sSBsi 
 
 Freago 
 
 fir 
 
"Great milliters." 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 PROFESSOR ERIC S. ROBERTSON, M.A. 
 
 ET&I7J 
 
 ZZfiE OF SHERIDAN. 
 
LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN 
 
 BY 
 
 LLOYD C. SANDERS. 
 II 
 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 WALTER SCOTT, 24 WARWICK LANE. 
 
 NEW YORK: 3 EAST 14TH STREET, 
 
 AND MELBOURNE. 
 
 [All rights reserved.] 
 
 ttffO 
 

 4/7.73 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Ancestors of Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan ; his birth in 
 Dublin, October 30, 1751 ; parents ; removal to Henrietta 
 Street, Covent Garden; goes to Harrow, 1762-8; life at 
 Frith Street, Soho ; removal to Bath, 1770; first literary 
 efforts; social life at Bath; "Clio's Protest" and "A 
 Panegyric to the Ridotto " ; the Linley family ; Miss 
 Linley's admirers ; her elopement with Sheridan ; their 
 marriage, April, 1773 9 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Sheridans settle in Orchard Street, Portman Square, 1774; 
 their entrance into society ; Sheridan chooses literature as 
 a profession ; his preference for the drama ; " The Rivals " 
 fails on its first production, January, 1775; its failure 
 largely due to the then prevalent taste for sentimental 
 comedy ; the charges of plagiarism made against Sheridan 
 to what extent true ; the plot of the play ; its characters 
 and dialogue . . . 22 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 " St. Patrick's Day ; or The Scheming Lieutenant," produced, 
 May, 1775; * ts plot ; "The Duenna" collaboration of 
 Sheridan and Mr. Linley; Sheridan's irregular way of^ 
 working ; the opera's success, November, 1775 ; its music ; 
 its plot ; its characters ; Sheridan's estimate of its worth 44 
 
6 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. page 
 
 Sheridan's popularity Dr. Johnson introduces him to the 
 Literary Club ; he purchases a share (one-seventh) in 
 Drury Lane Theatre, 1776 (increased to one-half in 
 1778); troubles at Drury Lane; "A Trip to Scar- 
 borough," February, 1777; "The School for Scandal" 
 produced, May, 1777 j its success ; the actors ; its brilliant 
 dialogue the labour spent upon it by Sheridan ; the 
 limitations of Sheridan's art he excelled in the depiction 
 of manners, not life ; the dialogue of " The School for 
 Scandal" not too witty; the length of the play and its 
 plot ; the play purely non-moral ; the charges of plagiarism 
 made against Sheridan in connection with " The School 
 for Scandal " . . 54 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Unsatisfactory state of affairs at Drury Lane ; death of Garrick 
 Sheridan's monody ; "The Critic," October, 1779; the 
 originals of some of its characters ; its plan not new ; very 
 little borrowed from earlier writers ; the. comedy of the 
 first act and the satire of the second still preserve their 
 vitality; "The Critic" the last of Sheridan's important 
 literary and dramatic productions ; later works . .81 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The circumstances in which Sheridan turned to politics ; he 
 joins the Whig Opposition under Fox ; is returned for 
 Stafford, 1780; his position and bearing in the House of 
 Commons ; on Lord North's resignation he is appointed 
 Under Secretary of State, 1782, and Secretary to the 
 Treasury, 1783 ; again in opposition, 1784 ; his speech for 
 the impeachment of Warren Hastings, 1787 ; his great 
 speech against Hastings in Westminster Hall, 1788 ; 
 opinions with regard to it ; his qualities as an orator the 
 most effective speaker of his time ; his me'hods of pre- 
 paration ; his final speech in the Hastings trial . . 92 
 
CONTENTS. 7 
 
 CHAPTER VII. pag. 
 
 Moore's and other biographies of Sheridan very incomplete and 
 unsatisfactory ; his serious inner self ; his attitude towards 
 society ; his dissipations ; his brilliant conversation ; his 
 practical jokes ; his friends ; his relations with his family 
 his second marriage ; his laxity in money matters his 
 way of treating his creditors ; Drury Lane Theatre 
 Sheridan's qualities and troubles as manager ; his stage- 
 managers ; the Theatre rebuilt consequent debt ; the 
 performances there ; success of " Pizarro " its worth ; 
 increasing embarrassments ; the Theatre destroyed by fire, 
 1S09 . . . 113 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Sheridan's hopes of his connection with the Prince of Wales 
 . their disappointment ; he supports Fox's denial of the 
 Prince's marriage with Mrs. Fitzherbert, 1787 ; he asserts 
 the Prince's claim to an unrestricted regency, 1788 ; dis- 
 sensions among the Whigs he quarrels with Burke, 1790 ; 
 Whig factions the part played by Sheridan ; his later 
 political career from 1794 to 1812; he loses his seat for 
 Stafford ; general view of his political life . . . 147 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Sheridan's financial position after the burning of Drury Lane 
 Theatre ; his manner of existence thereafter ; he breaks 
 with the Prince Regent and is exiled from Carlton House ; 
 his last relations with Drury Lane ; all his property is dis- 
 posed of to pay his debts ; the misery of his last illness 
 the Prince Regent's behaviour ; his death, July 7, 1816 . 161 
 
 INDEX . . . . . . . .171 
 
^ OP THP ^ 
 
 <?, 
 
 LIFE OF SHERIDAN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE Anglo-Irish family of Sheridan possessed in a 
 marked degree the dominant characteristics of their 
 race ability, buoyancy, and thriftlessness. Among 
 Swift's Irish friends none is so interesting as Dr. Thomas 
 Sheridan, the dramatist's grandfather. He was an ac- 
 complished scholar, and a good schoolmaster ; excellent 
 company Lord Orrery describes him as a punster, a 
 quibbler, a fiddler, and a wit but hopelessly impro- 
 vident and hopelessly devoid of tact, though assuredly 
 not of tenderness. He was one of the few men whom 
 Swift seems to have really esteemed, though the Dean's 
 calculating friendship but poorly returned the wealth of 
 affection bestowed on him by the open-hearted Irishman. 
 In justice to Swift, however, it should be pointed out 
 that Dr. Sheridan was one of those persons for whom 
 it is well-nigh impossible to obtain anything. He was 
 appointed one of the chaplains to the Lord Lieutenant, 
 but was promptly struck off the list for a very adequate 
 reason. It fell to his lot to preach at Cork on the 
 
10 LIFE OF 
 
 king's birthday, and what must he do but select the text, 
 'Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof"? "Too 
 much advertency is not your talent," wrote Swift to him 
 in mild rebuke, " or else you had fled from that text as 
 from a rock. For as Don Quixote said to Sancho, 
 ' -Vi^t business had you to speak of a halter in a family 
 where one of it was hanged ? '" Sheridan bought a school 
 at Cavan in 1735, whence he conducted a rollicking 
 correspondence with Swift. But two years afterwards he 
 sold the school for ^"400, and, as his friend briefly 
 records, "spent the money, grew into disease, and died." 
 George IV., on reading his correspondence with Swift, 
 remarked to Croker how exactly his character corres- 
 ponded with that of his brilliant grandson, and the 
 parallel is tolerably obvious. 
 
 Dr. Sheridan's third son Thomas is a sufficiently fami- 
 liar figure in the pages of Boswell, and may perhaps be 
 briefly described as an ineffectual genius, whose great 
 talents were spoilt by diffuseness and pedantry. At 
 first an actor, he became a popular favourite at Dublin, 
 and though hardly, as has been asserted, a rival ot 
 Garrick, trod the London boards with considerable credit, 
 notably in the parts of Brutus and King John. As the 
 manager of a Dublin theatre he did not win success, and 
 became the victim of various theatrical conspiracies, but 
 was fortunate enough to secure the anonymous advocacy, 
 and win the hand, of the accomplished young authoress, 
 Frances Chamberlaine. She was of good family, the 
 granddaughter of an English baronet, and her father was 
 a dignitary of the Irish Church. They were married in 
 1747, and their second son, Richard Brinsley Butler, 
 
SHERIDAN. 11 
 
 was born at No. 12, Dorset Street, Dublin, on the 30th 
 of October, ^! 7 5 1. 1 
 
 The parents seem to have divided their time, with the 
 exception of a professional visit to London, between the 
 Irish capital and the meagre family estate at Quilca, until 
 1758, when they finally removed to England. Richard 
 and his sister Alicia remained behind, and went first 
 as day-scholars, and then as boarders, to Mr. Whyte's, 
 of Grafton Street, Dublin, who afterwards taught Moore, 
 Sheridan's biographer. ' About eighteen months later 
 they followed their parents across the Channel, and 
 found the house in Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, 
 the centre of a literary society, of which Samuel 
 Richardson and Dr. Johnson were the most celebrated 
 members. Mrs. Sheridan meanwhile was trying to keep 
 the wolf from the door by writing her novel, " The 
 Adventures of Miss Sidney Biddulph," a very remark- 
 able specimen of the Richardsonian school of fiction, 
 which won the cordial approbation of Lord North and 
 Mr. Fox, while Dr. Johnson said of it that he knew not 
 if she had a right, on moral principles, to make her 
 characters suffer so much. A comedy entitled ",-T he- 
 Disc o very " followed, which was promptly accepted by 
 Garrick, and which contained in Sir Anthony Branville 
 one of his favourite parts. " Xhe Dupe." however failed, 
 owing to the indelicacy of some of its situations, or 
 according to another story, through the cabals of the 
 famous actress, Mrs. Clive. 
 
 1 This is the date given by Mr. Chester in his notes to the 
 "Registers in Westminster Abbey." Sheridan's biographers say 
 vaguely that he was born in September. 
 
12 LIFE OF 
 
 The father was employed in acting, and in lecturing on 
 British education. His scheme was about equally com- 
 pounded of common sense and whim ; he saw the value 
 of professional training in youth, but he vastly over- 
 estimated the worth of oratory as a medium for bringing 
 up the young idea. He was also compiling a "Pro- 
 nouncing Dictionary of the English Language," and 
 received as an encouragement to his undertaking a 
 pension of ^200 a year. " What ? " said Johnson, 
 "have they given him a pension? Then it is time for 
 me to give up mine." A quarrel naturally ensued, which 
 was never completely healed, though the Doctor made 
 more than one overture. The original cause of offence 
 was the more uncalled for, because jt was owing to 
 Sheridan's influence with Wedderburne, to whom he had 
 given lessons in English pronunciation, that Dr. Johnson 
 owed his own pension.. Nor is it fair to take seriously 
 his scathing speech. " Why, sir, Sherry is dull, naturally 
 dull, but it must have taken him a deal of pains to 
 become what he is. Such an excess of stupidity is not 
 in nature. . . . Besides, Sir, what influence can Mr. 
 Sheridan have upon the language of this great country 
 through his narrow exertions. It is burning a farthing 
 candle at Dover, to show light at Calais." Lexicographers 
 apparently do not always agree. 
 
 Affluence and the Sheridans dwelt far apart, and in 
 1764, the father, mother, and two daughters, influenced 
 partly by pecuniary considerations, partly by the state 
 of Mrs. Sheridan's health, retired to Blois. The 
 admirable woman Dr. Parr termed her " quite celes- 
 tial " had only time to write an Oriental tale "Nour- 
 
SHERIDAN. 13 
 
 ] ah ad," and the second part of " Sidney Biddulph," 
 when she died in August, 1766. Thus her son Dick 
 never saw her again, for he had pnn<* [Q PTn rmw in 
 1762, where he was placed under the care of his father's 
 acquaintance, Dr. Sumner. His schooldays do not call 
 for any especial comment. Both masters and boys liked 
 him, and though he was apparently idle, and Dr. Parr in 
 vain attempted to extract from him some signs of that 
 superior intelligence which he was known to possess, 
 yet it is probable that he managed to pick up a fair 
 amount ot scholarship. Indeed he had already entered 
 into a literary partnership with a schoolfellow called 
 Halhed, and the pair translated the Seventh Idyl and 
 many of the lesser poems of Tiifnrrihws a performance 
 which in itself is sufficient to prove that Dr. Parr's 
 knowledge of his pupil was superficial. We gather, too, 
 that the future orator was chosen to recite a Greek 
 speech, which his budding extravagance suggested to 
 him would be most appropriately delivered in the uniform 
 of a British general officer. He had also developed 
 the taste for practical jokes which distinguished him 
 through life; his myrmidons robbed apple-orchards for 
 him, and the thefts could never be traced to their in- 
 stigator. 
 
 Sheri dan left . H arrow in h is seventeenth year, and 
 lived with his father and elder brother Charles in Frith 
 Street, Soho. Want of means alone would probably 
 have prevented his being sent to the University, but 
 it does not follow, as is sometimes asserted, that old 
 Sheridan was careless of his son's future. He was at 
 this time maturing his educational scheme, and in 1769 
 
14 LIFE OF 
 
 it was published with a letter to the king, in which the 
 author offered to devote his life to the cause, on the 
 receipt of a sufficient pension to enable him to abandon 
 the theatre. Visions of an academy in which he would 
 be the guiding spirit, and his sons the executive, floated 
 before the gaze of this sanguine Irishman, and with that 
 view he instructed them daily in elocution. At the same 
 time they received lessons in Latin and mathematics from 
 a Mr. Ker, while the remainder of a polite education 
 was acquired at Angelo's riding-school. The royal ear, 
 however, was invoked in vain, and old Sheridan, nothing 
 daunted, retired in 1 771 not 1770, as stated by Moore 
 in his " Life of Sheridan " to Bath, where he worked 
 away at his dictionary, which ultimately appeared in 
 1780. "What, Sir," asked Dr. Johnson, "entitled 
 Sheridan to fix the pronunciation of English ? " 
 
 Meantime the literary association with Halhed had 
 been resumed, young Sheridan being perhaps doubtful 
 of the ultimate success of his father's schemes, and 
 anxious to make a living by his pen. Their first essay 
 was a farce called (i Jupiter ^" which contains some clever 
 dialogue, but is chiefly remarkable for being thrown into 
 the form of a rehearsal, and thus an anticipation of 
 " The Critic." Another attempt, for which Sheridan 
 alone was responsible, was a dramatic sketch founded on 
 the "Vicar of Wakefield." A periodical paper entitled 
 Herman's Miscellany was then projected, but never 
 proceeded beyond the first number, written by Sheridan, 
 while a " Collection of Occasional Poems," and a volume 
 of "Crazy Tales," seem to have perished in embryo. In 
 fact, the only production which saw the light was a verse 
 
SHERIDAN. 15 
 
 translation of the Epistles of an obscure Greek author 
 named Ar , ' cfapr " a t"j^ which was published in August, 
 1 77 1. The MS. was due in March, but owing to 
 Sheridan's laziness, and possibly owing to his limited 
 knowledge of Greek though he conscientiously sup- 
 plemented his deficiencies by the aid of a grammar it 
 does not appear to have reached the publisher Wilkie 
 until May. Taken as a whole the performance was by 
 no means discreditable in fact, Sheridan had little cause 
 to be ashamed of any of his early efforts but it was far 
 from proving a pecuniary success. A report that the 
 volume was making a stir in London, and had been 
 attributed to Dr. Johnson, was followed by its com- 
 parative failure. It succeeded somehow or other in 
 struggling into a second edition, but the collaborators 
 were wise enough not to venture on a second instalment. 
 Though the data are few, it is probable that young 
 Sheridan had little difficulty in making his way in the 
 easy society of the queen of watering-places. The place 
 must have been, however, an unwholesome home for so 
 precocious a boy, and to his vagrant youth, combined 
 with the early death of his mother, must be attributed 
 much of that absence of self-restraint which operated so 
 disastrously upon his manhood and old age. His figure 
 was tall and graceful ; of his face Byron wrote that, even 
 in his decline, "the upper part was that of a god a 
 forehead most expansive, an eye of peculiar brilliancy 
 and fire " ; he shone in conversation, and could turn out 
 a very pretty copy of verses on the spur of the moment. 
 The last quality must have made him popular among the 
 frequenters of Lady Miller's house at Bath Easton, 
 
16 LIFE OF 
 
 where according to Horace Walpole, "all the flux of 
 quality contended for prizes gained for rhymes and 
 themes ; a Roman vase, dressed with pink ribbons and 
 myrtle, received the poetry which was drawn out at each 
 festival " \ the victor knelt and kissed the hand of Lady 
 Miller, who crowned him with a wreath. A more capti- 
 vating person, Lady Margaret Fordyce, sister of Lady 
 Anne Lindsay, the writer of " Auld Robin Grey," was 
 celebrated by him in the well-known passage : 
 
 . . : " Mark'd you her cheek of rosy hue ? 
 Mark'd you her eye of sparkling blue ? 
 That eye, in liquid circles moving ; 
 That cheek abashed at Man's approving ; 
 The one Love's arrows darting round ; 
 The other blushing at the wound : 
 Did she not speak, did she not move, 
 Now Pallas now the Queen of Love ! 
 
 The lines occur in a poem called "Clio's Protest; or 
 the Picture Varnished," an answer to some verses de- 
 scriptive of the beauties of Bath by General Fitzpatrick, 
 subsequently one of Sheridan's intimates, which were 
 entitled "The Bath Picture." "Clio's Protest" also 
 contained the familiar couplet 
 
 J 1 n 
 
 ou write with ease to show your breeding, 
 But easy writing's vile hard reading." 
 
 In another effusion, styled " A Panegyric to the Ridotto," 
 given when the new Assembly Rooms were opened on the 
 30th of September, 1 771, he satirized the tradespeople 
 of Bath, and their undignified rush towards the supper-, 
 room. Timothy Screw, a waiter, is supposed to mv 
 
SHERIDAN. 17 
 
 burden his mind at their expense to his brother Henry, 
 a waiter at aristocratic Almack's. 
 
 I " But here I must mention the best thing of all, 
 \ And what I'm informed ever marks a Bath ball, 
 The variety 'tis which so reign'd in the crew, 
 That turn where one would the classes were new : 
 For here no dull level of rank and degrees, 
 No uniform mode, that shows all are at ease ; 
 But like a chess table, part black and part white, 
 'Twas a delicate chequer of low and polite. 
 
 \ Not less among you was the medley, ye fair ; 
 I believe there were some besides Quality there : 
 Miss Spiggot, Miss Brussels, Miss Tape, and Miss Socket, 
 Miss Trinket, and aunt, with her leathern pocket ; 
 With good Mrs. Soaker, who made her old chin go 
 
 ' For hours, hobnobbing with Mrs. Syringo." 
 
 Among those who frequented Bath for professional 
 purposes were Mr. Linley, the composer, and his family, 
 " a nest of nightingales." The eldest daughter was 
 known as the Maid of Bath, and her beauty and exquisite 
 voice had already gathered round her a numerous band 
 of admirers, some of whom she was compelled, from her 
 position as a public singer, to treat with more ceremony 
 than they deserved. She was barely seventeen, but had 
 already had several offers of marriage, amongst others 
 from an elderly and wealthy gentleman of Wiltshire 
 named Long. Her parents naturally wished for the 
 marriage, but she told Mr. Long that she could never 
 be happy with him, and the good old man took upon 
 himself the responsibility of breaking off the alliance, 
 and even indemnified Mr. Linley, who was proceeding 
 
18 LIFE OF 
 
 to bring the matter into court, by settling ,3,000 
 upon his daughter. Among those who entertained 
 honourable designs were Halhed and Charles Sheridan ; 
 of her unworthy lovers the most pertinacious was Mr. 
 Mathews, a married man of fortune. It appears that the 
 elders of the Sheridan and Linley families had already 
 become acquainted, through Mrs. Sheridan having taken 
 some singing lessons from Mr. Linley in 1764 ; and when 
 the fathers met again at Bath, a close friendship was 
 formed between their daughters, which the Sheridan 
 boys naturally turned to their own account. Of the 
 exact course of events it would be difficult, even if it 
 were worth while, to give the history, since the long 
 letter, purporting to be by Miss Linley, and written in 
 Lydia Languish's best manner, upon which biographers 
 commonly rely, has been denounced by Sheridan's 
 granddaughter Mrs. Norton, as a clumsy forgery. 1 But it 
 is clear that Richard Sheridan easily disposed of the 
 claims of Halhed, absent at Oxford, and of the solemn 
 Charles. His muse ably seconded his efforts by the 
 pretty verses beginning 
 
 I u Dry be that tear, my gentlest love, 
 J \ Be hush'd that struggling sigh. " 
 
 Halhed retired to India, Charles to a farmhouse near 
 Bath, whence he wrote to Miss Linley a letter of farewell. 
 
 1 A collection of letters, purporting to have been written by Miss 
 Linley after her marriage with Sheridan, was published in The 
 English Illustrated Magazine in 1884. As their authenticity ap- 
 pears to be decidedly doubtful, it is possible that they were con- 
 cocted by the same hand that wrote the letter alluded to in the text. 
 
SHERIDAN. 19 
 
 Mathews alone held the field against Sheridan, and the 
 romantic imagination of the latter suggested an elope- 
 ment as the best means of furthering his own ends, and 
 foiling those of his rival. With his sister's connivance 
 the lovers fled to London, thence to Dunkirk, with money 
 borrowed from a friend of the family upon the repre- 
 sentation tha^t Miss Linley was a rich heiress, with whom 
 Sheridai^p^Bpfeg. A secret marriage of a somewhat 
 perfunWory nature was accomplished at Calais, and they 
 proceeded to Lisle, where Miss Linley, as she must still 
 be called, retired into a convent, until the arrival of her 
 father who, tolerant, practical man, brought her back to 
 England to fulfil her engagements. 
 
 The second act of the comedy begins with a violent 
 libel upon Sheridan by Mathews in The Bath Chronide,a.r\<\ 
 then indeed the gossips of Bath had good cause to swear 
 with Bob Acres by "Odds hilts and blades, odds flints, 
 pans and triggers." There were two so-called duels the 
 first a scuffle inya London tavern, after which Mathews 
 was compelled to apologize; the second a scuffle near 
 Bath, in which Sheridan was wounded. If Sheridan's own 
 account may be accepted, Mathews showed great cowar- 
 dice in the first duel, but had much the better of the 
 second, though Sheridan, who was wounded while the 
 pair were rolling together on the ground, declined to beg 
 his life. The young man's wrath seems, in fact, to have 
 got the better of his science, and blood and ink were 
 spilt in about equal quantities. In the last scene Miss 
 Linley rushes on with the passionate exclamation, " My 
 husband, my husband ! " and the curtain falls upon a 
 very effective situation. 
 
