Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Irish playwright and politician

• Born: November 30, 1751
• Birthplace: Dublin, Ireland
• Died: July 7, 1816
• Place of death: London, England

Although he devoted most of his life to politics, Sheridan is remembered primarily for writing a handful of comic plays, most notably The School for Scandal. He also won recognition for a stirring speech in the British parliament calling for the impeachment of Warren Hastings, the governor general of India.

Early Life

The exact date of Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s birth is not known, but he was christened on November 4, 1751. His father, Thomas Sheridan, a godson of the writer Jonathan Swift, was an actor, a theater manager, and a teacher of elocution, while his mother, Frances Chamberlaine Sheridan, wrote novels and plays.

Richard spent much of his childhood separated from his parents. They twice moved to London, leaving him behind in Dublin, where in 1758-1759 he studied at a grammar school run by Samuel Whyte. In the fall of 1759, he rejoined his parents in London, but three years later he was sent to Harrow school as a boarder. While he was at Harrow, his parents and the rest of his family (a brother and two sisters) moved to France, so he did not see them, even on holidays. As a result, he felt lonely and neglected, and he was teased at school for being the son of an actor, acting being a far from respectable profession in those days.

After his mother’s death in 1766, his father and the rest of the family returned to England, and Richard rejoined them, first in London and then in the resort town of Bath in 1770. In Bath, Richard met the singer Elizabeth Linley, who was performing at his father’s Attic Entertainments, and he became romantically involved with her. Richard’s involvement with Elizabeth led to a number of dramatic adventures. He fought two duels over her with a rival suitor, and in 1772 he ran off with her to France. According to some accounts, they were married there, but they did not live together at this time when they first returned to England. They did marry in England in 1773 despite opposition from both fathers. An estrangement resulted between Richard and his father, and they never fully reconciled.

Life’s Work

After leaving Harrow, Richard Brinsley Sheridan wrote stories, essays, and plays, and he made plans for a satirical newspaper. He collaborated with a Harrow friend, Nathaniel Halhed, on a comic play called Jupiter or Ixion. It was not produced or published, but the two did publish a translation of a set of Greek love poems called The Love Epistles of Aristaenetus, in 1771. Also in 1771, Sheridan published a satirical poem called “The Ridotto of Bath” and another poem, “Clio’s Protest,” which contained a memorable line about easy writing making for hard reading.

Although he studied briefly to become a lawyer, Sheridan decided that he could better distinguish himself in the theatrical world, and at the age of twenty-three he saw his first successful play, The Rivals, produced at Covent Garden Theatre in London. Its first performance, on January 17, 1775, was not successful, so Sheridan withdrew it, revised it, and then turned it into a popular triumph when it returned to the stage on January 28. In November of the same year, he had a second success with the comic opera The Duenna: Or, The Double Elopement (pb. 1776).

Sheridan’s greatest literary success came with his comedy The School for Scandal, which opened at London’s Drury Lane Theatre on May 8, 1777. There was such a roar of applause in the famous screen scene in act four that a passerby thought the theater was falling down. For the rest of the century, it was the most often performed play in London. Sheridan wrote one more successful play, The Critic: Or, A Tragedy Rehearsed (pr. 1779, pb. 1781), then virtually abandoned play writing, though he remained involved in the theatrical world. In 1776, he became part owner of the Drury Lane Theatre, and he was closely involved in its management until 1809, when it burned down.

In 1780, Sheridan embarked on yet another career. Already associated with the radical section of the Whig Party, led by Charles James Fox, Sheridan in that year was elected to the British House of Commons as the member of Parliament (MP) for Stafford. He served as an MP, mostly on the opposition side, for thirty-two years and distinguished himself as an excellent speaker. His most notable speech was a condemnation (in 1787) of Warren Hastings, the former governor general of India, for corruption. His four speeches the following year during Hastings’s trial earned him further acclaim.

