did serious damage to England’s greatest playhouse and the hundreds of people who worked there. Employees went without pay while Sheridan enjoyed the good life; the patentee sat in the Piazza Coffee House watching ‘by his own fireside’ as Drury Lane burned to the ground in 1809. He had little interest in tragedy and seemed at times to be a man who could not take life seriously, even when seriousness was thrust upon him. Sheridan’s career as an author began in the 1770s with satirical and political epistles. His first play was “The Rivals” (1775), which was not immediately successful but attracted audiences after Sheridan doctored it and improved the casting. Then, in a striking flurry of creativity between 1775 and 1779, while at the same time taking over the managership of Drury Lane, Sheridan turned out his four major comedies and three lesser pieces. After that the playwright in him was content with play doctoring and staging. He wrote some new scenes in 1780 for Woodward’s “Harlequin Fortunatus” and staged in it a spectacular, audience-catching battle; he cooked up a pantomime called “Robinson Crusoe” in 1781 that had 40 performances; in 1798 he tinkered with Thompson’s “The Stranger”, from Kotzebue, and in 1799 he turned out his last major theatrical work, “Pizarro”, again from Kotzebue. By that time Drury Lane’s finances were in a shambles and Sheridan was turning over stage management to others. He seemed to have enjoyed the power and notoriety of heading England’s premiere theatre but only wanted it to further his political ambitions. His appearances as a political orator dazzled the House of Commons; one speech, in 1787, was over five and a half hours long and brought cheers; another, in 1798 was delivered over three days, and seats for it fetched £50. But his political career began to wane in the early years of the new century, and by 1812 he had lost his positions both in Parliament and at Drury Lane. He was debt-ridden, unprotected by membership in Parliament, and dependent on the kindness of friends. His body was giving way on him, too, and Sheridan died on 7 July 1816. (BDA; Fintan O’Toole, “A Traitor’s Kiss: The Life of Richard Brinsley Sheridan”, 1997)[EAL]