20 LIFE OF 
 
 In the third act, however, the interest begins to flag. 
 Sheridan retired to Farm Hill near Waltham Abbey, and 
 the paper warfare continued, a third duel being at one 
 time in prospect. It was quite characteristic of him that 
 he should have requested Woodfall to reprint in The 
 Morning Advertiser a calumnious account of his conduct 
 which had appeared in one of the Bath papers, so as to 
 give him an opportunity of contradicting it, and then, 
 from indolence, have omitted to send the counterblast. 
 Meantime, old Sheridan would not hear of the marriage, 
 and all communications were intercepted, while the 
 appearance of Miss Linley in the oratorios at Covent 
 Garden caused a fresh swarm of admirers to gather round 
 her, and inflicted upon her husband de jure, if not de 
 facto, those torments of groundless jealousy which, accord- 
 ing to a not very tenable theory, he afterwards described 
 in the character of Faulkland. Moore informs us that 
 his nimble wit contrived many stratagems for the purpose 
 of exchanging a few words with her, and that he more 
 than once disguised himself as a hackney coachman, and 
 drove her home from the theatre. Mr. Linley in the 
 end proved less obdurate than Sheridan's father, and, 
 the first ceremony being regarded as too informal, the 
 lovers were married by license on April 13, 1773. The 
 summer and autumn were spent in a cottage at East 
 Burnham, and it was during a temporary absence that 
 Sheridan wrote the lines which, in their perfected form, 
 were one of the most popular songs in "The Duenna " : 
 
 " What bard, O Time, discover, 
 With wings first made thee move ? 
 
SHERIDAN. i!l 
 
 Ah ! sure it was some lover 
 Who ne'er had left his love ! 
 For who that once did prove 
 The pangs that absence brings, 
 Though but one day 
 lie were away, 
 i Could picture thee with wings !" 
 
v' s f 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 EARLY in 1774 Sheridan and his wife proceeded to 
 set up house in Orchard Street, Portman Square. 
 No assistance was forthcoming from old Sheridan, who 
 still harboured resentment against his son but Mr. 
 Linley supplied the furniture, and for ready money they 
 had Mr. -Long's three thousand pounds. The sum must 
 have seemed an El Dorado to them, and they probably 
 had little scruple about living on capital. An obvious 
 source of income was Mrs. Sheridan's voice, but Sheridan 
 at once rejected all thoughts of allowing her to perform 
 in public, even though Lord North, the Chancellor of 
 Oxford University, was reported as having said that her 
 appearance there would be regarded as the highest 
 compliment. Dr. Johnson warmly approved Sheridan's 
 determination not to live upon his wife, and there can be 
 no doubt that a manly sense of independence, not a weak 
 compliance with social prejudices, was his actuating motive. 
 It is probable, however, that the young couple at first 
 intended to derive an income from a series of private 
 entertainments, given in conjunction with the Linleys. 
 At least there in a remarkably business-like tone in the 
 
LIFE OF SHERIDAN. 23 
 
 following advertisement, which appeared in The Morning 
 Post of February 4, 1774 : 
 
 " Sheridan has taken a house in Orchard Street, Oxford Street, 
 where he proposes, if his wife recovers, to give concerts twice a 
 week to the nobility. Mrs. Sheridan has refused 1,200 guineas for 
 twelve months at the Pantheon, 1 ,000 guineas for the Oratorios, and 
 1,000 for Gardiner's concert." 
 
 But the idea, a distinctly sensible one, seems to have 
 been dropped. For we are assured by Sheridan's niece, 
 Miss Lefanu, in her " Memoirs of Mrs. Frances Sheri- 
 dan," that the concerts were given gratuitously, as a 
 return for hospitalities received. The story is that the 
 Sheridans took society by storm, sending out invitations 
 and giving entertainments on equal terms to persons of 
 distinction; and that when Sheridan was scolded for 
 living beyond his means, he replied, " My dear Sir, these 
 are my means." Like most Sheridaniana, the anecdote 
 probably contains more fable than fact ; indeed, there is 
 distinct evidence that the gifted pair found the ascent to 
 Olympus by no means unencumbered by obstacles. 
 Moore records that there was some hesitation before 
 Devonshire House opened its doors to them, and so late 
 as 1785 we find Mr. Windham recording in his diary 
 that he had spent the morning with Mrs. Legge, and 
 that their chief topic of conversation was the reasons for 
 and against being acquainted with Mrs. Sheridan. In 
 this instance it is not uncharitable to surmise that the 
 lady was for the prosecution, the gentleman for the 
 defence, and it is to be hoped that the former was 
 effectually reduced to silence. But the entry conclusively 
 
24 LIFE OF 
 
 proves that the Sheridans, like most ambitious people of 
 similar antecedents, were at first rather in society than of 
 it, and had to endure a considerable period of probation 
 below the salt before they were finally promoted to a 
 footing of equality. 
 
 Meanwhile Sheridan was looking about for a liveli- 
 hood. He had been entered a student of the Middle 
 Temple, but for a person in his situation it would have 
 been an obvious absurdity to devote himself to a pro- 
 fession the income from which was certain to be remote, 
 and might possibly never come at all. Literature 
 afforded brighter prospe cts, and i n November, 17 7 4% he 
 wrote to Mr. Linley that he was very seriously at work on 
 a book, which he was sending to the press. Whatever 
 the work in question may have been, it never emerged 
 from the printer's hands. Moore is inclined to identify it 
 with an " Essay on the Letters of Lord Chesterfield," of 
 which he found a part of the rough copy among Sheri- 
 dan's papers, and as those famous Letters had only 
 recently appeared the subject was undoubtedly tempting. 
 r~Of the fragments given by Moore, one is interesting as 
 
 \ admitting us to the secret of Sheridan's habits of intel- 
 
 I lectual labour : 
 
 '* His [Lord Chesterfield's] directions for constant employment 
 entirely ill-founded a wise man is formed more by the action of his 
 own thoughts than by continually feeding it. ' Hurry,' he says, 
 * from play to study ; never be doing nothing. ' I_sjy, 'Fr equently 
 be unemployed ; jit and think.' There are on every LsubjictlnuF^- 
 few leading and _ fixed ideas ; their trac kg_jnay be traced byjypur 
 gym genius as well as by r eading." , 
 
 But essays and pamphlets were certainly not the main 
 
SHERIDAW. 25 
 
 objects of hislitej^r^aml^itioii^A successful drama is far 
 Tuoic luaaLive llumusuLLes , S!ul book, and Sheridan had an 
 hereditary connection with the stage. His father was a 
 well-known actor and manage r, his mother had been the 
 author of a highly successful play. He had, therefore, 
 already been collecting materials for "a scene or two," 
 as he wrote to his father-in-law, "which I believe you 
 have seen in an odd act of a little farce." When Mr. 
 Harris, the manager of Covent Garden, asked him to 
 write a comedy, Sheridan answered his request by 
 producing " The Rivals." 
 
 The play was written in something like six weeks, and 
 as to its genesis there is some curious information in the 
 author's preface to thp publisher! edition , 
 
 "Hurry in writing," he says, "has long been exploded as an 
 excuse for an author however, in the dramatic line, it may happen 
 that both an author and a manager may wish to fill a chasm in the 
 entertainment of the public with a hastiness not altogether culpable. 
 The season was advanced when I first put the play into Mr. 
 Harris's hands ; it was at that time at least double the length of 
 any acting comedy. I profited by his judgment and experience in 
 curtailing of it, till, I believe, his feeling for the vanity of a young 
 author got the better of his desire for correctness, and he left many 
 excrescences remaining, because he had assisted in pruning so many 
 more." 
 
 In consequence of Mr. Harris's kind-heartedness, 
 when the play was produced on January 17, 1775, it was 
 still by far too long. Added to this the character of Sir 
 Lucius O'Trigger was apparently considered an offensive 
 reflection upon Irish peculiarities, and its exponent 
 Mr. Lee failed lamentably, in consequence of hostile 
 demonstrations from the Hibernian portion of the 
 
26 LIFE OF 
 
 audience, who were probably present in force to support 
 their young fellow-countryman. 1 After a second trial, 
 the play was judiciously withdrawn, to escape perpetual 
 damnation, and submitted to considerable condensa- 
 tion. A new Sir Lucius was procured in the shape of 
 Larry Clinch, an Irish friend of the elder Sheridan's, 
 who did ample justice to the part. Further, Sheridan 
 substituted for the original prologue a somewhat flat 
 dialogue between a serjeant-at-law, counsel for the poet, 
 and an attorney a new prologue, spoken by Mrs. 
 Bulkley, the Julia of the play. The actress pointed to 
 the figure of Comedy at the side of the stage, and told 
 the audience to 
 
 " Look on her well does she seem form'd to teach ? 
 Should you expect to hear this lady preach ? 
 Is gray experience suited to her youth, 
 Do solemn sentiments become that mouth ? 
 Bid her be grave, those lips would rebel prove 
 To every theme that slanders mirth or love. 
 Yet, thus adorned with every graceful art, 
 To charm the fancy and to reach the heart, 
 Must we displease her ? and instead advance 
 The goddess of the woful countenance? 
 The Sentimental Muse Her emblems view 
 The ' Pilgrim's Progress,' and a spring of rue ! " 
 
 This second prologue is important, because it proves 
 that there were reasons, apart from the imperfections 
 
 1 Sheridan some years afterwards told Reynolds the playwright 
 that during the violent opposition in the fifth act an apple hit Lee ; 
 whereupon he stepped forward and exclaimed in rich brogue, "By 
 the powers is it personal. Is it me or the matter ? " ("Reynolds's 
 Life and Times," vol. ii. p. 227). 
 
SHERIDAN. 27 
 
 incidental to the rapid production of an inexperienced 
 hand, for the temporary failure and ultimate success of 
 " The Rivals." As an acute American critic, Mr. 
 Brander Matthews, has recently reminded us, 1 on the 
 authority of John Bernard, afterwards one of the first 
 of American managers, the play was disliked by the 
 more conservative section of the audience, who regarded 
 it as an unwarrantable departure from the sentimental 
 comedy then in vogue. 
 
 " Faulkland and Julia," says Bernard, "which Sheridan had 
 obviously introduced to conciliate the sentimentalists, but which 
 in the present day are considered incumbrances, were the characters 
 most favourably received, whilst Sir Anthony Absolute, Bob Acres, 
 and Lydia, those faithful and diversified pictures of life, were barely 
 tolerated." 
 
 Sentimental comedy was moribund, but it was dying 
 hard. Originally introduced from France, in conse- 
 quence of the disfavour into which the Restoration 
 dramatists, Wycherley, Congreve, Vanbrugh, and 
 Farquhar, had fallen, through Jeremy Collier's formidable 
 attack upon their inherent non-morality, this school had 
 found its first exponent in Dick Steele, whose most 
 successful efforts in its direction were "The Tender Hus- 
 band," brought out in 1705, and "The Conscious Lovers," 
 acted in 1722. Parson Adams, it will be remembered, 
 found in the latter play " some things almost solemn 
 enough for a sermon." Then followed a series of sickly 
 plays, now deservedly forgotten : Moore's " Game- 
 ster," Whitehead's " School for Lovers," Hugh Kelly's 
 
 1 In the preface to his critical edition of Sheridan's Comedies, 
 published in 1885. 
 
28 LIFE OF 
 
 "False Delicacy," ending with the earlier plays of the 
 prolific Cumberland "The Brothers," "The IJaet^ 
 Indian," and " The Fashionable Lover." Not that 
 sentimental comedy had the field entirely to itself. 
 Congreve's " Love for Love " still lingered on the stage j 
 Wycherley's "Country Wife" had a new lease of life 
 given it through Garrick's skilful adaptation, " The 
 Country Girl ; " and several other Restoration plays were 
 acted from time to time. But the occasional revivals 
 of the Restoration drama, and the still more occasional 
 production of a new play of merit, like " High Life below 
 Stairs," or "The Clandestine Marriage," can have effected 
 but little more than to keep alive the memory of what 
 true comedy was. It is to the rough-and-ready humour 
 of Foote that the credit of dealing the death-blow to a 
 false school is really due. "The Sentimental Housemaid, 
 or Piety in Pattens," contained much keen and legitimate 
 satire upon the prevailing mode, and effected a partial 
 reform in taste, which saved " She Stoops to Conquer " 
 from the condemnation which would otherwise have 
 awaited it. 
 
 A breach, then, had been made in the fortress by Foote, 
 and Goldsmith had already carried the enemy's main 
 position when Sheridan appeared. His was a more 
 direct return to the Restoration drama than that 
 attempted by Goldsmith, a writer whose sweet unreason- 
 ableness declines to come under any ordinary category. 
 Sheridan, on the other hand, is a true disciple of Far- 
 quhar and Congreve in everything but their almost 
 monotonous devotion to cuckoldry. The humour of 
 " The Rivals " is racially akin to that of " The Recruiting 
 
SHERIDAN. 29 
 
 Sergeant" and "Beaux' Stratagem," just as the wit cf 
 11 The School for Scandal " is of the same genus as that 
 of "The Way of the World" or "The Double-Dealer. *' 
 Not that Sheridan was a conscious imitator either of 
 Congreve or Farquhar. It is most improbable that he 
 sat down to make a critical examination of their writings, 
 and discover where they had succeeded, and where they 
 had failed. But a man with the dramatic instinct in him 
 must have felt it his duty to read such of their plays 
 as he had not seen on the stage, and having done so he 
 naturally became infected by their spirit. He saw that 
 there was true comedy, and in that vein he resolved to 
 write. 
 
 Few playwrights have been subjected to such persis- 
 tent charges of plagiarism as Sheridan, and it is remark- 
 able how insignificant really are the literary thefts that 
 can be proved against him. It is evident that calumny 
 began to wag its tongue against him as soon as " The 
 Rivals " was put on the stage ; and he retorted on his 
 assailants honestly enough, by pleading lack of learning 
 rather than want of invention. 
 
 " I own that, in one respect, I did not regret my ignorance ; for as 
 my great wish in attempting a play was to avoid every appearance 
 of plagiary, I thought I should stand a better chance of effecting 
 this from being in a walk which I had not frequented, and where, 
 consequently, the progress of invention was less likely to be inter - 
 rupted by starts of recollection ; for on subjects on which the mind 
 has been much informed, invention is slow of exerting itself. Faded 
 ideas float in the fancy like half-forgotten dreams ; and the imagina- 
 tion in its fullest enjoyments becomes suspicious of its offspring, and 
 doubts whether it has created or adopted." 
 
 Indeed, Sheridan's accusers attribute to him a know- 
 
50 LIFE OF 
 
 ledge of English literature, which might have been 
 acquired after a lifetime of industrious research, but 
 was hardly likely to be forthcoming in a young man of 
 twenty-three, whose education had at best been desul- 
 tory. Properly speaking, the only thefts that can 
 really be brought home to him are from his mother, and 
 thus they assume the character of possessions acquired 
 by inheritance rather than by literary loot. As he took 
 
 J the name of one of his characters, Faulkland, from her 
 novel, M Miss Sidney Biddulph," it is quite possible that 
 he may have borrowed from the same source as Boaden, 
 in his " Life of Kemble," said he had the unim- 
 
 <portant scene in which Faulkland puts Julia to the trial, 
 by pretending that his life was in danger and that he was 
 compelled to fly. Sheridan's declaration to Rogers that 
 he had never read the novel does not go for much, for 
 he also denied having read Wycherley, a statement very 
 difficult of belief. More extensive were his obligations 
 to Mrs. Sheridan's unfinished comedy, "A Trip to 
 Bath." It has been said, indeed, that " The Rivals " 
 was founded on the latter play. But the whole plot and 
 most of the characters are utterly dissimilar. u A Trip 
 to Bath " which, with some other manuscript plays 
 which formerly belonged to Sheridan, was presented to 
 the British Museum by Mr. Coventry Patmore, in 1864 
 turns on the efforts of two impecunious members ot 
 society Lady Filmot and Lord Hewkly to secure the 
 hands and fortunes of Edward Bull, the son of Sir 
 Jonathan Bull, a City knight, and Lucy Tryfort, the 
 daughter of Mrs. Tryfort, a citizen's widow. Lord 
 Hewkly persuades Lucy to pretend to be in love with 
 
SHERIDAN. 81 
 
 him for the purpose, as he tells her, of annoying Lady 
 Filmot, and Lady Filmot easily induces the uncultivated 
 Edward to act as her cicisbeo at the Assembly Rooms, 
 arrayed as a beau in borrowed plumes. Lucy and 
 Edward are thereupon at cross purposes, and naturally 
 become consumed by jealousy. As an under-plot there 
 is the courtship of Lady Bel Aircastle, a superfine lady 
 of quality, by Champignon, a vulgar West Indian, upon 
 whom Lord Hewkly sponges The play breaks off at 
 the close of the third act, when Lord Hewkly and Lady 
 Filmot are for the time being triumphant. But as they 
 still have a secret regard for one another, in spite of their 
 attempts to bestow themselves elsewhere, and as Lucy's 
 heart still beats true to Edward, it is not difficult to see 
 how Mrs. Sheridan intended to wind up her lively 
 comedy. 
 
 It is perfectly clear that, though the scene in both 
 plays is laid at Bath, their plots have nothing whatever 
 in common. Nor have the characters, with one excep- 
 tion, that of Mrs. Tryfort, who is undoubtedly the 
 immediate source of Mrs. Malaprop. Several of her 
 " derangements of epitaphs "appear in u The Rivals" with 
 very little alteration. Mrs. Tryfort praises Lord Hewkly, 
 "Oh, in everything, ma'am, he's a perfect progeny." 
 Mrs. Malaprop says, " Observe me, Sir Anthony. I would 
 by no means wish a daughter of mine to be a progeny of 
 learning." Similarly, Mrs. Malaprop wishes that her 
 daughter might know something of the "contagious 
 countries ; " and Mrs. Tryfort exclaims, " Oh, if you were 
 to hear him describe contagious countries, as I have 
 done, it would astonish you." " Sir,'' she says to Edward, 
 
32 LIFE OF 
 
 "you are a little too pert, let me tell you, and so much 
 taciturnity doesn't become a young man." Mrs. Mala- 
 prop, during the second scene of the second act, of 
 "The Rivals," frequently lays down the law as to what 
 doesn't become a young woman, "violent memories" 
 being one of those qualities to which she takes excep- 
 tion. Again, Mrs. Tryfort says, " I know nothing of him 
 [Edward], Sir Jonathan do you think Miss Tryfort 
 doesn't understand punctuality better than to go into 
 corners with young men ? '' which may have suggested 
 the " Female punctuation forbids me to say more " of 
 Mrs. Malaprop's letter to Sir Lucius O'Trigger. And 
 here are some more of Mrs. Tryfort's blunders, of which, 
 however, Sheridan did not avail himself. 
 
 " Mrs. Tryfort. I declare that it is a fatiguing life one leads, and 
 exhilitates one's spirits so much that I have scarce strength enough 
 to rise of a morning. . . . 
 
 11 Mrs. Tryfort. A silly chit that might be a countess if she had 
 the grace to deserve it. 
 
 u Lucy. But, madam, I don't desire it. 
 
 " Mrs. Tryfort. There's for you, miss, a foolish metamor- 
 phosis ! " 
 
 Another of the dramatis persona in u A Trip to Bath " 
 is Sir Jeremy Bull, Edward's uncle. Though as a 
 ruined ex-member of Parliament, he has little in com- 
 mon with Sir Lucius O'Trigger, one of his sayings finds 
 its way with little alteration into the Irishman's mouth. 
 Sir Jeremy loquitur : " Why the land and the mansion- 
 house have slipped thro' our fingers, boy ; but, thank 
 heaven, the family pictures are still extant." It is worth 
 
SHERIDAN. 83 
 
 noticing, too, that one of the minor characters in "A 
 .Trip to Bath " is a lodging-house keeper, Mrs. Surface, 
 whose house is described as "a mart of scandal," and 
 who deals freely in that commodity while proclaiming her 
 hatred of it. Sheridan was afterwards to borrow the 
 name to some purpose. 
 
 Mrs. Tryfort is, then, the origin of Mrs. Malaprop, not 
 Dogberry, or Fielding's Mrs. Slipslop, or Smollett's Mrs. 
 Tabitha Bramble, though they are all generically akin, and 
 though Sheridan may have borrowed from the last lady the 
 incident of her being induced to believe that a proposal 
 to her niece was addressed to herself. In the same way it 
 is easy enough to find ancestors of Bob Acres, but the 
 resemblance is never close enough to enable us to say 
 that Sheridan deliberately copied. It is not impossible 
 that he may have had vague recollections of Sir Andrew 
 Ague-cheek in his mind when he wrote some of the 
 scenes in which that hero figures. Similarly Sir Joseph 
 Wittol, in Congreve's " Old Bachelor," anticipated 
 Acres in the use of the "oath referential." "Gads 
 daggers belts blades and scabbards," he exclaims, 
 on one occasion, and his conduct, when confronted by 
 danger, is very like that of "Fighting Bob." 
 
 " No, no," he says, " hang't I was not afraid neither though I 
 confess he did in a manner snap me up yet I can't say it was 
 altogether out of fear, but partly to prevent mischief for he was 
 a devilish choleric fellow : and if my choler had been up too, agad, 
 there would have been mischief done, that's flat. . . . Adsheart, if 
 he should come just now, when I am angry, I'd tell him mum." 
 
 So, too, Bob's clownish efforts to learn the cotillon 
 3 
 
34 LIFE OF 
 
 remind one of the- dancing-lesson of Mockmode in 
 Farquhar's " Love and a Bottle." But the awkward and 
 cowardly country bumpkin is surely a fairly obvious 
 object of satire, and so is the romantic and novel-reading 
 young lady. Sheridan certainly took a hint or two (so 
 far as Lydia Languish was concerned) from Steele's 
 " Tender Husband," where the niece spends her time 
 in reading romances, is courted by her lover in disguise 
 before her aunt's face, and agrees with Lydia that an 
 elopement is preferable to a common-place marriage. 
 Again there is a Lydia Bramble in " Humphrey 
 Clinker," of whom her uncle Matthew says, "Truly 
 she has got a languishing eye and reads romances." 
 The plain fact of the matter is that Mrs. Malaprop, 
 Acres, and Lydia Languish were all more or less stock- 
 characters, in the same way as several of the incidents inl 
 "The Rivals " had undoubtedly been used before. But 
 the originality of the plot as a whole, and of the dramatis 
 persona as a whole, can hardly be disputed by the most 
 determined of criticasters. 
 