As a politician, Sheridan devoted himself to defending civil liberties and promoting electoral reform. Though a Protestant, he spoke strongly in favor of ending discrimination against Catholics and also spoke on the side of the Irish, the people of India, and the Americans in their struggles against British rule. He also supported the French Revolution.

He briefly served in three Whig governments, as undersecretary of state for northern development in 1782, as secretary to the treasury in 1783, and as treasurer of the British navy in 1806, but he was never given a seat in cabinet or a leadership position, in part because he was too independent for the party leaders. His social status as the son of an actor may also have been a factor for his fellow Whigs, most of whom had aristocratic backgrounds.

Throughout his life Sheridan was notorious for his womanizing and drinking as well as for being constantly in debt. His first wife, who nearly left him over his love affairs, died in 1792. His second wife, whom he married in 1795, was Esther Ogle, daughter of the dean of Winchester; Esther almost left Sheridan as well. When Sheridan lost his seat in Parliament in 1812, he lost his immunity to imprisonment for debt and was arrested at least once. He was almost arrested for debt again on his deathbed, but his doctor would not allow the sheriff to remove him.

Without money and with the disappearance of his health, looks, theater, and parliamentary seat, he was often referred to as “Poor Sheridan.” People spoke of the wreck of his life, but he had a grand funeral, attended by notables and aristocrats, and was buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey.

Significance

Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s main aim in life was to make a name for himself as a gentleman, and to do this he had decided that politics was a better path to follow than being a dramatist. Despite his theatrical associations, he shared the view of his day: The theater was a low place.

Yet, with the possible exception of his speech on the impeachment of Warren Hastings, it is his comic plays and not his political activities for which Sheridan is remembered. He is considered one of the greatest comic dramatists of his era, an heir to Restoration comic writers such as William Congreve, though toning down the cynical licentiousness of the seventeenth century Restoration and combining it with the more sentimental approach of the late eighteenth century.

Sheridan’s literary achievements include the creation of Mrs. Malaprop, a character in The Rivals whose name has become a term (“malaprop” or “malapropism”) for the misuse of language. He is also remembered for his sparkling, witty dialogue and for characters such as Lady Teazle and the Surface brothers in The School for Scandal, a play notable for its famous screen scene, in which the falling down of a literal screen symbolizes the exposure of hypocrisy that is one of the play’s themes.

In the end, Sheridan’s thirty-two years in Parliament may not even have won him the social status he sought, but his five years as a playwright ensured him lasting distinction.

Bibliography

Auburn, Mark S. Sheridan’s Comedies: Their Contexts and Achievements. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1977. Analyzes Sheridan’s plays and places them in their eighteenth century context.

Durant, Jack D. Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Boston: Twayne, 1975. Mostly an analysis of the plays, but also provides a brief biographical sketch, a useful chronology, and a bibliography.

Gibbs, Lewis. Sheridan: His Life and His Theatre. London: Dent, 1947. Good biographical study including sophisticated analyses of Sheridan’s character and the nature of his achievements. Includes illustrations and a bibliography.

Kelly, Linda. Richard Brinsley Sheridan: A Life. London: Sinclair-Stevenson, 1997. A full-scale biography focusing more on Sheridan’s political career than his theatrical life. Includes illustrations and a bibliography.

Loftis, John. Sheridan and the Drama of Georgian England. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1977. An analysis of Sheridan’s plays in their eighteenth century context. Includes discussion of Sheridan’s literary reputation.

Morwood, James. The Life and Works of Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, 1985. A short but insightful biography linking Sheridan’s life to his plays. Includes illustrations and a bibliography.

Morwood, James, and David Crane, eds. Sheridan Studies. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995. A collection of short essays on various aspects of Sheridan’s life and work.

O’Toole, Fintan. A Traitor’s Kiss: The Life of Richard Brinsley Sheridan. London: Granta, 1997. A full-scale biography focusing on Sheridan’s Irish connections and his radical politics.