Richard Brinsley Sheridan
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Richard Brinsley Sheridan |
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (
October 30,
1751 –
July 7,
1816) was an
Irish playwright and
Whig statesman.
Sheridan was born in
Dublin on October 30, 1751 at 12 Dorset Street, a fashionable street in the late eighteenth century. (Fellow playwright
Sean O'Casey was born on Dorset Street 130 years later). He was
baptized on
November 4,
1751, his father
Thomas Sheridan being an actor-manager who managed the
Theatre Royal, Dublin for a time, and his mother,
Frances Sheridan, a writer. She died when her son was fifteen.
Sheridan was educated at
Harrow School, and was to study law. However, his highly romantic elopement with Elizabeth Linley (daughter of
Thomas Linley), and their subsequent marriage in
1773, put paid to such hopes. When he returned to
London, he began writing for the stage. His first play,
The Rivals, produced at
Covent Garden in
1775, was a failure on its first night. Sheridan cast a more capable actor for the role of the comic Irishman for its second performance, and it was a smash which immediately established the young playwright's reputation. It has gone on to become a standard of
English literature.
Having quickly made his name and fortune, Sheridan bought a share in
Drury Lane. His most famous
play The School for Scandal (1777) is considered one of the greatest
comedies of manners in
English. It was followed by
The Critic (
1779), an updating of the satirical Restoration play
The Rehearsal.
Sheridan was also a
Whig politician, entering parliament in
1780 under the sponsorship of
Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. A great public speaker, he remained in parliament until
1812, and was a leading figure in the party. He was also the great-grandfather of
Lord Dufferin, third
Governor General of
Canada and eighth
Viceroy of
India.
Upon his death, Sheridan was buried in the
Poets' Corner of
Westminster Abbey.
*
rbsheridan.com: The only site solely dedicated to Sheridan on the web. Includes biographical timeline, information on his dramatic works, selections of his poems and speeches, and an annotated bibliography.
*
Free ebook of Richard Brinsley Sheridan at
Project Gutenberg* Full text of
Thomas Moore's
Memoirs of the Life of the Right Honorable Richard Brinsley Sheridan,
Vol. 1,
Vol. 2