 What an admirable play is "The Rivals " ! The plot 
 is as simple as one of Farquhar's, yet there is a suffi- 
 ciency of complication and an unbroken succession of 
 humorous incidents. It is naturally and gradually 
 developed ; for Sheridan, fortunately for himself, was not 
 tied down to the two or three set scenes which hamper 
 the efforts of modern playwrights, and could introduce a 
 conversation between Sir Lucius and Lucy without being 
 obliged to drag the pair together, in defiance of proba- 
 bility, into Mrs. Malaprop's drawing-room or Bob Acres' 
 lodgings. The only instance of abruptness is the intro- 
 
 
SHERIDAN. 35 
 
 duction of the quarrel between Captain Absolute and 
 Sir Lucius OTrigger. It is led up to by a single remark 
 in the scene in which Sir Lucius helps Acres to compose 
 his challenge, and we are left in the dark as to the means 
 by which Sir Lucius became aware that Captain Absolute, 
 qua Absolute, was a suitor for the hand of Lydia Languish. ^ 
 Possibly some elucidatory matter went by the board after 
 the two disastrous performances of the play, and we can 
 be well content to rest satisfied with Sir Lucius' remark, 
 " The quarrel is a very pretty quarrel as it stands ; we 
 should only spoil it by trying to explain it." The blemish is 
 indeed microscopic, and carries little weight in the critical 
 balance when opposed to the ingenuity of the truly 
 delightful scene (act iii. scene 3) between Mrs. Malaprop, 
 Captain Absolute, and Lydia Languish. Therein the 
 captain is twice on the brink of exposure, and is saved 
 on the first occasion by his own ready tongue, on the 
 second by Lydia's unwitting use of ambiguous phrases, 
 which are yet so easily introduced that the dialogue does 
 not strike you as being in any degree forced. 
 
 It has been said, with some truth, that the loves of 
 Faulkland and Julia have little to do with the main 
 development of the plot. But two pairs of lovers were 
 the regulation number, and until they get together Faulk- 
 land and Julia are both quite tolerable. Indeed, in the 
 scenes with Captain Absolute the morbid and suspicious 
 character of Faulkland makes an excellent foil to the 
 easygoing and cocksure disposition of the captain. 
 Nothing can be better in its way than Faulkland's outcry 
 on hearing that Julia had been engaged in his absence in 
 country dances: 
 
36 LIFE OF 
 
 " Now disappointment gn her ! Defend this, Absolute ; why don't 
 you defend this ? Country dances ! jigs and reels ! Am I to blame 
 now ? A minuet I could have forgiven ; I should not have minded 
 that I say I should not have regarded a minuet but country 
 dances ! Zounds ! had she made one in a cotillon I believe I should 
 have forgiven even that ! But to be monkey-led for a night ! to run 
 the gauntlet through a string of amorous palming puppies ! to show 
 paces like a managed filly ! Oh, Jack ! there never can be but one 
 man in the world whom a truly modest and delicate woman ought 
 to pair with in a country dance; and, even then, the rest of the 
 couples should be her great-uncles and aunts ! " 
 
 When Faulkland and Julia are alone together it must 
 be acknowledged that they are tiresome. But for years 
 after the production of the play they were taken quite 
 seriously, and Professor Smyth, in his little memoir of 
 Sheridan, tells us that the audience used to melt into 
 tears as it listened to them. Now people yawn. Sheri- 
 dan, however, was wise in his generation, when he wrote 
 the scenes in which they figure^ and introduced into 
 them some of his most elaborate ornamentation. His 
 object was immediate success rather than the applause of 
 posterity, which is of singularly little assistance towards 
 the filling of an empty purse. He therefore made a con- 
 cession to the prevailing taste, and made it in sober 
 earnestness. It would be an anachronism, though a 
 tempting one, no doubt, to imagine that he wrote with 
 his tongue in his cheek when he penned their high- 
 flown sentimentalities. Though he cut himself free from 
 genteel comedy, he could hardly fail to be influenced 
 by it to a certain degree, and probably a good deal more 
 than he was at all aware. 
 
 Good in its way though the plot of "The Rivals" is, 
 
SHERIDAN. 87 
 
 the merits of the play depend uporrits characters and its 
 dialogue. Both of these are true rather to the stage than 
 to nature, and " The Rivals," like all Sheridan's plays, 
 gains immensely by representation. It has indeed been 
 suggested that Sheridan in this play transcribed his own 
 experiences of life. According to that theory Captain 
 Absolute's pursuit of Lydia Languish was suggested by 
 his own courtship of Miss Linley, and the duel scene 
 by his own combats with Mathews. But the facts in the 
 two cases are utterly dissimilar in the one there was not, 
 in the other there was, an elopement ; in the one there 
 was not, in the other there was, a duel. And though 
 Mrs. Sheridan's character, as portrayed by Professor Smyth 
 on the somewhat malevolent authority of her neighbour, 
 Mrs. Canning, does bear a faint resemblance to that of 
 Lydia Languish, the identification is the merest guess- 
 work. In fact, the only supposition that has any real 
 probability is that which identifies Sheridan himself with 
 Faulkland, and here again there are difficulties in the 
 way of proof. The keynote to the differences of Faulk- 
 land and Julia is that they have been destined for each 
 other by her father. She says, " I see you are determined 
 to be unkind ! The contract which my poor father 
 bound us in gives you more than a lover's privilege." 
 And he replies, " Again, Julia, you raise ideas that feed 
 and justify my doubts. I would not have been more free 
 no I am proud of my restraint. Yet yet perhaps 
 your high respect alone for this solemn compact has 
 fettered your inclinations, which else had made a worthier 
 choice." Now old Sheridan's opposition to his son's 
 marriage was most determined. Besides, as Mr. Brander 
 
38 LIFE OF 
 
 Matthews has pointed out, Sheridan, who would not let 
 his wife sing in public, was the last man in the world to 
 put the story of his courtship on the stage. The jealous 
 lover is a common enough figure in comedy in all con- 
 science, and if we must have a prototype for Faulkland, 
 a fairly evident one can be found in the Valentine of 
 Wycherley's "Love in a Wood." 
 
 The more strongly drawn characters of the play are 
 still more obviously the creations of Sheridan's brain, 
 aided by hints from novels that he had read and plays 
 that he had seen. Sheridan, when he wrote " The 
 Rivals," though his experience of life had been varied 
 and considerable, was too young to have made a deep 
 study of human nature. Even with ripened knowledge 
 he never attempted to go beneath the surface of cha- 
 racter, but remained to the last content to reproduce 
 external oddities, and the current manners of society. 
 He could create an Acres, but could not create a Fal- 
 staff. He certainly never attempted to do so, and no 
 one in their senses ever dreamt of comparing him with 
 Shakespeare or Moliere ; he is altogether on a different 
 and lower plane. Nor did he ever desire to make his 
 characters conform to, or depart from, other than a 
 [purely conventional system of morality, and even within 
 Ihose limits troubled himself little with consistency com- 
 pared with effect. He knew his limits; he knew per- 
 fectly well that he could never have written " The 
 Alchemist" or "Volpone," with their solemn purpose 
 and deep philosophy of life. Accordingly he remained 
 to the last as purely non-moral as Congreve or Vanbrugh; 
 and, though he indirectly did lip-service to the Young 
 
SHERIDAN. \A ^#k 
 
 Person by refraining from making cuckoldry the sole 
 pivot of his plays, it may be suspected that in his heart 
 of hearts he cordially despised her, and wished that 
 she was abolished. 
 
 Even in the artificial world to which he confined him- 
 self, the world of the footlights, Sheridan in this his first 
 play not unfrequently outrages probability ; Bob Acres 
 and Mrs. Malaprop are deliberate caricatures. The 
 lady's verbal misapplications, especially, are too elaborate 
 and too constant for art. Sheridan had got hold of a 
 good idea, and he rode it to death. An uneducated 
 woman who attempts fine language is liable to ludicrous 
 mistakes enough, but she would never have uttered the 
 volleys of absurdities which occur in Mrs. Malaprop's 
 celebrated discourse on education. Her more ornate 
 flights of blundering " Sure if I reprehend anything in 
 the world it is the use of my oracular tongue and a nice 
 derangement of epitaphs," for instance are so elabo- 
 rately ingenious that they are evidently not the natural 
 utterances of the character, but the conscious efforts of 
 the dramatist. So, too, Acres' absurdities are too 
 numerous and too unrelieved by any redeeming quality. 
 He is a combination of a poltroon and a would-be man 
 of fashion, with the attributes of both exaggerated, and 
 his oaths fit the occasion far too well to have been 
 elaborated by the intelligence of a country squire. In 
 fact, he treads dangerously near the well-defined border- 
 line which separates comedyjrom farce. But again we 
 can only say that Sheridan's comedy is intended for the 
 theatre not the study, and for the edification of the pit 
 as well as that of the stalls. When we see it upon the 
 
40 LIFE OF 
 
 stage our criticism is fairly disarmed by laughter, and it 
 is only reasonable to judge a playwright by canons which 
 he would have himself acknowledged. Acres may be 
 more than forgiven for the duel scene. 
 
 Far more subtle than Mrs. Malaprop and Acres are 
 the characters of Sir Lucius OTrigger and Sir Anthony 
 Absolute. Why the audience took offence at the former 
 must pass the wit of man to decide. He is thoroughly 
 well-bred ; even the flippant Lucy acknowledges that he 
 has " too much pride and delicacy to sacrifice the feel- 
 ings of a gentleman to the necessities of his fortune;" and 
 when his schemes have failed he treats Mrs. Malaprop 
 with a degree of consideration which she but ill requites 
 by calling him a Vandyke. It is evident that Sheridan at 
 first intended to put a string of bulls into his mouth. Sir 
 Lucius begins well by informing Lucy that the probable 
 reason why they did not meet was because he was on the 
 South Parade and she was on the North, and that " it is 
 very comical too how you should go out and I not see 
 you, for I was only taking a nap at the Parade Coffee 
 House." But Sheridan probably came to the conclusion 
 that bulls in addition to Mrs. Malaprop's blunders would 
 be rather too large an order, and Sir Lucius was confined 
 to the grim humours of, " I'm told there's very snug lying r 
 in the Abbey." Sir Anthony is an altogether delightful/ 
 personage, superior by an immense altitude to the 
 ordinary choleric father of comedy. Excellent is the 
 touch, " Damn me if ever I call you Jack again," and 
 still better his delight when he imagines that Captain 
 Absolute has been too free with Lydia Languish. "Come, 
 no excuses, Jack ; why, your father, you rogue, was so 
 
SHERIDAN. 41 
 
 before you the blood of the Absolutes was always im- 
 patient." The scene (act iii. scene i) in which he 
 describes the charms of Lydia Languish, and is suddenly 
 thrown into a fury by the question, " Which is to be 
 mine, sir, the niece or the aunt?" is, as Moore points 
 out, perhaps the best in the comedy. But it is unneces- 
 sary to quote a passage from a play which is easily 
 accessible, and in which many of the present generation 
 have probably had the privilege of seeing Mr. William 
 Far r en. 
 
 The dialogue of " The Rivals " is not so exquisitely 
 polished as that of "The School for Scandal," and, if 
 less effective on the stage, it is a good deal more natural. 
 Probal)iy~rrre~Tery haste in which the play was written 
 saved it from over-elaBoration, not that there is the 
 slightest trace of slovenliness from first to last. On the 
 contrary, the balance of sentence is maintained through- 
 out, and how a young man, whose education had been 
 limited, and who could not spell, contrived to turn out 
 such excellent prose is a question that can be more easily 
 asked than answered. No doubt, however, the lessons 
 in rhetoric which he had received from his father were 
 of considerable benefit to him, for much of the dialogue, 
 notably Faulkland's longer speeches and Captain Abso- 
 lute's outburst to Lydia Languish in scene 3 of act iii., 
 looks as if it had been formed on oratorical models. 
 But discussions on the origin of style are apt to be con- 
 jectural rather than improving. It would be fatuous to 
 deny there are to be found in the play numerous in- 
 stances of that false ornamentation from which nothing 
 either written or spoken by Sheridan was ever entirely 
 
42 LIFE OF 
 
 free. The tag with which Julia brings down the curtain 
 in the last act is a glaring instance, and Sir Anthony 
 Absolute's description of the circulating library is far too 
 elaborate to be put in the mouth even of a stage country 
 gentleman. 
 
 '* Sir Anth. Madam, a circulating library in a town is as an 
 evergreen tree of diabolical knowledge ! It blossoms through the 
 year ! and, depend upon it, Mrs. Malaprop, that they who are 
 so fond of handling the leaves will long for the fruit at last." 
 
 The inappropriateness of the dialogue to the charac- 
 ter to whom it is assigned is of course more conspicuous 
 when we come to the servants. Thomas is indeed an 
 exception. Thomas says little that might not be forth- 
 coming from a rustic humourist, and, what is more, talks 
 very fair Devonshire " a mort " for a heap or a quan- 
 tity, and "the stuff" for money, being still common 
 expressions in that county. But David's remark that 
 our ancestors are very good kind of folks, but they are 
 the last people he would choose to have a visiting 
 acquaintance with, seems rather out of place, and Fag's 
 conceits especially smack of the drawing-room not of 
 the servants' hall, notably the famous classical allusion 
 to "Love who has been a masquerader ever since the 
 da)S of Jupiter." But if Sheridan sinned in making his 
 valets as witty and cultured as their masters, he sinned 
 in very good company. Congreve's servants all talk they 
 language of good society, and more than one man-ser- 
 vant of the Restoration drama airs his knowledge of 
 Latin and Greek. Thus Jeremy in " Love for Love," 
 who to be sure had been a gyp at Cambridge, is learned 
 
SHERIDAN. 48 
 
 about Nilus, and Scrub in "The Beaux' Stratagem" 
 exclaims on very slight provocation, "Cedunt arma togae." 
 It may well be that a young man of twenty-three was too 
 impressed with the merits of his masters to note their 
 defects. But Sheridan was always wide awake, and it is 
 more probable that he had a shrewd inkling that by 
 making to use Macaulay's phrase his characters in 
 his own likeness, his play would command the applause 
 of the playgoer, though it might earn the censure of the 
 psychologist. And, after all, the exhibition of too much 
 wit is a fault on the right side. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 " ^~pHE RIVALS " ran at Covent Garden for fourteen 
 A nights, and was a most unqualified success in 
 the provinces, notably at Bath, Bristol, and Southampton. 
 But Sheridan was not at all inclined to rest on his 
 laurels. Out of gratitude to Clinch, who had so largely 
 helped to save "The Rivals," he wrote for that actor's 
 benefit the farce called "St. Patrick's Day, or, The 
 Scheming Lieutenant'' It was brought out on the 2nd 
 of May, 1775, and was acted six times before the close 
 of the season. 
 
 " St. Patrick's Day " no longer holds the stage, and its 
 six changes of scene in two short acts are no doubt a 
 serious consideration against its revival in the present 
 days of solid and costly accessories. But it is a bright 
 little farce, obviously founded, much as was Wycherley's 
 "Gentleman Dancing-master," upon Moliere. Of 
 Moliere in the original Sheridan probably knew little, 
 for his acquaintance with the French language was very 
 limited, and when he and Dundas thought fit to discuss 
 the meaning of the word " malheureux " pronounced 
 "maleroo" in a despatch, the House of Commons 
 laughed at them consumedly. But it is obvious that he 
 
LIFE OF SHERIDAN. 45 
 
 must have studied the great French dramatist, notably 
 his " Ecole des Femmes," in some translation, when he 
 rattled off " St. Patrick's Day." 
 
 The story is simple enough, but is perhaps worth re- 
 telling. Lieutenant O'Connor is in love with Lauretta, 
 the daughter of Justice Credulous, but the old man will 
 not hear of the match. Accordingly the Lieutenant 
 persuades his friend Dr. Rosy to present him to the 
 Justice in the disguise of a countryman, Humphrey 
 Hum, who is recommended as Lauretta's guardian 
 against the desperate schemes of O'Connor. At first all 
 goes well ; the disguised Lieutenant administers a mock 
 beating to three of his own soldiers, and wins the entire 
 confidence of Credulous. But he is promptly discovered 
 kissing the young lady, and ordered off the premises. 
 His discomfiture is short, however, as he quickly sends a 
 letter to Credulous, in which he declares that he has 
 that morning administered a dose of poison to the Jus- 
 tice in his chocolate. In great alarm, Credulous accepts 
 Rosy's suggestion that a German quack, who is hard by, 
 should be called in to administer an antidote. The 
 quack is O'Connor in a fresh disguise ; he declares him- 
 self prepared to restore the Justice if he will consent to 
 his union with Lauretta, and then writes the prescription, 
 " In reading this you are cured, by your affectionate son- 
 in-law, O'Connor." Credulous is naturally furious, but 
 comes to the conclusion he will at any rate disappoint 
 his wife's obvious anxiety to get hold of his estate, and 
 surrenders the girl to her lover. The dialogue is suffi. 
 ciently amusing, though not in Sheridan's best manner. 
 Dr. Rosy's moralizings to his departed Dolly are capital 
 
46 LIFE OF 
 
 " such an arm for a bandage veins that seemed to 
 invite the lancet. Then her skin, smooth and white as 
 a gallipot." So too is Mrs. Credulous's description of a 
 soldier husband. 
 
 " Oh, barbarous ! to want a husband that may wed you to-day, 
 and be sent the Lord knows where before night ; then in a 
 twelvemonth perhaps to have him come like a Colossus, with one 
 leg at New York and the other at Chelsea Hospital." 
 
 All through the summer Sheridan worked hard at a 
 comic opera, the music of which was selected and com- 
 posed by his father-in-law, Mr. Linley. The pair con- 
 ducted their labours chiefly by correspondence, as Linley 
 had a professional engagement at Bath, and Sheridan's 
 letters, as published by Moore, are interesting as showing 
 the unmethodical energy which he could, when he chose, 
 put into his work. He was most minute and persistent 
 in his hints to Mr. Linley, and though he had no tech- 
 nical training in music, yet he displayed much practical 
 knowledge of its effect upon the stage. No doubt he 
 was helped to a very considerable extent by his accom- 
 plished wife. " Dearest father," she writes, " I have no 
 spirits or hopes of the opera unless we see you," and it 
 will be observed that Sheridan, in his directions to Mr. 
 Linley, speaks in the plural more often than in the 
 singular. 
 
 "The enclosed are the words for 'Wind, gentle evergreen ; ' a 
 passionate song for Mattocks, and another for Miss Brown, which I 
 solicit to be clothed in melody by you, and are all I want. Mat- 
 tocks's I could wish to be a broken, passionate affair, and the first 
 two lines may be recitative, or what you please, uncommon. Miss 
 
SHERIDAN. 47 
 
 Brown sings hers in a joyful mood : we want her to show in it as 
 much execution a> she is capable of, which is pretty well ; and, for 
 variety, we want Mr. Simpson's hautboy to cut a figure with reply- 
 ing passages, &c, in the way of Fisher's ' M'ami il bel idol mio? 
 to abet which I have lugged in Echo, who is always allowed to play 
 her part." 1 
 
 Mr. Linley, though he submitted in the end, seems 
 at first to have resented the dictation of a young spark, who 
 did not know a note of music, while his artistic feelings 
 were outraged by the use that was made of other people's 
 compositions, though he might have found consolation 
 in the example of "The Beggar's Opera." He vented 
 his feelings in a letter to Garrick, which is to be found in 
 the Garrick Correspondence. 
 
 " I have promised to assist Sheridan in compiling I believe this 
 is the properest term an opera, which I understand from him he 
 has engaged to produce at Covent Garden this season. I have 
 already set some airs which he. has given me, and he intends writing 
 new words to some tunes of mine. My son has likewise written 
 some tunes for him, and I understand he is to have some others from 
 Mr. Jackson of Exeter. This is a mode of proceeding in regard 
 to his composition which I by no means approve of. I think he 
 ought first to have finished his opera with the songs he intends to 
 introduce into it, and have got it entirely new set. No musician 
 
 1 Mattocks' song was finally omitted. He was the Don Fer- 
 dinand of the piece. But Miss Brown's is Donna Clara's song in 
 the third act. 
 
 11 Adieu, thou dreary pile, where never dies 
 The sullen echo of repentant sighs ! 
 Ye sister mourners of each lonely cell 
 Inured to hymns and sorrow, fare ye well ! 
 For happier scenes I fly this lonesome grove 
 To saints a prison, but a tomb to love." 
 
48 LIFE OF 
 
 cnn set a song properly unless he understands the character and 
 knows the performer who is to exhibit it. . . . I would not have 
 been concerned in this business at all, but that I know there is 
 an absolute necessity for him to endeavour to get some money by 
 llrs means, and he will not be persuaded upon to let his wife sing, 
 and indeed at present she is incapable, and nature will not permit 
 me to be indifferent to his success." 
 
 Every one with whom Sheridan had to work was in- 
 clined from time to time to kick against his disorderly 
 method of procedure, but in the end they had little cause 
 to regret the partnership. Mr. Linley would have 
 written in a very different strain after the piece was fairly 
 launched. 
 
 "The Duenna" was performed at Covent Garden on 
 the 21st of November, 1775. It had an unprecedented 
 run of seventy-five nights, as against the sixty-three 
 of " The Beggar's Opera." Moore declares that its 
 attractions seriously diminished the audiences at Drury 
 Lane. Garrick, he tells us, was even compelled to have 
 recourse to the expedient of playing off the mother 
 against the son by reviving Mrs. Sheridan's comedy, 
 "The Discovery." "The old woman," it was said, 
 " would be the death of the old man." But the story is 
 obviously absurd. There is contemporary evidence that 
 Drury Lane was drawing enormous houses, Garrick's 
 approaching retirement from the stage having already 
 been hinted abroad. Besides, the English Roscius was 
 at this time in treaty with Sheridan for the purchase of 
 his share of the theatre, and the revival of his mother's 
 comedy, if made with any deliberate intention, was far 
 more likely to have been made in the spirit of compli- 
 ment than of rivalry. It seems Garrick only acted Sir 
 
SHERIDAN. 40 
 
 Anthony Branville six nights, and the simple explanation 
 would appear to be that, as one of his favourite and less 
 fatiguing parts, it was assumed without any afterthought 
 whatever. 
 
 Much of the popularity of " The Duenna " was evi- 
 dently gained by the music, of which what was not Mr. 
 Linley's was selected from the well-known airs of Dr. 
 Harrington, Rauzzini, Jackson, and other composers. 
 But Sheridan's songs have intrinsic merits, and are 
 deservedly remembered apart from their setting. Though, 
 perhaps, of no very high order of poetry Sheridan was 
 never more than a writer of clever verses they are far 
 superior in literary execution to the halting rhymes and 
 florid sentiments of ordinary comic opera, and are at 
 once sparkling and refined. Curiously enough Sheridan's 
 livelier efforts are hardly so successful as those in which 
 he appealed to the gentler emotions of his audience. 
 Don Jerome's, " Oh, the days when I was young," 
 once in the mouth of every street-boy, is now almost 
 forgotten. But "Had I a heart for falsehood framed," 
 " I ne'er could any lustre see," and " Oh, had my 
 love ne'er smiled on me," seem secure of immor- 
 tality, though " The Duenna n left the stage with 
 Braham. Perhaps the most ambitious song in the opera 
 is Donna Clara's, in the fifth scene of the first act, and 
 it comes nearest to true poetry, in spite of Moore's 
 rather captious objection to the fourth line : 
 
 " When sable night, each drooping plant restoring, 
 Wept o'er the flowers her breath did cheer, 
 As some sad widow o'er her babe deploring, 
 Wakes its beauty with a tear : 
 
 4 
 
SO LIFE OF 
 
 When all did sleep, whose weary hearts did borrow 
 
 One hour from love and care to rest ; 
 Lo ! as I press'd my couch in silent sorrow, 
 
 My lover caught me to his breast ! " 
 
 The plot of "The Duenna" contains some ingenious 
 though rather common-place complications, and is quite 
 sufficient for its three acts, without placing a very severe 
 strain upon the intellectual faculties of the audience. 
 Moore thinks that the central incident was suggested by 
 the scene in Wycherley's " Country Girl," in which Mrs. 
 Pinchwife escapes from the house of her jealous husband 
 in her sister-in-law's clothes. But disguise is surely com- 
 mon enough in comic opera, and the general scheme of 
 " The Duenna " seems to suggest Moliere rather than 
 Wycherley. As the opera is never acted now, and but 
 little read, a short description of the plot may not be 
 amiss. It turns upon the efforts of Don Jerome to pre- 
 vent his daughter Louisa from marrying her lover, Don 
 Antonio, by forcing her into matrimony with Isaac, a 
 recently converted Jew. The girl and the Duenna 
 together contrive to outwit the old man. The Duenna 
 is caught by him in the act of conveying a letter from 
 Antonio, and is promptly ordered out of the house. It 
 is however Louisa, disguised in the old woman's cardinal 
 and veil, not the Duenna, who is turned out. She meets 
 her friend Donna Clara, an old flame of Antonio's, but 
 now in love with Louisa's brother Ferdinand, though 
 there is a temporary coolness between the pair owing 
 to his importunity. Clara is about to take refuge in a 
 convent from her lover and stepmother, and thither 
 Louisa resolves to follow her if she can find Antonio. 
 
SHERIDAN. 51 
 
 This she effects through Isaac himself, who has never 
 seen her, and is therefore easily gulled by her use of 
 Clara's name into bringing the lovers together in his own 
 lodgings. The second act opens with Isaac's courtship 
 of the Duenna, who has been locked by Don Jerome 
 into her mistress's room, and the scenes in which his 
 expectations are excited by the old man's enthusiastic 
 descriptions of his daughter's charms, only to be dashed 
 to the ground by the sight of the hideous old harridan, 
 are extremely amusing, though the humour is occasion- 
 ally not far removed from vulgarity. It is needless to 
 state that the Jew's cupidity gets the better of his dis- 
 appointment, and he readily accepts the Duenna's 
 proposal that he should elope with her. After some 
 incidental scenes the two pairs of lovers meet at a 
 Priory j there Clara and Ferdinand are reconciled, and 
 they all including Isaac and the Duenna, who have also 
 found their way thither are united in wedlock by a 
 jovial monk, Father Paul. The usual explanations folio. v 
 at Don Jerome's house, and with the forgiveness of the 
 lovers and the discomfiture of Isaac, the curtain falls. 
 
 The characters in " The Duenna " are conventional, 
 and there is little attempt to give them individuality with 
 the exception of Isaac. He is very well drawn, supremely 
 proud of his own cleverness, "roguish, you'll say, but 
 keen, hey ? devilish keen ! " and invariably made the 
 dupe of every one whom he comes across. Originally he 
 was supplied with a friend of the same stamp, styled 
 Cousin Moses j but the part was cut down either, as 
 Moore says, because it would apply too personally to its 
 creator Leoni, or, according to another story, because 
 
52 LIFE OF 
 
 Leoni's English was limited until there remains an un- 
 important and colourless person called Carlos. The 
 Duenna herself has few distinguishing features beyond 
 her ugliness, which is made the subject of some very 
 homespun wit on the part of Isaac; and the airy Antonio, 
 the jealous Ferdinand, and the irascible Don Jerome are 
 little better than the ghosts of Captain Absolute, Falk- 
 land, and Sir Anthony. Sheridan probably thought that 
 elaboration of character and pointed dialogue were 
 wasted on a comic opera, and it is quite possible that 
 more than one member of the company may have been, 
 as Sir Walter Scott said of Braham, Leoni's successor 
 in the part of Carlos, " a beast of an actor, though an 
 angel of a singer." He certainly troubled himself 
 remarkably little about local colour, any more than did 
 Vanbrugh in his least satisfactory comedy, " The False 
 Friend," the scene of which is also laid in Spain. It was 
 enough that the dialogue was bright and easily delivered ; 
 he seems to have aimed at little more. Here and there 
 is a touch of his own peculiar fancy ; for instance, the 
 description of the recently converted Jew, Isaac, "stand- 
 ing like a blank page between the Old and the New 
 Testament." But, on the whole, " The Duenna " does 
 not contain much that is really worthy of him, and 
 Byron was but a partial critic when, by styling it u the 
 best opera " in our language, he ranked it above Gay's 
 masterpiece with its Captain Macheath and Polly 
 Peachum. 
 
 Certain it is that Sheridan does not seem to have 
 set great store by the book of the opera. He never 
 took the trouble to revise any of the printed editions, 
 
SHERIDAN. 58 
 
 and several of them do not include one of its best 
 songs, "Ah, cruel maid, how hast thou chang'd." 
 Many years afterwards, in 1807, Kelly the musician 
 and singer, left the printed play of "The Duenna" 
 on his table, after looking over the part of Ferdi- 
 nand which he was to perform that evening. On his 
 return home he found Sheridan reading it, and cor- 
 recting it as he read. To his question, " Do you act the 
 part of Ferdinand from this printed copy ? " Kelly replied 
 in the affirmative, and added that he had done so for 
 twenty years. " Then," said Sheridan, "you have been 
 acting great nonsense," and corrected every sentence 
 before he left the room. The corrections were preserved 
 by Kelly in Sheridan's own handwriting, but he does not 
 seem to have published them. It is quite possible, then, 
 that the text of " The Duenna " is not particularly cor- 
 rect. But, at least, it does not seem to be disfigured by 
 the gags of subsequent generations of actors, though a 
 very vulgar interpolation is constantly introduced on the 
 present stage into Bob Acres' challenge in "The Rivals," 
 though a meaningless " I'll take my oath of that" is put 
 into the mouth of Moses in " The School for Scandal," 
 and though " The Critic " is translated out of all recog- 
 nition by extravagant business and exaggerated clowning. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A FIVE-ACT comedy, a two-act farce, and a three- 
 act comic opera, were not a bad year's work. At 
 the beginning of 1775 Sheridan was an unknown literary 
 tyro ; at its close the first dramatist of his time. He was 
 in great request as a writer of prologues and epilogues, a 
 class of composition peculiarly suited to his somewhat 
 ostentatious muse. Thus to Savage's tragedy of "Sir 
 Thomas Overbury," which was revived at Covent Garden 
 in February, 1777, he contributed a prologue which con- 
 tained a well-turned compliment to Savage's biographer, 
 Dr. Johnson : 
 
 '* So pleads the tale that gives to future times 
 The son's misfortunes, and the parents' crimes. 
 There shall his fame (if own'd to-night) survive, 
 Fixed by the hand that bids our language live." 
 
 The Doctor was evidently delighted by the young 
 man's discriminating praise, and hastened to return the 
 compliment. Some six weeks afterwards he proposed, 
 and of course carried, the election of Sheridan as a 
 member of the Literary Club, observing: "He who has 
 
LIFE OF SHERIDAN. 55 
 
 written the two best comedies of the age is surely a 
 considerable man." * 
 
 Meanwhile Sheridan, in conjunction with Linley and 
 Dr. Ford, was in communication with Garrick for the 
 purchase of his share in Drury Lane Theatre, and the 
 bargain, after many delays, was concluded in June, 1776. 
 The theatre was valued at ^70,000, so that Garrick's 
 half was worth ^"35,000. It was agreed that Dr. Ford 
 should find ^15,000; Sheridan and Mr. Linley ^10,000 
 each. Whence Sheridan obtained the money has, until 
 recent years, been a mystery, for not only did he raise the 
 original ; 10,000, but two years later, dissensions having 
 arisen between the new partners and Willoughby Lacy, 
 the last was bought out by Sheridan for " a price ex- 
 ceeding ^45,000." But Mr. Brander Matthews can 
 fairly claim to have solved the difficulty. Here is his 
 most ingenious explanation : 
 
 "Of the original ,35,000 paid Garrick, Sheridan was to find 
 10,000. Dr. Watkins asserts that he raised S,7oo of this 
 10,000 by two mortgages, one of 1,000 to a Mr. Wallis, and 
 another of 7,700 to Dr. Ford. If we accept this assertion and 
 I see no reason why we should not all that Sheridan had to make 
 up was 1,300, a sum which he could easily compass after the 
 success of 'The Rivals' and 'The Duenna/ even supposing he 
 did not encroach on, or had already exhausted, the 3,000 settled 
 on his wife by Mr. Long. ... A note in Sheridan's handwriting, 
 quoted by Moore, states that Lacy was paid 'a price exceeding 
 45,000,' which would go to show that the total value of the 
 property had risen in two years from 70,000 to 90,000. Most 
 writers on the subject have taken this note of Sheridan's to mean 
 
 1 That is, " The Rivals " and " The Duenna," though the latter 
 is hardly a comedy. 
 
56 LIFE OF 
 
 that he paid at least ,45,000 in cash, and they have all exhausted 
 their efforts in guessing where he got the money. But if we compare 
 Moore's statement with Watkins's we get nearer a solution of the 
 difficulty. Watkins says that Lacy's share was already mortgaged 
 for 31,500, and that Sheridan assumed the mortgage, and agreed 
 further to pay in return for the equity of redemption two annuities 
 at 500 each. This double obligation (the mortgage for 31,500 
 and the annuities) represents ' a price exceeding 45,000,' but did 
 not require a single penny in cash. On the contrary, the purchase 
 of Lacy's half of the theatre actually put money into Sheridan's 
 pocket, for he at once divided his original one-seventh between 
 Linley and Dr. Ford, making each of their shares up to one-fourth ; 
 and even if they paid him no increase on the original price, he would 
 have been enabled to pay off the 8,700 mortgages to Dr. Ford 
 and to Mr. Wallis, and to get back the 1,300 which he seems to 
 have advanced himself. In fact, it appears that Sheridan invested 
 only 1,300 in cash when he bought one-seventh of Drury Lane 
 Theatre in 1776, and that he received this back when he became 
 possessed of one-half of Drury Lane Theatre in 1778, then valued 
 at 90,000." x 
 
 1 Among the documents quoted in The English Illustrated Maga- 
 zine is a memorandum of Sheridan's anent the purchase of Lacy's 
 share, in which the figures differ from those of Dr. Watkins and 
 Moore, but not to such an extent as to affect materially Mr. Brander 
 Matthews's argument. Supposing it to be genuine and it certainly 
 looks so we may have in it the final terms of an agreement, of 
 which Moore could only discover the preliminary negotiations. 
 The figures are : 
 
 Exceeding 3 I > 00 
 
 The share in the debt of the new manage- 
 ment, much to be attributed to Mr. Lacy l,5 
 To pay him in money, every shilling paid ... 7>5 
 To secure on the theatre an annuity of 1,000 
 on the lives of Langford and Mr. Lacy 
 500 each ... 16,000 
 
 56,000 
 
SHERIDAN. 
 
 Dr. Watkins further suggests that when Sheridan 
 borrowed the ^7,700 from Dr. Ford, Garrick stood 
 behind Ford. But the last statement is certainly 
 incorrect. It appears from the Garrick Papers (vol. ii. 
 p. 293) that Garrick had already lent ^22,000 to Lacy 
 on mortgage, which he allowed to remain on loan under 
 the new partnership. The careful David certainly did 
 not lend any more, for when, shortly afterwards, he 
 found it necessary to press the new management for his 
 interest, the ^22,000 alone is mentioned, and nothing is 
 said about a new loan (Ibid. p. 303). So that the legend 
 about Garrick having come to the rescue of a brother 
 genius in distress must be abandoned. His assistance 
 was purely negative, and consisted in his not withdrawing 
 his money from the speculation, and that after all was 
 something. But Drury Lane was evidently regarded as 
 good security, for Linley had no difficulty in raising his 
 money at four per cent. Whether, therefore, Dr. Ford 
 was financially sound, or whether he was a man of straw 
 with a " Little Premium " at his back, does not seem to 
 be a very important question. 
 
 The new management opened on September 21, 1776, 
 and did not begin well. Sheridan had nothing ready, 
 and was compelled to fall back upon "The Rivals," 
 transferred from Covent Garden, and a revival of 
 Congreve's "Old Bachelor." Nor did "Semiramis," 
 an indifferent tragedy by Captain Ayscough, remedy 
 matters, though Sheridan contributed an epilogue to it, 
 in which the lady spectator was bade 
 
 ft . Go, search, where keener woes demand relief, 
 Go, while thy heart yet beats with fancied grief; 
 
LIFE OF 
 
 Thy lip still conscious of the recent sigh, 
 The grateful tear still quivering in thine eye. 
 Go and on real misery bestow 
 The blest effusions of fictitious woe." 
 
 Worse was to follow. In October Lacy attempted to 
 infringe the deed of partnership by introducing two 
 new partners into the business. Sheridan thereupon 
 took the extreme step of seceding from the theatre for 
 several days, and the actors, following his example, 
 shammed sickness when summoned by the prompter. 
 King and Smith, the future Sir Peter Teazle and Charles 
 Surface, were chief among the malingerers. To Sheridan 
 the whole affair seemed an excellent joke, and he wrote 
 to Garrick on the 15th : 
 
 "Indeed, never was known such an uncommon epidemic disorder 
 as has raged among our unfortunate company ; it differs only from 
 the plague by attacking the better sort first. The manner, too, in 
 which they are seized, I am told, is very extraordinary ; many who 
 were in perfect health at one moment, on receiving a billet from 
 the prompter to summon them to business, are seized with sudden 
 qualms, and before they can get through the contents, are absolutely 
 unfit to leave their rooms ; so that Hopkins's notes seem to operate 
 like what we hear of Italian poisoned letters, which strike with sick- 
 ness those to whom they are addressed. In short, if a successful 
 author had given the company a dinner at Salt Hill, the effects 
 could not be more injurious to our dramatic representatives." 
 
 His imperturbability carried the day. Lacy was com- 
 pelled to write an apology to the public, and Sheridan 
 returned to his duties. But it is evident that harmony 
 did not long continue, for two years later Lacy, as we 
 have seen, was bought out. 
 
SHERIDAN. 5<J 
 
 During all these troubles Garrick continued to advise 
 Sheridan, and it was probably on his instigation that the 
 new manager wrote, as his first contribution to the stock 
 of Drury Lane, an adaptation of Vanbrugh's comedy, 
 " The Relapse," which was brought out on the 24th of 
 February, 1777, under the title of "A Trip to Scar- 
 borough." At first the audience would not have it on 
 any terms ; they wanted Sheridan, not Bowdlerized 
 Vanbrugh. Lord Foppington stap his vitals failed 
 to please, though played by Dodd, the creator of Sir 
 Benjamin Backbite; and even the conjunction on the 
 stage of the wit of Mrs. Abington and the beauty of Miss 
 Farren and Mrs. Robinson was not acceptable. But 
 before many years had passed "A Trip to Scarborough" 
 had become a favourite play, and Mrs. Jordan's Miss 
 Hoyden was always considered one of that charming 
 actress's most popular impersonations. Even at the 
 present day "A Trip to Scarborough," if well acted, 
 would be sure of a good run. For Sheridan has succeeded 
 in a task before which the most courageous of. modern 
 adapters would probably quail. He has contrived, to 
 quote Garrick's prologue 
 
 "To draw some slender covering o'er 
 That graceless wit which was too bare before " 
 
 without material injury to Lord Foppington, perhaps the 
 best individual character in the whole range of the 
 Restoration drama. 1 
 
 1 The allusion is to Pope's line 
 
 "And Van wants grace that never wanted wit.' 
 Since the above paragraph was written a successful adaptation 
 
60, LIFE OF 
 
 It is possible that "A Trip to Scarborough" was 
 only intended by Sheridan for a stop-gap, for he was 
 hard at work on "The School for Scandal," which was at 
 length performed on the 8th of May, 1777. The anxiety 
 of those concerned in its production must have been 
 considerable. Though Garrick was keenly interested 
 in the comedy, to which he contributed the prologue, 
 Sheridan was behindhand with the dialogue, as was 
 afterwards the case with "The Critic" and "Pizarro." 
 The play was announced before the copy was in the 
 hands of the actors, and the last five scenes had to be 
 dashed off currente calamo. "Finished at last, thank 
 God," wrote Sheridan on the last leaf, to which outburst 
 of piety Hopkins the prompter added a cordial "Amen." 
 But another trial was in store for the management. On 
 the night before the performance the license was refused, 
 on the ground that Moses was regarded as a satire on a 
 money-lender who had recently been before the public as 
 a candidate for the office of city chamberlain in opposition 
 to Wilkes. Sheridan easily persuaded Lord Hertford, 
 the Lord Chamberlain, to grant the license ; but for the 
 moment he must have thought that the stars were fighting 
 against him. When the play was at last produced and 
 had gained an unequivocal triumph, it was only natural 
 that, as he told Lord Byron, he should have got very 
 drunk, and have been taken to the watch-house for 
 making a row in the street. 
 
 " The School for Scandal " ran twenty nights in its 
 
 of " The Relapse," by Mr. Robert Buchanan, has been produced 
 at the Vaudeville Theatre, under the title of " Miss Tom-boy." 
 
SHERIDAN. 01 
 
 first season, and sixty-five in its second. For several years 
 it continued to be acted regularly three nights a week, 
 and brought in nearly twice as much as any other play. 
 "'The School for Scandal,'" recorded the Treasurer 
 of Drury Lane in 1779, "damped the new pieces." 
 It has retained its extraordinary popularity through- 
 out the present century. It has been revived times 
 without number in England and the United States, 
 and has been translated into nearly every European 
 language and even into Hindustani. But though nearly 
 every great actor since Sheridan's time has been asso- 
 ciated with " The School for Scandal," it may fearlessly 
 be asserted that no collective performance, and few 
 individual impersonations, have ever equalled those of 
 the company which created the play. Horace Walpole 
 records that there were " more parts performed admirably 
 in * The School for Scandal ' than he almost ever saw in 
 any play." Charles Lamb too declares that " no piece 
 was ever so completely cast in all its parts as this 
 manager's comedy," and Lamb saw the whole of the 
 original company except Smith who had been succeeded 
 in Charles Surface by Kemble, and Mrs. Abington who 
 had been followed as Lady Teazle by Miss Farren. 
 Indeed it is evident that Sheridan, as every good drama- 
 tist should, deliberately set himself to fit a company, 
 which, unlike that of " The Rivals," consisted of actors 
 who were already at the top of their profession. He 
 told Rogers that he did not bring Charles Surface and 
 Maria together until the last act, because neither Smith 
 nor Miss Hopkins could safely be trusted with a love 
 scene. Otherwise Smith, the Delaunay of his time, must 
 
62 LIFE OF 
 
 have been an ideal Charles; and his successor Kemble, 
 rather to our astonishment, is described by Lamb as 
 having been very good. " His harshest tones became 
 steeped and dulcified in good humour. He made his 
 defects a grace. Not one of his sparkling sentences 
 was lost." But the pei former whom Lamb selects for 
 special praise is John Palmer, who by his consummate 
 acting made Joseph Surface rather than Charles the hero 
 of the piece, with his "gay boldness, the graceful solemn 
 plausibility, the measured step, the insinuating voice to 
 express it in a word the downright acted villainy of the 
 part." King, too, the original Lord Ogleby of "The 
 Clandestine Marriage," was admirable as Sir Peter 
 Teazle j so were Parsons as Crabtree and Dodd as Sir 
 Benjamin Backbite; Baddeley as Moses gave one of his 
 elaborate studies of Jewish character. Miss Pope, the 
 Mrs. Candour, was, says Lamb, "the perfect gentlewoman 
 as distinguished from the fine lady of comedy." Mrs. 
 Abington was forty when she first played Lady Teazle, 
 but no one seems to have thought that she looked too old 
 for the part. On the contrary, Horace Walpole describes 
 her acting in the character as equal to the first of her 
 profession, as superior to any effort of Garrick's ; she 
 seemed to him, indeed, "the very person." About her 
 successor, Miss Farren, Charles Lamb is rather un- 
 gallantly silent, but Sheridan thought highly of her. 
 "God bless you," he said when she retired from the 
 stage, " Lady Teazle is no more, and ' The School for 
 Scandal ' has broke up for the holidays." Altogether one 
 can well understand the force of Lamb's contention that 
 ' amid the mortifying circumstances attendant upon grow- 
 
SHERIDAN. 03 
 
 tag old, it was something to have seen ' The School for 
 Scandal ' in its glory." 
 
 "The School for Scandal" depended a good deal on 
 its interpretation, for it is like " The Rivals " distinctly a 
 play to be heard sooner than read. Its wit is brilliant 
 rather than subtle, and its characteis lend themselves to 
 exhibition rather than study. Hazlitt, in his " Lectures 
 on the Comic Writers," has well described the spectacular 
 nature of Sheridan's talents, which find their best ex- 
 pression in his masterpiece, "The School for Scandal." 
 
 "This," he says, "is the merit of Sheridan's comedies, that 
 everything in them tells ; there is no labour in vain. His comic 
 muse does not go about prying into obscure corners, or collecting 
 idle curiosities, but shows her laughing face, and points to her rich 
 treasure the follies of mankind. She is garlanded and crowned 
 with roses and vine-leaves. Her eyes sparkle with delight, and her 
 heart runs over with good-natured malice. Her step is firm and 
 light, and her ornaments consummate ! ' The School for Scandal ' 
 is, if not the most original, perhaps the most finished and faultless 
 comedy which we have. When it is acted you hear people round 
 you exclaiming, ' Surely it is impossible for anything to be cleverer.' 
 The scene in which Charles sells all the old family pictures but 
 his uncle's, who is the purchaser in disguise, and that of the 
 discoveiy of Lady Teazle when the screen falls, are among the 
 happiest and most highly wrought that comedy in its wide and 
 biilliant range can boast." 
 
 The opinion of Horace Walpole upon matters of taste 
 is always entitled to respect even where it fails to com- 
 mand acquiescence, and though considerably less favour- 
 able, it was much the same as Hazlitt's. " There is," he 
 wrote, " a deal of wit and gcod situations ; but it is too 
 long, has two or three bad scenes which might easily be 
 omitted, and seemed to want nature and truth of cha- 
 
G4 LIFE OF 
 
 racter." That is, he agrees with Hazlitt in attributing the 
 merits of the comedy to the dialogue from first to last, 
 and to the auction and screen-scenes. And in the 
 dialogue Sheridan is certainly seen at his best. Though 
 not so humorous as in " The Rivals " he is certainly more 
 pointed. The level of excellence is higher and the 
 ornamentation more evenly arranged upon the surface 
 of the general structure. How Sheridan labour ed over 
 the play w e know from Moore, wh ojhows how ea ch sce ne 
 was cast and recast, and each phrase f ashioned and re- 
 
 ^lashion e d, until every unnecessarve pithet haoTdisa ppearebr~ 
 
 . and every redundant phrase had been eliminated. Moore 
 has been blamed for thus opening the door of Sheridan's 
 
 ) laboratory, but it is difficult to see why. No doubt he 
 destroys, to a certain extent, the reputation which 
 
 I Sheridan sedulously sought to gain, that of an indolent 
 and careless wit. But not altogether, for we are told that 
 the last five scenes were dashed off on one rough draft, 
 
 ^ and they are not markedly inferior to the rest of the 
 play. Sheridan, in fact, combined the methods 
 
 " Of hasty Shadwell and slow Wychcrlcy." 
 
 /If taken at a disadvantage he was equal to the occasion, 
 but as a rule he was never satisfied until he had spent 
 himself in his efforts to secure perfection. Even so he 
 was barely content. When Ridgway, to whom Sheridan 
 had sold the copyright of the comedy, made repeated 
 demands for the manuscript, the dramatist told him that 
 he had been for nineteen years endeavouring to satisfy 
 himself with the/style of u The School for Scandal," but 
 
SHERIDAN. G5 
 
 had not yet succeeded. All the more credit to him for 
 his capacity for taking pains, for it is thus that master- 
 pieces are made. Sheridan wrote and rewrote "The 
 School for Scandal " just as Flaubert wrote and rewrote 
 11 Madame Bovary," and yet neither work as we have it 
 shows much sign of the chisel. But the process by 
 which the quarrels between Sir Peter and Lady Teazle, 
 and the scene between Lady Teazle and Joseph Surface, 
 were converted from indifferent imitations of Vanbrugh 
 to excellent specimens of Sheridanese, is one of extreme 
 interest. We learn, too, from Miss Lefanu that it was 
 prefaced by a considerable period of " sitting and 
 thinking." u The comedy is finished," said Sheridan ; 
 "I have now nothing to do but to write it." But 
 even the writing was not accomplished without much 
 experimentalizing, condensation, and refinement. 
 
 Even in its most finished state, Sheridan's art is 
 limited, and by its limitations causes him to rank in the 
 second not the first class of dramatists ; he is a wit, but 
 not a poet. When Hazlitt calls "The School for 
 Scandal " the most finished and faultless comedy we 
 have, he is surely thinking of the post-Restoration 
 comedy. Finished it is, but hardly faultless. It would 
 be absurd to compare the play with " As You Like It," 
 or even with "Every Man in his Humour." Horace 
 Walpole is quite right when he says that it is deficient 
 in nature and truth of character. Compared with 
 Volpone, Joseph Surface is a very crude sort ot 
 hypocrite, drawn in plain black and white, and without 
 any nice gradations of villainy. He whips off his mask 
 and claps it on again with the distracting abruptness of 
 
 5 
 
66 LIFE OF 
 
 a Harlequin ; the fluency of his " sentiments " in the 
 presence of Sir Peter, and the exuberance of his cynicism 
 when plotting with Lady Sneerwell, are alike overdone. 
 In short, Sheridan's comedy is artificial, not natural, and 
 the touchstone of his excellence is not life, but manners. 
 What Hazlitt has said of Congreve in his essay on the 
 four Restoration dramatists holds equally true of his 
 disciple and successor ; and his description of the Milla- 
 mant of " Love for Love " fits Lady Teazle, with certain 
 reservations, to a T. Congreve, contends the prince of 
 dramatic critics, 
 
 "has given us the finest idea of an artificial character of this kind ; 
 but it is still the reflection of an artificial character. The springs of 
 nature, passion, or imagination are but faintly touched. The impres- 
 sions appealed to, and with masterly address, are habitual, external, 
 and conventional advantages : the ideas of birth, of fortune, of con- 
 nections, of dress, accomplishment, fashion, the opinion of the 
 world, of crowds of admirers, continually come into play, flatter 
 our vanity, bribe our interest, fall in with our prejudices it is these 
 that support the goddess of our idolatry, with which she is every- 
 thing, and without which she is nothing. The mere fine lady of 
 comedy, compared with the heroine of romance or poetry, when 
 stripped of her adventitious ornaments and advantages, is too much 
 like the doll stripped of its finery. In thinking of Millamant we 
 think almost as much of her dress as of her person ; it is not so with 
 Rosalind or Perdita. The poet has painted them differently ; in 
 colours which ' nature's own sweet and cunning hand laid on,' with 
 health, with innocence, with gaiety, 'wild wit, invention ever new;' 
 with pure red and white, like the wilding's blossoms ; with warbled 
 wood-notes, like the feathered choirs ; with thoughts fluttering on 
 the wings of imagination, and hearts panting and breathless with 
 eager delight. The interest we feel is in themselves ; the admira- 
 tion they excite is for themselves. They do not depend upon the 
 drapery of circumstances. It is nature that 'blazons herself in 
 them. Imogen is the same in a lonely cave as in a court ; nay 
 
SHERIDAN. 07 
 
 >more, for she there seems something heavenly a spirit or a vision ; 
 and, as it were, shames her destiny, brighter for the foil of circum- 
 stances. Milhmant is nothing but a tine lady ; and all her airs and 
 affectation would be blown away with the first breath of misfortune. 
 Enviable in drawing-rooms, adorable at her toilette, fashion, like a 
 witch, has thrown her spell about her; but if that spell were broken, 
 her power of fascination would be gone. For that reason I think 
 the character better adapted for the stage : it is more artificial, 
 more theatrical, more meritricious. I would rather have seen Mrs. 
 Abington's Millamant than any Rosalind that ever appeared on the 
 stage. Somehow, this sort of acquired elegance is more a thing of 
 costume, of air and manner ; and in comedy, or on the comic stage, 
 the light and familiar, the trifling, superficial, and agreeable, bears, 
 perhaps, rightful sway over that which touches the affections or 
 -exhausts the fancy." 
 
 The quotation is somewhat long, but scissors and 
 paste may be excused where Hazlitt is concerned. 
 Besides, the extract helps us to formulate the true answer 
 to the charge so often brought against Sheridan, that his 
 characters are too witty, and that their wit is the same. 
 It is best met by a plea, of guilty, combined with the 
 assertion that the offence committed is not a crime but 
 a virtue. From the artistic point of view it is no doubt 
 a blunder to make Trip talk like his master, and it is 
 inconceivable that a simple, common-place old gentle- 
 man like Sir Peter could utter the recondite witticism 
 "In all cases of slander currency, whenever the drawer 
 of the lie was not to be found, the injured parties should 
 have a right to come down on any of the indorsers." So, 
 too, it is difficult to imagine a mere fribble, like Sir Ben- 
 jamin Backbite, the perpetrator of the excellent jest about 
 the widow Ochre. " Come, come, 'tis not that she paints 
 so ill butwhen she has finished her face, she joins it 
 
68 LIFE OF 
 
 on so badly to her neck, that she looks like a mended 
 statue, in which the connoisseur may see at once that 
 the head is modern, though the trunk's antique." But 
 when dramatic effect alone is aimed at, the more wit 
 there is to be found in the dialogue the better. The 
 object of comedy is amusement and delight, the more 
 its audience smile the greater its success. It is impossible 
 to imagine a greater intellectual treat, nor one, alas,. 
 more unlikely of realization, than would be the perform- 
 ance of "Love for Love" with an adequate interpretation, 
 and "The School for Scandal" is not unworthy to be 
 ranked with "Love for Love;" for its wit, if more 
 laboured, is at the same time more surprising. Most of 
 it is Sheridan's own, but we catch, too, something of the 
 tones which prevailed in that by-gone age, when. 
 Brookes's hung on the lips of Fitzpatrick, George 
 Selwyn, and Hare, and when Reynolds immortalized the 
 beauty of rank with 
 
 " That art, which well might added lustre give 
 To Nature's best, and Heaven's superlative : 
 On Granby's cheek might bid new glories rise, 
 Or point a purer beam from Devon's eyes." 1 
 
 When Horace Walpole complained that " The School 
 for Scandal " was too long, he allowed that he was badly 
 posted for hearing, and the admission accounts for the- 
 censure. Enthusiasm is apt to flag when half the -sen- 
 tences of a dialogue are lost. But modern audiences 
 are by no means inclined to yawn over the last act of 
 
 1 A Portrait, addressed to Mrs. Crewe ; with the comedy of " The.- 
 School for Scandal," by R. B. Sheridan, Esq. 
 
SHERIDAN. C9 
 
 the play, containing, as it does, the final appearance 
 of Lady Sneerwell and her associates. When, however, 
 he complained that several of the scenes were un- 
 necessary, he certainly hit upon what has been con-; 
 sidered a defect in the comedy. It is pretty certain 
 that he alludes to the scandal-scenes proper, and they 
 are but loosely connected, if at all, with the main plot. 
 " I wish," said a first-nighter in the pit during the scene 
 -at Lady Sneerwell's, " that these people would have 
 done talking and let the play begin." As Moore has 
 pointed out, the peculiarity is due to the fact that the 
 play is a combination of two distinct plots, one dealing 
 with the Teazles, the other with Lady Sneerwell and Sir 
 Benjamin Backbite as the principal personages, and not 
 even Sheridan's art could effect a perfect blend. But, 
 after all, a certain amount of digression is surely per- 
 missible in comedy, where the characters are not, as in 
 tragedy, hurried towards their doom under the compul- 
 sion of a relentless destiny. " Plot stood still ! " ex- 
 claims Bayes in the Duke of Buckingham's "Re- 
 hearsal," "what a devil is a plot good for but to bring 
 in fine things ! " That is an extreme view, no doubt, 
 but when the way is pleasant it is not culpable. to loiter, 
 especially in the company of Sir Benjamin, Crabtree, 
 and Mrs. Candour. If the plot is to be everything, 
 .and all accessories and ornamentations are to be ruth- 
 lessly debarred, the art of the playwright is lowered at 
 once to the mere ingenuity of the mechanician. But 
 .apart from the scandal-scenes the play possesses a very 
 interesting and well-developed plot leading up to the 
 --screen-scene, which is flawless. Hypercriticism has 
 
70 LIFE OF 
 
 urged that the hiding of Lady Teazle behind the screen, 
 exposes her to the view of the maiden lady across the 
 way to foil whose prying eyes Joseph Surface had placed 
 the screen before the window. But, as Mr. Brander 
 Matthews has remarked, Lady Teazle rushes behind it 
 in her terror without consulting Joseph, and so the 
 objection falls to the ground. 
 
 Is " The School for Scandal " moral, or immoral, or 
 non moral? Hazlitt, in his Lecture, comments on the 
 moraTvalue of the play, which, he says, " as often as it is 
 acted, must serve to clear the air of that low, creeping 
 fog of cant and mysticism, which threatens to confound 
 every native impulse or honest conviction in the 
 nauseous belief of a perpetual lie, and in the laudable 
 profession of systematic hypocrisy." But, with all due 
 respect to so admirable a critic, any attempt to extract 
 a sermon from "The School for Scandal" is beside the 
 point. The play is, as has been said already of " The 
 Rivals," purely non-moral, except for its occasional and 
 rather incongruous conformity with the canons of 
 genteel comedy. It appeals to what Charles Lamb 
 called the "middle, emotions." The audience can, if 
 they like, think that a solid victory has been won by 
 virtue, when the hypocrisy of Joseph Surface has been 
 exposed, and the scandalous college has been turned 
 out by Sir Peter Teazle, but they are quite mistaken. 
 Ganick was, in his generation, wiser than they, when he? 
 wrote in his prologue 
 
 " Is our young bard so young, to think that he 
 Can stop the full spring-tide of calumny ? 
 
SHERIDAN. v' 71 
 
 Knows he the world so little, and his trade ? 
 Alas ! the devil's sooner raised than laid ; 
 So strong, so swift, the monster there's no gagging 
 Cut Scandal's head off, still the tongue is wagging. 
 
 Sheridan would have answered that the devil did not 
 come into his scenario, and that he appealed to the 
 intellects not the consciences of h's audience. He 
 meant them to admire the wit of his dialogue, and 
 appreciate the ingenuity of his plot, not to bother 
 their heads because a full measure of poetic justice 
 does not overtake Lady Sneerwell, and Joseph Sur- 
 face does not expiate his crimes in Newgate. Both 
 characters are purely artificial, not meant to be taken 
 seriously, and as such they were played by the 
 actors who learnt their parts under Sheridan's instruc- 
 tion. 1 Even in Charles Lamb's time the spirit of true 
 criticism was beginning to desert theatre-goers, and he 
 doubted if they would have endured Palmer's habit of 
 addressing his sentiments as much to you as to Sir 
 Peter, and King's method of playing off his " teasings " 
 upon his audience. From the advent of the frock- 
 coat the comic Muse had fled, and people insisted 
 upon a realistic Joseph, with whom they could work 
 themselves up into a fitting state of virtuous indignation. 
 At best, as Lamb has pointed out, the character is full 
 of incongruities, caused by Sheridan's concessions to 
 sentimental comedy, and is one that requires to be 
 
 1 Sheridan, however, was dissatisfied with all his Sir Peters, from 
 King to the elder Mathews. They were unable, says Mrs. 
 Mathews, in her memoirs of her husband, to follow his reading of 
 the character. 
 
72 LIFE OF 
 
 played lightly and with discretion, notably in the scene 
 with Sir Oliver, disguised as Old Stanley. The modern 
 Joseph Surface, stalking solemnly about the stage, is an 
 altogether tiresome person, who appears to have strayed 
 from some transpontine melodrama into the wrong 
 theatre, and to be oppressed by the fact without having 
 the courage to take himself off. He never rises to the full 
 sense of the dignity of his mission as a reformer of 
 morals, nor, considering that he has to pose as the 
 devil's advocate, is his failure altogether surprising. 
 Besides, it is difficult to throw intensity into a character, 
 who, when he has been hopelessly found out, contents 
 himself with the complacent remark " Sure Fortune 
 never played a man of my policy such a trick before. 
 My character with Sir Peter, my hopes with Maria, 
 destroyed in a moment ! I'm in a rare humour to 
 listen to other people's distresses ! I sha'n't be able 
 to bestow even a benevolent sentiment on Old Stanley." 
 Where is the remorse, the gnawing of conscience which, 
 in the interests of morality, Joseph Surface should have 
 displayed ? 
 
 Nor can the moral test be applied with any more 
 propriety to the characters which, for want of a better 
 word, must be called sympathetic Charles Surface, Sir 
 Peter and Lady Teazle. All the dramatis persona are 
 really sympathetic or unsympathetic, just as you choose 
 to take them, that is to say, they are untrammelled by 
 the domestic affections. Moore was at pains to defend 
 Sheridan from the charge of having damaged the 
 interests of honesty and virtue by the gay charm which 
 he has thrown round the irregularities of Charles Surface. 
 
SHERIDAN. 7ft 
 
 He does so by quoting Burke's famous phrase, that 
 u vice loses half its evil by losing all its grossness," and 
 exalts Charles at the expense of the rakes of Congreve 
 -and Farquhar. But the volatile and spendthrift hero 
 of "The School for Scandal," despite his regard for his 
 absent uncle and his generosity towards Old Stanley, 
 is not conceived with any more serious purport than the 
 Roebuck of Farquhar's "Love and a Bottle." The 
 contrast between his open-handed recklessness and the 
 the sentimental hypocrisy of Joseph is an effective stage- 
 contrast, and nothing more, and is to be judged 
 neither by copybook texts nor the Duty towards my 
 Neighbours. It is stage-virtue which triumphs and 
 stage-vice which is defeated, but though we are glad 
 that all ends happily, there is no " Go thou and do like- 
 wise " in the matter at all. It is the fashion to talk 
 about the elevating influence of the stage and its capacity 
 for handling social problems, yet there is not much 
 profit to be derived from plays professing to deal with 
 problems social or moral, nor anything but weariness 
 and nausea from a medical blue-book of the Ibsen 
 class. But to read or hear a good comedy, such as 
 Sheridan's masterpiece, is, to use Hazlitt's phrase, "to 
 keep the best company in the world, where the best 
 things are said, and the most amusing happen." It is 
 not life, but a relief from life, with its appointments, its 
 Avork, and its butchers' bills. If we became acquainted 
 with Lady Teazle in society we should be outraged by 
 the brutality of her desire to become a widow, and 
 when we discovered that she had voluntarily returned to 
 Joseph Surface's house, in which she had been a few 
 
74 LIFE OF 
 
 hours previously on the brink of transgression, we should' 
 look upon her as a brazen baggage. But on the stage 
 these incongruities only appear in a half light, and she- 
 remains a purely delightful and irresponsible creature. 
 Similarly, it is possible to feel a sense of genuine satis- 
 faction, when Sir Peter escapes cuckoldry, without caring, 
 whether his indignation is at all adequate to the occasion. 
 From the moralist's point of view a husband who in a 
 similar situation thinks only of the ridicule which will 
 fall upon himself is a somewhat contemptible person y 
 and Sir Peter's reconciliation with his wife would be- 
 set down as dictated by uxoriousness rather than 
 magnimity. But somehow it is impossible to conceive 
 Sir Peter Teazle as other than a thoroughly estimable 
 and simple-minded old gentleman. In real life how 
 terrible must have been his discomfiture on the fall of 
 the screen, and how heartless would the speech of 
 Charles have sounded. The scene is frequently acted 
 as if it were tragedy, and then it becomes simply absurd. 
 Garrick saw that any expression of genuine emotion, 
 would ruin it at once. 
 
 " A gentleman," he wrote to Sheridan on the 12th of May, " who- 
 is as mad as myself about y e School remarked, that the characters 
 upon the stage at y e falling of the screen stand too long before they 
 speak. I thought so too y e first night tho' they should be astonish'd 
 and a little petrify'd, yet it may be carry'd to too great a length." 
 
 Off the stage a good deal of astonishment would 
 surely have been legitimate on such an occasion, but 
 Garrick knew, what many of Sheridan's critics have not 
 known, that comedy has laws of its own. Its merit may 
 not be in proportion to its unreality, but it can have little 
 
SHERIDAN. 75- 
 
 merit if it be real, for the average incidents and the 
 average conversations of life are but poor comedy. 
 
 It remains to deal with the charges of plagiarism 
 which have been brought against this, as against the- 
 other plays of Sheridan. On the whole, they may be 
 said at once to amount to a hint borrowed from one- 
 source and another, and to nothing more. And though 
 plagiarism is not, as Ben Jonson contended, meritorious. 
 in itself, Sheridan at least could claim that nearly every- 
 thing he appropriated from others was improved by the 
 process. Dr. Watkins, indeed, in his scissors-and-paste 
 biography of Sheridan, was good enough to hint that: 
 "The School for Scandal" was not Sheridan's at all,, 
 but the work either of Mrs. Sheridan or of an anony- 
 mous young lady, who died of consumption at Bristol' 
 Hot-wells. Moore, whether advisedly or no, destroyed! 
 this comically foolish myth by printing extract after 
 extract from Sheridan's rough drafts, demonstrating 
 thereby the intellectual labour by which the comedy was 
 built up. Sheridan himself, it may be noted, never 
 condescended to meet this and similar accusations^ 
 except by a little genial banter in " The Critic." 
 
 " Dangle. Sir Fretful, have you sent your play to the managers. 
 yet ? or can I be of any service to you ? 
 
 " Sir fretful. No, no, I thank you ; I believe the piece hadi 
 sufficient recommendation with it. I thank you though. I sent it 
 to the manager of Covent Garden Theatre this morning. 
 
 " Sneer. I should have thought now that it might have been cast 
 (as the actors call it) better at DRURY LANE. 
 
 " Sir Fretful. O, lud, no ! never send a play there while I live*. 
 Ilark'ee ! {a'/iz's/ers Sneer.) 
 
 " Sneer. Writes himself ! I know he does ! 
 
7G LIFE OF 
 
 " Sir Fretful. I say nothing. I take away from no man's merit. 
 Am hurt at no man's good fortune. I say nothing. But this I will 
 say, through all my knowledge of life, I have discovered that there 
 is not a passion so strongly rooted in the human breast as envy. 
 
 " Sneer. I believe you have reason for what you say, indeed. 
 
 " Sir Fretful. Besides, I can tell you it is not always so safe to 
 -leave a play in the hands of those who write themselves. 
 
 " Sneer. What ! they may steal from them, hey, my dear 
 Tlagiary ? 
 
 ' ' Sir Fretful. Steal ! to be sure they may, and egad ! serve your 
 best thoughts as gipsies do stolen children, disfigure them to make 
 'em pass for their own. 
 
 " Sneer. But your present work is a sacrifice to Melpomene, and 
 HE you know never 
 
 " Sir Fretful. That's no security a dexterous plagiarist may do 
 anything. Why, Sir, for aught I know, he might take out some of 
 the best things in my tragedy and put them into his own comedy." 
 
 This was answer enough ; and as to the actual genesis 
 of " The School for Scandal," we are informed by Miss 
 Lefanu that Sheridan conceived the idea of dealing witfr 
 the subject on perusing the wild legends current in the 
 Bath papers after his second duel with Captain Mathews. 
 The statement is borne out by Moore's evidence that the 
 scandalous college was, in the first sketch of the play, 
 established in the Pump Room at Bath, and Crabtree 
 may after all have been drawing upon the imagination of 
 ;some journalist, not his own, when he described how 
 
 " Charles' shot took effect, as I tell you, and Sir Peters missed ; 
 
 'but, what is very extraordinary, the ball struck against a little 
 bronze Shakespeare that stood over the fire-place, grazed out of the 
 window at a right angle, and wounded the postman, who was just 
 
 coming to the door with a double letter from Northamptonshire." 
 
 But scandal, like most of the other failings of mankind, 
 
SHERIDAN. 77 
 
 had already been made the subject of satire, and 
 Sheridan was not above taking a hint from his pre- 
 decessors in his management of the theme. We can 
 trace the scandal-scenes properly so-called of "The 
 School " through three generations. The first is the scene 
 in the " Misanthrope " of Moliere, where Celimene dis- 
 cusses her acquaintance. Then we have a short scene in 
 Wycherley's "Plain Dealer" (act ii. scene i), in which 
 Novel and Olivia talk over the people with whom Novel 
 had been dining. From the latter play Sheridan seems 
 to have borrowed one or two suggestions : for instance, 
 Joseph Surface's ironical compliment to Mrs. Candour 
 on her forbearance and good nature, and Lady Sneer- 
 well's description of Mrs. Evergreen. To Congreve's. 
 "Double-Dealer" (act hi. scene 10), Sheridan was even 
 more indebted, and it can hardly be said that his wit 
 materially improves that of the original. Indeed, Sir 
 Benjamin Backbite's verse must be pronounced inferior 
 in drollery to Lady Froth's admirable effusion : 
 
 u For as the sun shines every day, 
 So of our coachman I may say, 
 He shows his drunken fiery face 
 Just as the sun does more or less." 
 
 Again, the comments of Lady Sneerwell, Mrs. 
 Candour, and Sir Benjamin upon their absent friends, 
 though more elaborate than those of Lady Froth and 
 Brisk, are not, pace Moore, a whit more pointed. And 
 Sheridan has lessened the dramatic effect of the whole 
 scene, as Mr. Gosse, in his monograph on Congreve has 
 pointed out, by making Lady Teazle join in the destruc- 
 
< 
 
 78 LIFE OF 
 
 tion of reputations, instead of imitating Cynthia in her 
 expression of disgust at the whole proceeding. Nor do 
 the two scandal-scenes exhaust the points of resemblance 
 between " The School for Scandal " and " The Double- 
 Dealer." Joseph Surface's relations with Lady Teazle 
 and Maria are very similar to those between Maskwell, 
 Lady Touchwood, and Cynthia, though Congreve pro- 
 vides an additional complication by making Lady Touch- 
 wood in love with Mellefont, the Charles Surface of the 
 piece, who it may be noted has a friend called Careless. 
 Lady Touchwood, in fact, combines the functions of 
 Lady Teazle and Lady Sneerwell. But it is pretty cer- 
 tain that the resemblance is accidental, since we know 
 that " The School for Scandal," as we have it, is an 
 amalgamation of two distinct plots, conceived inde- 
 pendently, and therefore not derived from a common 
 source. All that can be said is, that when Sheridan 
 decided on joining his plots together he may possibly 
 have seen that the characters lent themselves to a 
 denouement something similar to Congreve's. If so, the 
 origin of the screen-scene is to be discovered, not, as the 
 over-ingenious Boaden suggested, in the exposure of 
 Square though the fall of a rug in Molly Seagrim's bed- 
 room, but in the elaborate intrigue in the fourth and 
 fifth acts of " The Double-Dealer," which brings Mask- 
 well, Mellefont, Lord and Lady Touchwood together in 
 Lady Touchwood's chamber, with the result that Lord 
 Touchwood's eyes are opened to the villainy of Mask- 
 well. 
 
 The remainder of Sheridan's indebtedness may be 
 briefly dismissed. It has been said that Charles and 
 
SHERIDAN. 79 
 
 Joseph Surface are copied from Fielding's Tom Jones 
 and Blifil, and Joseph Surface has also been traced to 
 Moliere and to the Malvil of Arthur Murphy's " Know 
 your own Mind." It was quite possible that the contrast 
 between Charles and Joseph may have been immediately 
 suggested to Sheridan by Fielding ; but it is old enough 
 in all conscience, and if Sheridan did not go to sleep in 
 church he must frequently have heard the story of Esau 
 and Jacob. Strange it is that Sheridan's critics should 
 have failed to see that the very fact that Joseph Sur- 
 face can be traced to so many sources proves that he 
 can owe very little to any of them. A play must have 
 .a bad man in it, otherwise it becomes insipid and un- 
 dramatic, and assassins being out of place in comedy, 
 hypocrites are almost indispensable. TartufTe and Joseph 
 Surface are both hypocrites, but there the resemblance 
 ends. As to the Malvil theory, which has the authority 
 of Hazlitt, it is more tenable. But all that can safely be 
 asserted is that Sheridan may have seen the play it was 
 produced at Covent Garden on February 22, 1777 
 while he was writing " The School for Scandal." From 
 a solitary sentence uttered by Malvil, " To a person of 
 sentiment like you, madam, a visit is paid with pleasure," 
 Sheridan may have conceived the idea of making Joseph 
 Surface a sententious hypocrite, but otherwise the two 
 characters have nothing in common beyond being 
 hypocrites. Old Sheridan once made a remark which, 
 though it was given an uncomplimentary turn, pro- 
 bably contained a good deal of truth. "Talk of the 
 merit of Dick's comedy," said he, " there's nothing in 
 it He had but to dip the pencil in his own heart, 
 
80 LIFE OF 
 
 and he'd find there the characters both of Joseph and 
 Charles " that is, his father, in his most censorious- 
 mood, thought them original creations. 
 
 Again, it is quite possible that Sheridan may, as Boaden 
 suggested, have borrowed from his mother's novel, "Miss 
 Sidney Biddulph," the incident of the arrival of Sir 
 Oliver from India, and his visit to his relations in dis- 
 guise. The loan is a trivial one, hardly more consider- 
 able than the name of Surface which was taken from her 
 comedy, "A Trip to Bath." So, too, the idea of 
 " little Premium" may have been taken from the " little 
 Transfer the broker," of Foote's " Minor," and Rowley 
 is neither the first nor the last of the faithful stewards 
 who have trod the stage of comedy. None of these 
 appropriations matters in the least when compared with 
 the manner in which it is used ; and none is incom- 
 patible with a due respect to tradition. If plagiarism is- 
 made the sole test of literary merit, we may welL 
 exclaim with the Scotchman in the pit at the first 
 representation of Home's "Douglas," "Whar's Wullie 
 Shakespeare noo ? " But a lack of originality in minor 
 details is as dust in the balance, if the treatment and 
 style of the whole be excellent. They are the only 
 true touchstones, and it is by them "The School for 
 Scandal " must be judged. If they are applied, " The 
 School for Scandal," even when placed by the side of 
 "Love for Love," or "The Way of the World," must 
 be pronounced a great comedy, with an adequate plot,, 
 several perfect scenes, and a dialogue of consummate 
 brilliance and polish. As literature it may not be equal 
 to Congreve, but as acted drama it is far superior. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 IN spite of the complete triumph of "The School for 
 Scandal," there seems to have been still a good deal 
 of uncertainty about the fortunes of Drury Lane. Gar- 
 rick was at first sanguine. " This is but a single play," ob- 
 served a critic, "and in the long run will be but a slender 
 help to support the theatre. To you, Mr. Garrick, I must 
 say the Atlas that propped the stage has left his station." 
 "Has he?" said Garrick; "if that be the case he has 
 found another Hercules to succeed him." But soon 
 afterwards, on July 13, 1777, we find him writing to 
 King : " Poor old Drury ! it will, I fear, very soon be 
 in the hand of the Philistines." And Mrs. Clive, 
 though long retired from the stage, was evidently well 
 posted in theatrical news, for she wrote to the great 
 actor in the following year : " Everybody is raving 
 against Mr. Sheridan for his supineness ; there never was 
 such a contrast as between Garrick and Sheridan ; what 
 have you given him that he creeps so ? " To make 
 matters worse, old Sheridan, whom in an evil hour his 
 son had appointed stage manager, by way of sealing 
 their long-delayed reconciliation, contrived, through his 
 
 6 
 
82 LIFE OF 
 
 ridiculous self-importance, to pick a quarrel with Garrick, 
 who wrote indignantly : 
 
 "Pray assure your father that I meant not to interfere in his 
 department. I imagined (foolishly indeed) my attending Bannister's 
 rehearsal of the part I once played, and which your father never 
 saw [Zaphna], might have assisted the cause without giving the least 
 offence. I love my ease too well to be thought an interloper, and I 
 should not have been impertinent enough to have attended any 
 rehearsal had not you, Sir, in a very particular manner, desired me. 
 However, upon no consideration will I ever interfere again in this 
 business, nor be liable to receive such another message as was 
 brought to me this evening by young Bannister." 
 
 The letter is undated, but it was probably written in 
 October, 1778, 1 and on January 20, 1779, David Garrick 
 died. Sheridan was chief mourner at his funeral, and 
 wrote a monody to his memory, which was recited by 
 Mrs. Yates on the 2nd of March, at Drury Lane. It is 
 Sheridan's longest essay in poetry, and certainly his 
 least successful. The metre is correct, and there is a 
 fine line or two, but the whole is monotonous. In fact, 
 the heroic couplet taken seriously was beyond Sheridan. 
 Again, in his treatment of the subject there is much to 
 be desired. Sheridan used to declare that he had never 
 seen Garrick act, and the statement was probably put 
 forward as an excuse for the fact that there is not an 
 attempt throughout the poem to recall the peculiar genius 
 of the great comedian, whom most of those present 
 must have remembered so well. Instead, they had to put 
 up with elaborate commonplaces on the fugitive nature of 
 
 1 The play was called " Mahomet," and it was produced on 
 October nth. 
 
SHERIDAN. 83 
 
 the actor's art and fame, a thought which, as Moore well 
 remarks, had already been more simply expressed by 
 Garrick himself in his prologue to "The Clandestine 
 Marriage." The best passage in the poem owed its 
 inspiration to a saying of Burke's over the grave, 
 which in Sheridan's hands became 
 
 " The throng that mourn'd as their dead favourite pass'd, 
 The grac'd respect that claim'd him to the last ; 
 While Shakespeare's image, from its hallow T d base, 
 Seem\i to prescribe the grave, and point the place.''' 
 
 During all these months Sheridan's pen lay idle. The 
 public chose indeed to attribute to him an indifferent 
 trifle called " The Camp," which was produced in Octo- 
 ber, 1778. But it was really by his friend Tickell, and 
 Sheridan, out of sheer good nature, allowed the rumour 
 to go uncontradicted. Many people besides Mrs. Clive 
 were probably angry with him for his indolence, but 
 " The School for Scandal " continued to draw good 
 houses, and the company having been strengthened by 
 the accession of Henderson, who was seen at his best in 
 tragedy, Shakespearian revivals were of frequent occur- 
 rence. Sheridan, then, had more than one excuse for 
 resting on his oars, and of them he was, in all probability, 
 only too glad to avail himself. At length he resumed his 
 activity, and set to work on " The Critic," his last genuine 
 play, which was brought out on October 30, 1779. 
 Though the farce was evidently written with the utmost 
 care, Sheridan as usual could not be induced to finish it 
 until the last moment. Two days before it was announced, 
 the final scene had not been written, but the combined 
 
84 LIFE OF 
 
 intelligences of Linley and King were equal to the occa- 
 sion. Linley decoyed Sheridan down to the theatre, and 
 King locked him into the green-room, with the prompter's 
 unfinished copy of " The Critic," writing materials, two 
 bottles of claret, and a dish of anchovy sandwiches. He 
 was told that he was to finish the wine and the farce, but 
 was to consider himself a prisoner until they were both 
 at an end. Sheridan laughed and obeyed. 
 
 According to a familiar story, "The Critic" was written 
 to repay Cumberland for his conduct on the first night of 
 11 The School for Scandal." It was said that the captious 
 author took his children to the play, and when they 
 screamed with delight he pinched them, exclaiming, 
 " What are you laughing at, my dear little folks ? You 
 should not laugh, my angels, there is nothing to laugh 
 at ! " and then in an undertone, " Keep still, you little 
 dunces ! " When Sheridan was told of this, he is reported 
 to have said, " Devilish ungrateful that, for I sat out his 
 tragedy last week, and laughed from beginning to end." 
 The anecdote is good, but unfortunately it will not bear 
 investigation. Cumberland's first tragedy, "The Battle 
 of Hastings," was not produced until 1778, the year after 
 " The School for Scandal," and in his Memoirs he denies 
 the whole story, declaring that he was at Bath at the 
 time, and that he did not see the play at all during its 
 first run. There can be no doubt, however, that Sir 
 Fretful Plagiary was intended for Cumberland, and 
 many passages in his Memoirs attest the accuracy of the 
 portrait. So too Dangle, who is concisely described by 
 Mrs. Dangle as " a mock Maecenas to second-hand 
 authors," is said to have been a caricature of one 
 
SHERIDAN. 85 
 
 Vaughan. If this is the " Hat " Vaughan who befriended 
 Sheridan during his last days, he took. a very noble 
 revenge. 
 
 As a matter of fact the travesty of a rehearsal, the sub- 
 ject of " The Critic," was new neither to Sheridan nor 
 lo the stage, and Sir Fretful Plagiary and Dangle were 
 evidently afterthoughts. We have seen that a burlesque 
 called "Jupiter," written in conjunction with Halhed, 
 was one of his earliest dramatic efforts, and Moore tells 
 us that the form of a rehearsal into which the whole was 
 thrown, was suggested and arranged entirely by Sheridan. 
 The character of Simile in the boyish attempt is clearly 
 a rough draft of our friend Puff. Besides, the repro- 
 duction and improvement of old material is entirely 
 characteristic of Sheridan. He even adapted, and in- 
 serted in his pieces, the love-poems addressed to his wife. 
 But if Sheridan reproduced in " The Critic * a plan 
 which had been already attempted by himself, he also 
 reproduced a plan which had been attempted many times 
 by earlier dramatic authors, since Fletcher had set the 
 fashion by his " Knight of the Burning Pestle." By far 
 the most successful of these efforts was the Duke of 
 Buckingham's " The Rehearsal," written to ridicule 
 Dryden under the character of Bayes. Latterly Fielding 
 had tried the same scheme in a variety of plays, of which 
 " Pasquin " was the most meritorious. Sheridan could, 
 then, hardly lay claim to originality of design ; but it is 
 absurd to dismiss "The Critic," as did Horace Walpole, 
 with the remark that it was " wondrously old and flat; a 
 poor imitation." 
 
 For here, again, the charges of plagiarism brought 
 
86 LIFE OF 
 
 against Sheridan are very inconclusive ; the model was 
 old, but the treatment was almost entirely his own. A 
 phrase or two exhausts his indebtedness to Fielding, and 
 his borrowings from the Duke of Buckingham are hardly 
 more considerable. They are confined to the play 
 rehearsed, "The Spanish Armada," and the only loans 
 that are at all obvious are Mr. Puff's announcement of 
 his grand scene, "Now then for my magnificence, my 
 battle, my noise, and my procession ! " and the opening 
 words of Sir Christopher Hatton, " True, gallant Raleigh," 
 with Dangle's query, '* What, they had been talking 
 before ? " and Puffs reply, " Oh, yes ; all the way as they 
 came along." Otherwise Bayes has little in common 
 with Puff, beyond being a dramatic author, and he 
 resembles Sir Fretful Plagiary only in keeping a common- 
 place book, into which he conveys other people's ideas. 
 But so it is to be presumed do most plagiarists. And, 
 Sheridan, as always, improved upon his predecessors. Not 
 that u The Rehearsal " does not contain many excellent 
 points. In particular, the eclipse formed by a dance in 
 which three actors representing the sun, moon, and earth, 
 change places, is quite as good as, if not better than, 
 Sheridan's Thames with his two banks on one side. But, 
 as a whole, it is diffuse and too evidently written to satisfy 
 the spleen of the moment by ridiculing Dryden's personal 
 peculiarities. Sheridan's Dangle, Sir Fretful Plagiary, 
 and Puff, on the other hand, arc types which even at this 
 distance of time have not lost their vitality, though two, 
 if not the third, were intended to satirise individuals. 
 The first act in which Mr. Puff developes the art of 
 puffing, contains some of Sheridan's very best comedy. 
 
SHERIDAN. 87 
 
 Fanny Burney, when she read it, decided that it was " as 
 full of wit, satire, and spirit, as of lines." It is never 
 acted now except in a mangled form. But one can well 
 imagine how the audiences of 1779 must have enjoyed 
 King's clear delivery of the description of the "puff 
 direct," especially when he gave vent to an eloquent 
 panegyric on Dodd (Dangle), Palmer (Sneer), and him- 
 self : 
 
 " Mr. Dodd was astonishingly great in the character of Sir Harry. 
 That universal and judicious actor, Mr. Palmer, perhaps never 
 appeared to more advantage than in the colonel ; but it is not 
 in the power of language to do justice to Mr. King : indeed, he 
 more than merited those frequent bursts of applause which he drew 
 from a most brilliant and judicious audience." 
 
 Incidentally, too, the first act of " The Critic " is im- 
 portant as containing Sheridan's valedictory remarks on 
 sentimental comedy, which he had killed by the success 
 of his own plays. They are rather severe. 
 
 M Dangle [reading]. Bursts into tears and exit. What is this ; 
 a tragedy ? 
 
 " Sneer. No, that's a genteel comedy, not a translation enly 
 taken from the French ; it is written in a style which they have 
 lately tried to run down ; the true sentimental, and nothing ridicu- 
 lous from the beginning to the end. 
 
 11 Mrs. Dangle. Well, if they had kept to that, I should not have 
 been such an enemy to the stage ; there is some edification to begot 
 out of those pieces, Mr. Sneer. 
 
 " Sneer. I am quite of your opinion, Mrs. Dangle : the theatre, 
 in proper hands, might certainly be made the school of morality ; 
 but now, I am sorry to say it, people seem to go there principally 
 for their entertainment I " 
 
 If the comedy of the first act of "The Critic" has 
 
88 LIFE OF 
 
 stood the wear and tear of time, so has the satire of the 
 second act. The particular plays at which it was aimed, 
 such as Home's " Fatal Discovery," have long since 
 become obsolete, and have had but few successors. For 
 11 The Critic " killed bombastic tragedy much as " The 
 School for Scandal" killed sentimental comedy. 
 "Zorayda," which was brought out immediately after- 
 wards, was withdrawn after a run of eight nights, as its 
 heroine was found to have been forestalled by Tilburnia. 
 But " The Spanish Armada " is a burlesque of bad plays 
 in general, quite as much as bad tragedies individually. 
 So long as convention rules the drama, conversations will 
 be overheard under the most improbable circumstances, 
 under-plots will continue to have but little connection 
 with main-plots, and heroines will go mad, though no 
 longer in white satin. And until all sense of humour has 
 been eliminated from English life, people will quote and 
 laugh at " No scandal about Queen Elizabeth, I hope," 
 " The Spanish fleet thou can'st not see because It is 
 not yet in sight," and " Where they do agree upon the 
 stage, their unanimity is wonderful." 
 
 With " The Critic," Sheridan's literary and dramatic 
 productions came, practically speaking, to an end. He 
 was still ready to help an acquaintance, for instance, by 
 writing the lively epilogue to Hannah More's play, " The 
 Fatal Falsehood," and the prologue to Lady Craven's 
 M Miniature Picture," which was eventually transferred 
 to " Pizarro." But even so far as poetry was concerned, 
 he was content to shine in ladies' albums, and the frag- 
 ments which Moore found among his papers were 
 unimportant. Shortly after his death there appeared 
 
SHERIDAN. 89 
 
 under his name an " Ode to Scandal," which, if it be 
 really his, is as good as any verse he ever wrote. 1 It has 
 been included as Sheridan's in more than one poetical 
 anthology. But its genuineness appears to be quite an 
 open question. Moore never so much as mentions it, 
 though he must have known of its existence, and though 
 in writing Sheridan's life he was, as may be seen in his 
 diary, often at a loss for materials. Again it was sent 
 anonymously to the publisher, Wright, of Fleet Street, 
 accompanied by a letter of Sheridan's which, as it is not 
 given by Wright, evidently had nothing to do with the 
 Ode. Wright says, indeed, in his advertisement to the 
 public, that he was sure of the quarter whence the Ode 
 came; but was he likely to have been particularly 
 scrupulous, when the supposed author could no longer 
 bring him to book? Internal evidence also points to 
 the conclusion that the Ode is not Sheridan's. The metre 
 is far more elaborate than any he was accustomed to use, 
 
 1 As the " Ode to Scandal " has been seldom republished, an ex- 
 tract from it may be given here : 
 
 " The first informations 
 Of lost reputations 
 As offerings to thee I'll consign ; 
 
 And the earliest news ff^f 
 
 Of surprised billet-doux 
 
 Shall constant be served at thy sh 
 
 Intrigues by the score 
 
 Never heard of before 
 
 Shall the sacrifice daily augment, 
 
 And by each Morning Post 
 
 Some favourite toast 
 
 A victim to thee shall be sent." 
 
90 LIFE OF 
 
 and the poem, so far from being as the publisher impu- 
 dently suggested, the origin of " The School for Scandal," 
 does not contain a single anticipation of that play. 
 Possibly the Ode, like a good deal of pseudo-Sheridan 
 work, may have been Tickell's. 
 
 Sheridan's subsequent contributions to the drama were 
 not . of much greater consequence. He applied the 
 pruning-knife, as we shall see, to "The Stranger," 
 and adapted the adaptation of "Pizarro." He even 
 sketched out the plot of " The Glorious First of June," 
 and of two spectacular pieces, the "Forty Thieves" and 
 the pantomime, " Robinson Crusoe," in the last of which 
 pieces of pot-boiling he was accused by the clown 
 Delpini of having stolen from him the joke of pulling off 
 a man's leg together with his boot. But from dramatic 
 authorship of a more elevated character he instinctively 
 recoiled. No doubt his time was much taken up 
 by politics, society, and the routine of management. 
 But it is clear also that he recognized that in " The 
 School for Scandal " he had reached his zenith, and 
 feared the risk of a temporary failure, perhaps of a 
 gradual decline. Two unfinished plays, or sketches of 
 plays, were found among his papers by Moore. The first 
 in its original form was a musical drama, without a name, 
 but evidently founded on " The Goblings " of Sir John 
 Suckling, since its chief personages were a band of out- 
 laws in the guise of Devils. It was left very incomplete, 
 and all that can be said of it is that it was apparently 
 written subsequently to his residence at Bath. From 
 this unnamed play was evolved an opera-book, called 
 "The Foresters." Of this piece Moore could only dis- 
 
SHERIDAN. 91 
 
 cover a fragment or two, but the anonymous Octogena- 
 rian who subsequently published some loose memoirs of 
 Sheridan, declared that at least two acts were finished, 
 and that the piece was undertaken just after his second 
 marriage, that is, in 1795. Far more to be regretted is 
 his abandonment of his projected comedy of "Affecta- 
 tion," which never progressed beyond a few sketches of 
 character, many embryo jokes, and the christening of 
 three of the intended personages Sir Babble Bore, Sir 
 Peregrine Paradox, and Feignwit. Evidently he failed 
 to hit upon an interesting plot in which to set the 
 characters, and though Sir Peter Teazle's opinion of 
 them would have been worth listening to, Sheridan had 
 the example of Vanbrugh's comparative failure in " Sir 
 Henry Wildair," to warn him against a sequel to "The 
 School for Scandal." He certainly wished it to be 
 believed that he was hard at work on both plays. 
 "Wait," he used to say, smilingly, "until you have seen 
 my 'Foresters;'" and from time to time the "puff 
 preliminary" appeared in the papers, announcing the 
 approaching completion both of " The Foresters " and 
 of " Affectation." But those who knew him well never 
 believed that either play would ever see the light. 
 Michael Kelly said to him one day, " You will never 
 write again ; you are afraid to write." Sheridan fixed 
 his penetrating eye on Kelly, and asked, " Of whom am 
 I afraid ? " Kelly retorted, " You are afraid of the 
 author of 'The School for Scandal.'" If Kelly really 
 made the remark, and did not merely improve in his 
 Reminiscences upon a similar saying of Garrick's, it was 
 very clever of him. 
 
Cf TATTER VI. 
 
 AT the close of 1779 Sheridan commanded a source 
 of income which, fluctuating though it might be, 
 must have seemed to a person of his sanguine disposition 
 well-nigh inexhaustible. Now was the time for realizing 
 what had probably been from the first the main object of 
 his ambition a reputation as a statesman. It is clear 
 that all along he intended literary fame to be merely 
 a stepping-stone to political renown. The stage of the 
 House of Commons appealed to a larger audience than 
 that of Drury Lane, and he hoped, no doubt, to supple- 
 ment the revenue derived from the theatre by the salary 
 of office. It was an age of political adventurers, most 
 of them, remarkably enough, of Anglo-Irish parentage. 
 Eurke had preceded Sheridan, Tierney and Canning 
 were to follow him. They, one and all, won their way 
 to great positions, but about all of them there hung the 
 suspicion that a man who makes politics a trade, is to be 
 used rather than trusted. Sheridan, in particular, never 
 attained a status higher than the second rank, though 
 his capacities were of the highest. Indeed his oppor- 
 tunities of ministerial distinction of any sort were 
 remarkably few, since he was condemned to serve under 
 
LIFE OF SHERIDAN. 98 
 
 a leader whose blundering tactics condemned the Whig 
 party to year after year of opposition. It was not very 
 long before Mrs. Sheridan, at any rate, discovered that 
 the pursuit of politics was having a disastrous effect 
 upon her husband's circumstances. " I am more than 
 ever convinced," she wrote to him in 1790, "we must 
 look to other resources for wealth and independence, and 
 consider politics merely as an amusement." The theatre 
 suffered from the scanty time that Sheridan was able to 
 bestow upon it, and the chance of Fox's return to power 
 became more and more remote. But when Sheridan 
 resolved on embracing a political career the prospects of 
 the Whigs were far rosier. Lord North's star was obviously 
 setting, Pitt's had not yet risen, and the Opposition were 
 confident of a speedy return to office. Everything com- 
 bined to urge him to lay down his pen, and mount the 
 hustings. 
 
 Youth is generally in antagonism to the powers that 
 be. Besides, Sheridan's political friendships were chiefly 
 among the assailants of Lord North's ministry. He had 
 formed the acquaintance of Mr. Windham at Bath ; he 
 met Burke at the Turk's Head Club, and the intimacy 
 was continued at the Literary Club. To Fox he was 
 introduced by Lord John Townshend, and a mutual 
 admiration ensued. It would be interesting if we could 
 fix the date of the acquaintances. But it is impossible to 
 do so with exactitude. So far back as August, 1777, we 
 find Lord Camden writing to Garrick that Fox had 
 marked Sheridan down as the first genius of his time. 
 Fox must presumably have arrived at the conclusion after 
 their first interview, from which he rose with the remark 
 
94 LIFE OF 
 
 that he had always thought Hare, after Charles Town- 
 shend, the wittiest man he ever met with, but that 
 Sheridan surpassed them both infinitely. Under these 
 auspices his pen was readily enlisted on the side of the 
 Opposition. Of his earlier efforts, however, an answer to 
 Dr. Johnson's u Taxation no Tyranny," perished stillborn, 
 and an " Essay on Irish Absentees " never advanced 
 beyond a rough draft. He now became a contributor to 
 The Englishman, a periodical in which Lord North's 
 administration was held up to the scorn and opprobrium 
 of mankind. Like most men of Irish extraction, Sheri- 
 dan was a born journalist, and a paper in which the 
 Premier was compared to the "most poor, credulous 
 monster " of " The Tempest " may possibly have annoyed 
 even Lord North's amiability, though it is equally possible 
 that he did not take the trouble to read the lampoon. 
 
 Election to Brookes's Club, effected, if Wraxall . may 
 be trusted, in spite of the determined blackballing of 
 George Selwyn and Lord Bessborough, converted Sheri- 
 dan into a full-blown Whig, and at the general election 
 of 1780 he was returned for Stafford. At the same time 
 William Wilberforce was returned for Hull ; and William 
 Pitt, after unsuccessfully canvassing Cambridge, was 
 brought in shortly afterwards for Appleby. It is well 
 known that Sheridan's maiden speech was something 
 like a failure, but his depression was of short duration, 
 and he anticipated young Benjamin Disraeli by exclaiming 
 to Woodfall, " It is in me, however, and, by God, it shall 
 come out." However, he seems to have recognized that 
 the House was not to be taken by storm, and for several 
 sessions intervened but rarely in debate. Indeed his 
 
SHERIDAN. 95 
 
 position was none of the most encouraging. He had no 
 powerful borough-monger at his back, and his connection 
 with the stage was resented by more than one member 
 of that fastidious assembly. Thus Mr. Courtenay, " Lord 
 No th's deputy buffoon," accused him of not being able 
 to endure wit in any house except his own ; and even 
 after he had been advanced to ministerial rank, a young 
 prig named William Pitt, recommended him to confine 
 his abilities to their proper stage sui plausu gaudere 
 tluatri. The reply was wonderfully happy. 
 
 " Flattered and encouraged by the Right Honourable Gentleman's 
 panegyric on my talents, if ever I again engage in the composition 
 he alludes to, I may be tempted to an act of presumption to 
 attempt an improvement on one of Ben Jonson's best characters, 
 the character of the Angry Boy in the Alchemist.'" 
 
 Compelled to fight mainly for his own hand, Sheridan 
 won his way by what Wraxall terms " a sort of fascina- 
 tion." To an insuperable command of temper was added 
 that rare style of wit which is always appropriate and 
 never offensive. Though nearly every sitter on the 
 Government benches was exposed in turn to the sting of 
 his satire, none of them ever had an excuse for calling 
 him out. How, for instance, could a luckless pedant 
 pick a quarrel with Sheridan when he began his reply to 
 a speech full of classical quotations with Tbv tf'a7ro/m- 
 j8o/fvoc Trpoa'ttpi] Sheridanios vp^c ? x 
 
 1 This version of the story has the authority of De Quincey 
 ("Selections Grave and Gay," vol. ii. p. 41). Another version is 
 that when the speaker, Lord Belgrave, had finished, Sheridan rose 
 and declared that if the noble Lord had proceeded a little further 
 and completed the quotation, he would have seen that it pointed 
 
96 LIFE OF 
 
 Though Sheridan took but little part in the debates on 
 American affairs, which were the chief topic of discussion 
 during the last years of Lord North's luckless ministry, 
 he rapidly became an important member of the Whig 
 party. In 1781 he was chosen to propose a motion 
 against the employment of the military in the suppression 
 of the Gordon Riots; and in the following year, when 
 Lord North finally succumbed, was appointed Under- 
 
 the other way. He then proceeded to rattle off, ore rotund 0, a 
 sentence of bogus Greek, the ais and ois of which completely took in 
 Lord Belgrave, the House, and even Charles Fox, excellent scholar 
 though he was. The second story is evidently an exaggeration of 
 the first, and it may be that all that really happened was that Lord 
 Belgrave misquoted, and Sheridan set him right. This view is 
 borne out by some lines of Sheridan's, communicated to Notes and 
 Queries of April, 1S63, by " B.S.," evidently a member of the 
 Sheridan family. They will be readily recognized as part of the 
 series in which occurs the well-known verse 
 
 : Johnny Wilkes, Johnny Wilkes, 
 Thou greatest of bilks," &c. 
 
 The lines arc 
 
 " Lord Belgrave, Lord Belgrave, 
 Why look you so h-llgrave, 
 And why do you seldom now speak ? 
 Have the damned Sunday papers 
 Giv'n your Lordship the vapours (a) 
 Or are you revising your Greek, 
 
 Lord Belgrave, 
 Or are you revising your Greek ? " {b) 
 
 (a) Vide his Lordship's methodistical language in support of Mr. 
 Wil her force's motion to suppress the Sunday papers. 
 
 {!>) See Debrett's reports of a celebrated Greek misquotation of 
 his Lordship's. 
 
SHERIDAN. 97 
 
 Secretary of State to his friend Fox. He had, however, 
 but little chance of distinguishing himself before the 
 death of the Prime Minister, the Marquis of Rocking- 
 ham, broke up the administration. When Lord Shel- 
 burne, " the Jesuit of Berkeley Square," accepted the 
 office of first Lord of the Treasury, for which he had 
 long been intriguing, Sheridan followed Fox into oppo- 
 sition. The step was a most disinterested one on the 
 part of a iesser placeman, inasmuch as the majority of 
 the Cabinet adhered to Shelburne, but Sheridan summed 
 up the situation in a bright sentence : " Those who go are 
 right, for there is really no other question but whether, 
 having lost their power, they ought to stay and lose their 
 characters." Unfortunately for their credit, the friends 
 of Mr. Fox were not content to form an isolated Oppo- 
 sition, but, throwing themselves into the arms of Lord 
 North, formed that coalition against Lord Shelburne 
 upon which the verdict of history is one of merited, if 
 somewhat exaggerated, condemnation. To Sheridan's 
 sound common sense a union of parties, made in defiance 
 of public opinion and past professions, seemed a pro- 
 ceeding fraught with danger, and he expostulated with 
 his headstrong leader. " It is as fixed," was Fox's reply, 
 "as the Flanover succession." 1 
 Nothing but success, as Fox owned, could justify the 
 
 1 Lord John Townshend, writing many years afterwards, i.e., in 
 1830, declared that Sheridan was most anxious for the Coalition, and 
 that it was not until it failed that he began to declaim against it 
 (Lord John Russell's " Memorials and Correspondence of C. J. 
 Fox," vol. ii. p. 24). The tone of Sheridan's speeches, however, 
 during his tenure of office supports the view taken in the text that 
 ii, if the versions given by Wraxall can be relied upon. 
 
 7 
 
98 LIFE OF 
 
 Coalition, and success was not to be theirs. At first, 
 however, they seemed practically invincible, and Sheridan, 
 now Secretary to the Treasury, rendered them valuable 
 service in debate through his readiness of tongue. " He 
 improved daily in speech," wrote Horace Walpole, 
 11 turning all the Opposition said into excellent ridicule, 
 and always brought the House into good humour with 
 the Ministers." There seems to have been some sort of 
 promise that on the first re-arrangement of the Cabinet, 
 he should be made Chancellor of the Exchequer ; but 
 whatever hopes he may have cherished were cut short 
 when the king, taking advantage of the clamour excited 
 by Fox's India Bill, induced the House of Lords by a 
 personal canvass to throw out the obnoxious measure, 
 and then ordered the ministers to deliver up their seals 
 of office. The rout of the Opposition at the general 
 election, which followed Pitt's assumption of power in the 
 teeth of a Parliamentary majority, was complete. Sheridan 
 however managed to escape being one of " Fox's 
 Martyrs," after expending over two thousand pounds on 
 his election, with items ale tickets, ^40 ; subscription 
 to clergymen's widows, ^2 2s. 
 
 In the Parliament of 1784, Pitt was entirely master of 
 the situation. Nearly 160 of the Opposition failed to 
 re-appear, and on the new India Bill Mr. Fox only 
 obtained a minority of 60 against a majority of 271. 
 With a caution beyond his years the Prime Minister 
 refrained from pressing heroic measures upon his sup- 
 porters, who were for the most part reactionaries of the 
 type of Mr. Rolle, the hero of the " Rolliad," and during 
 the next few sessions schemes of financial reform, cau- 
 
SHERIDAN. 99 
 
 tiously conceived and modestly introduced, were the topics 
 of discussion. Sheridan, on the strength of his experience 
 as Secretary to the Treasury, was put forward as the 
 Opposition critic. Though Moore retails a somewhat 
 absurd story about his qualifying himself for the post of 
 honour by four days' study of arithmetic, there is no real 
 reason why Sheridan should not have been quite as 
 competent an authority on money matters as any other 
 of Fox's followers, with the exception of Burke. 
 Ignorance of finance was supreme on the Opposition 
 benches. Fox himself confessed that he did not know 
 why the Funds went up or down, and Lord John Caven- 
 dish, who had presided over the Exchequer in the 
 Rockingham and Coalition ministries, was, for the time 
 being, out of Parliament. Such criticism as Sheridan 
 could offer, however, was practically valueless. He 
 played round questions rather than attacked them 
 directly, and failed alike to detect the merits of the 
 commercial treaty with France, or the demerits of the 
 sinking fund. At the same time he very nearly exposed 
 the fallacy upon which that famous expedient was 
 founded. Pitt, he declared, might say with the person 
 in the comedy, " If you won't lend me the money, how 
 can I pay you?" Even more shortsighted was the 
 support given by him to the clamour raised by the 
 English merchants against Pitt's measure for establishing 
 commercial equality between England and Ireland. 
 Sheridan loved his country, but his advocacy of her 
 interests was not always well-advised. It was that of a 
 fighting politician, not of a statesman. 
 
 As a relief to dull debates on financial and adminis- 
 
100 LIFE OF 
 
 trative reform, came in 1786 the impeachment of Warren 
 Hastings. The indictment of the ex-Governor-General, 
 as every schoolboy knows, had long been determined 
 upon by Burke ; it was precipitated by the indiscretion 
 of Hastings' supporter, Major Scott. In April the charges 
 were laid before the House, and the leaders of the 
 Opposition proceeded to show cause for moving for an 
 impeachment. After Burke had dealt with the Rohilla 
 War, and Fox with Cheyte Singh, came the prorogation. 
 Of the merits of that great and intricate case it is un- 
 necessary to say further here than that in spite of much 
 exaggeration on the part of Hastings' accusers, there can 
 be no doubt that on more than one point they proved 
 their charges up to the hilt. Yet Hastings saved an 
 empire by his exactions from the native princes, and if 
 ever the end justified the means, it did so in his case. 
 However, such considerations are only too apt to go to 
 the wall when a question is made one of party, and so 
 far as Sheridan was concerned it is only due to him to 
 say that of all the gravamina laid at the Governor- 
 General's door, his conduct towards the Begums of 
 Oude is the least defensible. This charge Sheridan 
 made his own, and on February 7, 1787, delivered a 
 speech which was universally regarded as one of the 
 most magnificent displays of oratory that had ever been 
 exhibited. 1 
 
 1 It is perhaps unnecessary to point out, at this time of day, the 
 thorough wrong-headedness of Macaulay's conception of Hastings' 
 character. The authentic materials for a dispassionate examination 
 of his wonderful administration have now been given to the world by 
 Mr. G. W. Forrest, in his " Selections from State Papers, preserved 
 in the Foreign Department of the Government of India, 1 772-1 785." 
 
SHERIDAN. 101 
 
 It would of course be absurd to suppose that Sheridan 
 in his indictment of Hastings was animated by the pious, 
 though Quixotic, zeal of Burke, or by Fox's generous, 
 if misguided, enthusiasm for humanity. Still it would 
 be equally unjust to assume that he regarded the Begum 
 charge simply as an opportunity for display, or that he 
 was not inspired by something better than a mere 
 advocate's enthusiasm. It is true that during the .pre- 
 paration of Fox's India Bill, he had wished.*!}^ ijt should 
 not be made retrospective in any of \li clauses, and .had., 
 gone so far as to inquire of Major- Scrjiti,, .Hast'mgsN 
 champion in the House, whether, if the Governor-General 
 were recalled, he would come home. But it is more 
 than probable that, indolent as he naturally was, Sheridan 
 at that date had only partially acquainted himself with 
 the facts of Hastings' administration. Be that as it 
 may, there can be no doubt that he seized the occasion 
 of the Begum speech with admirable dexterity. Pitt's 
 sudden change of front after Fox's speech on the wrongs 
 of Cheyte Singh had practically given Hastings over 
 to the enemy, and Sheridan spoke to an audience which 
 was more than willing to hear him. But he made the 
 impeachment inevitable. Unfortunately the speech was 
 so badly reported, that it may be said to have perished. 
 The only passage in which even a faint echo of Sheridan's 
 eloquence is preserved, is the following description of 
 the East India Company : 
 
 " Alike in the political and military line could be observed auc- 
 tioneering ambassadors and trading generals and thus we saw a 
 revolution brought about by affidavits ; an army employed in 
 
102 LIFE OF 
 
 executing an arrest ; a town besieged on a note of hand ; a prince 
 dethroned for the balance of an account. Thus they exhibited a 
 government, which united the mock majesty of a bloody sceptre, 
 and the little traffic of a merchant's counting-house, wielding a 
 truncheon with one hand, and picking a pocket with the other." 
 
 But if we have not the speech, we know at any rate 
 how it was received. He sat down not merely amidst 
 cheering, but amidst the loud clapping of hands, in 
 which the Lords below the bar and the strangers in the 
 gallery joined, and the excitement was so great that the 
 debate had to be adjourned. Such was the effect upon 
 the public that within four-and-twenty hours he was 
 offered a thousand pounds for the copyright of the speech 
 if he would himself correct it for the press. Possibly 
 from indolence, but more probably from motives of 
 discretion, Sheridan did not avail himself of the offer. 
 The opinion of highly competent judges fully endorsed 
 that of the public. Burke declared it to be " the most 
 astonishing effort of eloquence, argument, and wit united 
 of which there was any record or tradition." Mr. Fox 
 said '* all that he had ever heard, all that he had ever 
 read, dwindled into nothing, and vanished like vapour 
 before the sun." And Mr. Pitt acknowledged "that it 
 surpassed all the eloquence of ancient or modern times, 
 and possessed everything that genius or art could furnish, 
 to agitate or control the human mind." 
 
 The impeachment of Hastings resolved upon, Sheridan 
 was appointed one of the managers. So high was the 
 general expectation that Fox recommended him to repeat 
 his former speech with very little change. But Sheridan 
 had other views. Though there was some difficulty in 
 
SHERIDAN. 103 
 
 getting him to attend the committees, he had every 
 intention of making a supreme effort, and, aided by his 
 wife, prepared his evidence with the utmost care. When 
 the time came, he was equal to the occasion, and for 
 three days (June 3rd, 6th, and 10th, 1788) that audience 
 in Westminster Hall, which Macaulay has described in an 
 immortal passage, hung upon his lips. Fortunately we have 
 the speech, edited by Dr. Bond, the late principal librarian 
 of the British Museum, from the shorthand reporter's 
 notes, almost in its entirety, and it is quite possible to form 
 a fair idea of its merits and demerits. To look upon 
 Sheridan as a mere rhetorician would of course be the 
 last degree of absurdity. On the contrary, the result of 
 a perusal of the whole speech is an impression of logical 
 arrangement, close reasoning, and carefully selected 
 evidence. No barrister could have marshalled the facts 
 with a more critical sense of their legal effect; no 
 solicitor could have got up the case with a keener eye 
 to discrepancies in dates, or to the difference in tone 
 between the public and private letters of Hastings and 
 his officers. Nor were the elaborate bursts of pre- 
 pared eloquence mere purpurei panni ; they appear, 
 on the contrary, to arise naturally from what has gone 
 before, though it is true that they can be detached from 
 the argument without materially affecting it. To attempt 
 a summary of Sheridan's argument here would be impos- 
 sible, and all that can be done is to give one or two 
 specimens of his most finished periods, and even so we 
 must exclude the highly-wrought description of the zenana. 
 Hastings claimed that he was actuated by state ne- 
 cessity ; upon which Sheridan said : 
 
104 LIFE OF 
 
 " My Lords, ... I want to strip the crimes which we charge upon 
 this man of all that false glare which, in the eyes of weak and timid 
 men, dazzle and produce a sort of false respect to guilt. I want to 
 strip them of everything that can give dignity to crimes. I want to 
 show your Lordships the coarse and homely nature of his offences. 
 State necessity ! No, my Lords ; that imperial tyrant, state neces- 
 sity, is yet a generous despot. Bold is his demeanour, rapid his 
 decisions, and terrible his grasp. But what he does, my Lords, 
 he dares avow, and, avowing, scorns any other justification than the 
 great motives that placed the iron sceptre in his hand. But a 
 skulking, quibbling, pilfering, prevaricating state necessity a state 
 necessity that tries to skulk behind the skirts of justice a state 
 necessity that tries to steal a pitiful justification from whispered 
 accusations and fabricated rumours ! No, my Lords, that is no state 
 necessity. Tear off the mask, and you see coarse, vulgar avarice 
 lurking behind the gaudy disguise, and adding the guilt of libelling 
 the public honour to the fraud of private peculation." 
 
 And here are Sheridan's reflections on the desolation 
 of Bengal occasioned by the rapacity of the Company's 
 officers : 
 
 M If your Lordships look over the evidence, you will see a country 
 that, even in the time of Suja-ud-Dowla, is represented as populous 
 desolated . A person looking at this shocking picture of calamity 
 would have been inclined to ask, if he had been a stranger to what 
 had passed in India if we could suppose a person to have come 
 suddenly into the country, unacquainted with any of the circum- 
 stances that had passed since the days of Suja-ud-Dowla he would 
 naturally ask, ' What cruel hand has wrought this wide desolation ? 
 What barbarian foe has invaded the country, has desolated its fields, 
 depopulated its villages ? ' He would ask, ' What disputed succes- 
 sion, what civil rage, what mad frenzy of the inhabitants, has 
 induced them to act in hostility to the beneficent works of God and 
 the beauteous works of man? ' He would ask, What religious zeal 
 or frenzy has added to the mad despair and horrors of war ? The 
 ruin is unlike anything that appears recorded in any age. It looks 
 
105 
 
 neither like the barbarities of men nor the judgment of vin\iMirfe^, O*^ ' 
 Heaven. There is a waste of desolation, as if caused by>feHV*V , 
 destroyers never meaning to return, and who made but a short 
 period of their rapacity. It looks as if some fabled monster had 
 made its passage through the country, whose pestiferous breath has 
 blasted more than its voracious appetite could devour.' 
 
 " If there had been any men in the country who had not their 
 heart and soul so subdued by fear as to refuse to speak the truth at 
 all upon such a subject, they would have told him that there had 
 been no war since the time of Suja-ud-Dowla tyrant indeed as he 
 was, but then deeply regretted by his subjects ; that no hostile 
 blow of any enemy had been struck in that land ; that there had 
 been no disputed succession, no civil war, no religious frenzy ; but 
 that these were the tokens of British friendship, the marks of the 
 embraces of British alliance more dreadful than the blows of the 
 bitterest enemy. That they had made a prince a slave, to make 
 him the principal in the extortion upon his subjects. They would 
 tell him that their rapacity increased in proportion as the means of 
 supplying their avarice diminished. They made their sovereign pay 
 as if they had a right to an increased price, because the labour of 
 extortion and plunder increased. They would tell him that it was 
 to these causes these calamities were owing. . . . 
 
 "And then I am asked to prove why these people arose in such 
 concert. There must have been machinations, and the Begums' 
 machinations, to produce this ; there was concert. Why did they 
 rise ? Because they were people in human shape ; the poor souls 
 had human feelings. Because patience under the detested tyranny 
 of man is rebellion to the sovereignty of God. Because allegiance 
 to that Power that gives us the forms of men commands us to 
 maintain the rights of men. And never yet was this truth dismissed 
 from the human heart never, in any time, in any age never in any 
 clime where rude men ever had any social feeling, or where corrupt 
 refinement had subdued all feeling never was this unextinguishable 
 truth destroyed from the heart of man, placed in the core and centre 
 of it by its Maker, that man was not made the property of man ; 
 that human power is a trust for human benefit ; and that, where it is 
 abused, revenge is justice, if not the duty of the injured. These, 
 my Lords, are the causes why these people rose." 
 
106 LIFE OF 
 
 Here is one of Sheridan's elaborate sarcasms : 
 
 "I beg your Lordships to observe that the committee appointed 
 to draw up the charges for the Commons had at that time regularly 
 recapitulated every one of the cruelties, the severities, and [had 
 dealt with] the famished state of the Khourd Mahal. Upon that 
 recapitulation Mr. Hastings states he had had full and perfect 
 explanation ; and then, having had that explanation, he makes this 
 concluding remark : ' Because I hold the whole series of the acts 
 thus connected strictly reconcilable to justice, honour, and good 
 policy, whoever were the parties concerned in them.' Now, my 
 Lords, recollect, I beseech you, the information we had from Major 
 Scott, the incomparable agent of Mr. Hastings, relative to this 
 passage. You will recollect that this incomparable Major Scott told 
 you at your Bar that after the defence had been finished that after 
 Mr. Hastings had approved of it Mr. Hastings added this paragraph 
 with his proper hand. He seems to have said to Mr. Middleton, 
 ' You have done well indeed in owning these transactions. You 
 have done what I expected from you. You have acted up to that 
 character in your celebrated letter from Lucknow, when you offered, 
 God willing' and never had a man more reason to trust in the 
 connivance of God for awhile to wickedness than this agent had 
 1 that you were ready, God willing, not only to do anything, but to 
 take the share of any blame upon yourself. You have done well, 
 my trusty agent, in this ; but you have not defended the acts you 
 have not said that they were defensible by justice or policy. Give 
 me the paper, puny profligate ! My conscience is light ; my character 
 will bear it out. I will claim merit and applause from them. I will 
 state that they were reconcilable to honour, justice, and policy' 
 by policy I presume he means that wise and just policy which con- 
 ducts good actions to a wise and good end. This seems the dialogue 
 between him and Middleton. Mr. Middleton doubtless extends the 
 compliment. ' I will own everything. You find character ; I'll 
 find memory' and memory is his forte. ' You bear the sword ; 171 
 carry the shield.' And forth these twin warriors sally to encounter 
 the justice and indignation of their country." 
 
SHERIDAN, 107 
 
 The celebrated outburst on filial piety ran as follows: 
 
 "And yet, my Lords, how can I support the claim of filial love 
 by argument, much less the affection of a son to a mother, where 
 love loses its awe, and veneration is mixed with tenderness ? What 
 can I say upon such a subject ? What can I do but repeat the ready 
 truths which, with the quick impulse of the mind, must spring t the 
 lips of every man on such a theme ? Filial love the morality, the 
 instinct, the sacrament of nature a duty; or, let me say, it is mis- 
 called a duty, for it flows from the heart without effort its delight 
 its indulgence, its enjoyment. It is guided not by the slow dictates 
 of reason ; it awaits not encouragement from reflection or from 
 thought ; it asks no aid of memory ; it is an innate but active 
 consciousness of having been the object of a thousand tender soli- 
 citudes ; a thousand waking watchful cares, of much anxiety and 
 patient sacrifices unremarked and unrequited by the object. It 
 is a gratitude founded upon a conviction of obligations not re- 
 membered, but the more binding because not remembered 
 because conferred before the tender reason could acknowledge or the 
 infant memory record them a gratitude and affection which no 
 circumstances should subdue, and which few can strengthen a 
 gratitude in which even injury from the object, though it may 
 blend regret, should never breed resentment and an affection 
 which can be increased only by the decay of those to whom we 
 owe it then most fervent when the tremulous voice of age, resist- 
 less in its feebleness, inquires for the natural protectors of its cold 
 decline." 
 
 When Sheridan, at the close of a brilliant peroration, 
 sank as though exhausted into the arms of Burke an 
 excellent piece of theatrical business it was felt by 
 more than one critic that, rare though the display had 
 been, it had fallen short of the speech in the House of 
 Commons. Burke indeed exclaimed to Fox, " There, 
 that is the true style ; something between poetry and 
 prose, and better than either." But Fox retorted with 
 
108 LIFE OF 
 
 sense " Such a mixture is for the advantage of neither, 
 as producing poetic prose, or, still worse, prosaic poetry." 
 Indeed, the opinion of many competent judges was that 
 the style was too glittering and too artificial, and that 
 with less labour a more satisfactory, if less splendid, 
 result would have been forthcoming. Horace Walpole 
 thought that Sheridan did not " quite satisfy the passionate 
 expectation that had been raised, but it was impossible 
 that he should, when people had worked themselves into 
 an enthusiasm of offering fifty guineas for a ticket to 
 hear him." Lord Grenville, who heard both speeches, 
 pronounced the second vastly inferior to the first. 
 Similarly, during the House of Common's speech, Sir 
 Gilbert Elliot (Lord Minto) recorded that " the bone 
 rose repeatedly in his throat, and tears in his eyes." 
 Cut at the close of the first day's speech in Westminster 
 Hall, he remarked, with much acuteness, that "Sheridan's 
 flowers are produced by great pains, skill, and prepara- 
 tion, and are delivered in perfect order, tied up in 
 regular though beautiful bouquets^ and quite unlike 
 Burke's wild and natural nosegays. I think in this 
 respect that Sheridan's excellence becomes perversely a 
 sort of defect; for the fine periods and passages are 
 so salient from the rest, are so finished, and bear so 
 strongly the evidence of regular and laborious composi- 
 tion produced by premeditation and delivered by 
 memory, as to give the whole performance a character 
 of design and artificial execution which keeps the author 
 rather than his work, the orator than his speech, before 
 you, which draws the attention away from the purpose to 
 the performance^ and which can at most exercise the 
 
SHERIDAN. 109 
 
 wonder and admiration of his audience, leaving both 
 their passions and their judgment unaffected." 
 
 These remarks on a particular speech may be supple- 
 mented by a criticism of a more general character, 
 which is to be found in the " Reminiscences " of Charles 
 Butler, the legal writer and Catholic apologist. " Sheri- 
 dan," he says, " required great preparation for the 
 display of his talents : hence he was not a debater one 
 who attacks and defends on every occasion that calls 
 him forth. ... But though Mr. Sheridan was no 
 debater, he was sometimes most felicitous in an epi- 
 grammatic reply. He had very little information ; 
 had even little classical learning j but the powers of 
 his mind were very great. He had a happy vein of 
 ridicule he could, however, rise to the serious and 
 severe and then his style of speaking was magnificent ; 
 but even in his happiest effusions he had too much 
 prettiness." 
 
 Add to these qualities a commanding rather than 
 handsome presence, a hazel eye of remarkable penetra- 
 tion, and a voice which, if sometimes indistinct, as on 
 the first day of the Westminster Hall speech, was, as a 
 rule, sonorous and rich, an utterance of extraordinary 
 fluency, and we have Sheridan the orator before us so 
 far as it is possible to recall him now. Of the four great 
 speakers of the time and it was an age of Parliamentary 
 eloquence which will bear comparison with any that have 
 preceded or succeeded it Sheridan was certainly the 
 most effective. In wit he surpassed all his contem- 
 poraries, and he avoided alike the natural redundancy 
 of Fox, and the deliberate diffusiveness of Pitt, of 
 
11Q LIFE OF 
 
 whose monotonous declamation he aptly remarked, 
 "that his was a brain that never worked but when his 
 tongue was set agoing, like some machines that are set 
 in motion by. a pendulum." Equally true is his estimate 
 of the permanent value of the utterances of his great 
 rival Burke. "What will they think ot the public 
 speaking of this age in after-times when they read Mr. 
 Burke's speeches, and are told that in his day he was 
 not accounted either the first or the second speaker?" 
 It is clear that Sheridan foresaw the time when Burke's 
 philosophy would be a permanent source of political 
 wisdom, w r hile his own eloquence had become a voice 
 and little more. Perhaps he did not greatly care for 
 the opinion of posterity, and was content to win the 
 applause of his hearers by his music, suavity, and 
 lucidity, while Burke's harsh Irish accent, irritability, 
 and profundity, annoyed and puzzled them. Nor can 
 it be denied that from the practical point of view he was 
 entirely right. Speeches are nominally made to win votes, 
 and Sheridan is one of the very few speakers who have 
 been able to alter materially the numbers on a division. 
 
 He aimed at the ayumo-jua ig to Trapa^/y^a, not the KTrijia 
 
 ig dtt, and he had his reward. His methods of prepara- 
 tion were conducive to that end. Burke the statesman 
 prepared his argument with care, and trusted to the 
 inspiration of the moment for his illustrations. Sheridan 
 the rhetorician, spent enormous labour on his ornaments, 
 polishing his own wit, and occasionally pressing that of 
 others into service, and having once mastered the facts, 
 left the argument to be supplied by his innate common- 
 sense. He treasured up his figures from similar motives. 
 
SHERIDAN. Ill 
 
 If a good phrase could not be used in one debate, he 
 kept it until it could be employed with effect in another. 
 But though he had a store of prepared epigrams on 
 hand, his impromptu sallies were fully as good as his 
 prepared witticisms. A perusal of his great speech in 
 Westminster Hall impresses one with the conviction 
 that he was, like all the orators of the past century, 
 with the exception of Burke, to be heard rather than 
 read. If he had prepared an edition of his speeches 
 for the press, his readers might have been tempted to 
 venture upon the converse proposition \o Fox's true 
 paradox, and say, "They read badly, then they were 
 good speeches." Sheridan was content that their good- 
 ness should have been established by the unanimous 
 verdict of his contemporaries, and has considerately 
 spared us the trouble of deciding whether his speeches 
 read well or badly. 
 
 Of the amount of preparation which he bestowed 
 on a great effort we have evidence in the little memoir 
 by Professor Smyth. On May 14, 1794, Sheridan was 
 called upon to reply to Hastings' counsel. Though he 
 had gone over the ground before, and intended to be 
 comparatively brief, he worked for four days and the 
 greater part of four nights at the papers, " until the 
 motes were coming into his eyes." The speech itself 
 deals with minute points of evidence, and is a monu- 
 ment of ingenuity rather than of eloquence. It is 
 chiefly remembered because of the practical joke played 
 by Sheridan on his audience, in causing an elaborate 
 search to be made for a bag full of papers which had 
 no existence, with the evident intention of astonishing 
 
112 LIFE OP SHERIDAN. 
 
 them with the readiness of his resources. But it also 
 contains a dignified rebuke to Hastings' counsel, Mr. 
 Plumer, who had accused Sheridan of attempting to 
 delude a witness by handing him a wrong treaty, and, 
 taken as a whole, forms no unworthy conclusion to 
 Sheridan's speeches on the impeachment. As specimens 
 of partisan oratory and they are essentially partisan 
 those speeches rank among the masterpieces of human 
 eloquence. It is a pity that they do not display some 
 slight appreciation of the necessities of empire. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 IF the immortals are liable to human emotions, they 
 must groan rather than smile over the monuments 
 raised to their memory by the " standard " biographer. 
 And it is not easy to recall any one who has been in 
 this respect more unfortunate than Sheridan. Not that 
 Moore is altogether to be blamed for the inadequacy of 
 the record that he has left us. His acquaintance with 
 Sheridan was but slight, and dated only from the period 
 of his decline when he was expiring a show, indeed, 
 though assuredly not a driveller. Nor, though he seems 
 to have taken some pains to collect information from 
 those who had known Sheridan in his prime, do their 
 reminiscences seem to have been particularly valuable. 
 Again, one can well understand that a person of 
 Sheridan's habits would not leave behind him a very 
 complete or carefully arranged collection of pieces justi- 
 ficativeS) though it is quite possible that Moore might 
 have examined them more carefully than he did. He 
 seems, indeed, to have become tired of the undertaking 
 very soon, and to have hurried over the concluding part 
 in a perfunctory manner. Lastly, as regards Sheridan's 
 political career, Moore wrote too soon after his death 
 to be able to tell the whole truth about one important 
 side of it, his relations with George IV., and was himself 
 
114 LIFE OF 
 
 too much of a partisan to deal fairly with many of its 
 passages; for instance, his conduct on the outbreak of 
 the French Revolution. In fact, if Moore had spent 
 less time in padding out the book with windy Whig 
 apologies, and more time in informing himself, about 
 prosaic questions like names and dates, his performance 
 would have been far more satisfactory. Lord Melbourne, 
 who was already in the field as Sheridan's biographer, 
 when Moore undertook the task, is known to have 
 expressed a regret that he yielded up his claims and 
 materials to the professional writer. 1 Still more must 
 
 ^ posterity lament that Sheridan's accomplished grand- 
 daughter, Mrs. Norton, never carried out her intention 
 of giving to the world some final account of the most 
 talented member of a talented race. 
 
 Little light is thrown on Moore's darkness by 
 
 ^\ Sheridan's other biographers. Dr .Jffintkins' life, which 
 appeared before Moore's, is a mere scissors and paste 
 affair. It contains no original information, and is written 
 from an avowedly Tory standpoint, with a considerable 
 spice of gratuitous malice, such as the insinuation that 
 Sheridan was not the author of "The School for 
 Scandal." The memoir of Professor Smyth, who was 
 tutor to his son, Tom Sheridan, deals only with the 
 \ period subsequent to the death of his first wife, when 
 Sheridan had begun to go down-hill. It contains some 
 interesting anecdotes about his private life, and not a 
 little malevolent gossip, for which the professor was 
 severely taken to task by Mrs. Norton. The anonymous 
 Octogenarian, who professed to have been brought up 
 1 Mrs. Norton in Macmillaris Magazine^ vol. iii. 
 
SHERIDAN. 115 
 
 at Sheridan's knee, dished up some stale anecdotes about 
 the Prince of Wales, and evidently, as Sheridan would 
 have said, "relied on his imagination for his facts," if 
 not "on his memory for his wit." 
 
 An attempt, then, to form an estimate of Sheridan, 
 apart from his writings and speeches, can at best be 
 extremely imperfect. The man is a riddle. At times 
 he was guilty of extravagances which caused superficial 
 observers to set him down as a brilliant butterfly 
 without any thought for the morrow. Nor can there 
 be any doubt that the vice of ostentation was one of 
 his most salient failings ; he himself allowed he was 
 always in an extreme, and that he expected wings to 
 spring from his shoulders. Complaints of his vanity 
 occur again and again in Fox's letters in connection 
 with his political fortunes, whi'e in society Lord John 
 Townshend and Fitzpatrick used to declare that he 
 was jealous even of a pretty woman. But the recollec- 
 tions of Smyth, his son's tutor, and others who knew 
 him intimately, enable us to pronounce, with some con- y 
 ndence, that deep beneath a thoughtless exterior lay a 
 solitary and unhappy soul. His literary tastes are an 
 instance in point. Spenser, not Pope as we should 
 imagine, was his favourite poet, while of Dryden, of 
 whom he was also fond, the lines most frequently on 
 his lips were the melancholy passage from "Palamon 
 and Arcite." 
 
 " Vain men ! how vanishing a bliss we crave, 
 Now warm in love, now withering in the grave ; 
 Never, oh, never more to see the sun ; 
 Still dark, in a clamp vault, and still alone." 
 
116 LIFE OF 
 
 Add to these indications that he was a firm believer in 
 dreams and portents, and had a rooted dislike of meta- 
 
 ^ physical discussion. When his son tried to entangle 
 him in a debate on the doctrine of necessity, Sheridan 
 at once disproved its cardinal thesis, the impossibility of 
 indifference, by declaring that there was one thing which 
 he could do with total, entire, thorough indifference, 
 namely, listen to his questioner. He used to say, too, 
 that those were intolerably cruel, who, because they have 
 not the hopes and consolations of religion themselves, 
 can find in their heart to destroy them in others. If we 
 accept as genuine, as we surely may, these revelations 
 of Sheridan's inn"e^r~self, it is clear that the secret of his 
 reckless moods may well have been a desire to silence 
 
 < *the promptings of a gloomy and restless imagination. 
 In any case, he was in many respects so great, that his 
 memory deserves to be treated with reverence, not, as 
 has been before now the case, made the subject of cheap 
 and obvious satire. 
 
 Towards society Sheridan's attitude was peculiar, and 
 in many respects unique. It sought him quite as much 
 as he sought it ; he ranked as the equal of the great men 
 of his time, and would never have accepted for a moment 
 the situation of a mere dependent of the nobility, after- 
 wards occupied with much ostentation by his biographer 
 Moore. It is probable that he made his way through 
 the advocacy of the ladies, for instance, of Mrs. Crewe, to 
 whom he dedicated " The School for Scandal," and of 
 Mrs. Greville, whose accomplishments are celebrated in an / 
 admirably turned preface to " The Critic." Mrs. Sheridan* 
 won over the men. His devotion to so worthless a 
 
SHERIDAN. 117 
 
 patron as the Prince of Wales must be condemned with- 
 out reserve, and, as will be noticed later on, its effect 
 upon his own fortunes was lamentable in the extreme. 
 But so far as we know for the secrets of Carlton House 
 were well kept, and it is not quite clear what were the 
 services of a non-political nature which Sheridan 
 rendered to the Prince beyond those of a boon-com- 
 panion and amateur steward the connection was not 
 incompatible with a fair amount of self-respect on the 
 part of the servant. It is true that he allowed himself to 
 be mixed up in a dubious affair which abruptly terminated 
 the Prince of Wales' connection with Newmarket. In 
 1 791, Sam Chifney, the Prince's jockey, was accused of 
 pulling Escape on the first day of the October meeting, 
 in order to affect the betting on the next day's race, 
 which the horse was allowed to win. Sir Charles Bun- 
 bury was thereupon sent to warn the Prince that if 
 he continued to let Chifney ride for him no gentleman's 
 horse would start against him, and George, in high 
 dudgeon, broke up his stable and sedulously avoided the 
 heath. But his conduct was not incompatible with 
 innocence, and one does not see why Fox accused 
 Sheridan of want of principle when he acted as the 
 Prince's advocate before the Jockey Club. 1 Besides, 
 with the exception of an occasional loan, he incurred no 
 pecuniary obligations to George until towards the close 
 of their long acquaintance. Nor was he ever servile ; on 
 the contrary, he treated appointments at Carlton House 
 
 1 If, indeed, that was the occasion on which Sheridan appeared 
 as the Prince's advocate. The information on the point is rather 
 vasue. 
 
118 LIFE OF 
 
 with the same negligence as he treated those with Smyth, 
 or an impecunious dramatist. Even at his worst Sheridan 
 seems never to have wholly lost a fine sense of the 
 dignity of independence. 
 
 But if Sheridan did not truckle to the leaders of 
 society, he took more than his share in dissipations which 
 they could afford and he could not. The game was 
 barely worth the candle. It is true that he was not a 
 gambler, and he made his wild bets at Brookes's, as Pro- 
 fessor Minto has well remarked, during the period when he 
 was driven to extra recklessness by the death of his wife. 
 But his extravagant entertainments must have formed a 
 serious item in his embarrassments, and he persisted in 
 them long after his circumstances had become hopelessly 
 involved. Perhaps he felt that rumours of retrenchment 
 would only precipitate the crash. Again, his drinking 
 ' habits were notorious even in a drunken age, with serious 
 consequences to his character. Possibly there is not 
 much difference, from the standpoint of abstract morality, 
 between Pitt getting decorously fuddled on port, and 
 Sheridan becoming speechlessly "forrarder" on claret, and 
 latterly on brandy. But the practical bearing of their 
 potations on the fortunes of the two men will hardly bear 
 comparison. Pitt died Prime Minister, while Sheridan 
 died a pauper, just as the bibulous Pitt was incommoded 
 only by a shaking hand in private, while the convivial 
 Sheridan's purple face and blazing nose were the theme of 
 the Premier's witticisms in the House of Commons, and 
 the laughing-stock of many a hustings crowd. In short, 
 Pitt's indiscretions affected himself only, while Sheridan's 
 were something like a public calamity. 
 
SHERIDAN. 119 
 
 In spite of his over-devotion to the bottle, Sheridan's 
 company was the delight alike of London drawing-rooms 
 and of country-houses. Lord Holland tells us that 
 when he was in his prime nothing could exceed the 
 evenness of his temper, or the readiness with which he 
 made light of his embarrassments. He was above all 
 things a gentleman, urbane and full of consideration, 
 silent as a rule, except when he saw a chance of saying 
 something that was worth saying, and then he made his 
 effect with unerring certainty. So brilliant indeed were 
 his interpositions in conversation, that people used to 
 hint that they were prepared beforehand, and that the 
 attack was only delivered after a long course of elaborate 
 manoeuvres. It may have been so in some cases, but cer- 
 tainly not in all, though we have little means of judging. 
 Boswell sets down a conversation at the Club when Sheri- 
 dan was there, but he seems to have been repressed by the 
 presence of his elders. Fanny Burney met him at Mrs. 
 Cholmondeley's, in 1779, and recorded her impressions 
 at some length. But Sheridan's wit on this occasion con- 
 fined itself to the remark that ladies should not write 
 verses until they were past receiving them, and his time 
 was chiefly spent in paying elaborate compliments to the 
 delighted young authoress. Again, Windham noted in 
 his diary that he met Sheridan at Mrs. Crewe's in 1794, 
 after the split in the Whig party. M The charm of his 
 conversation," he wrote, " and the memory of past times 
 made me regret the differences that now separate us." 
 These indications of Sheridan at his best are vague 
 enough, and we must be content to accept the uni- 
 versal verdict of Sheridan's contemporaries without 
 
120 LIFE OF 
 
 seeking to inquire into its cause. Indeed, the isolated 
 specimens of his wit that survive are few, and quite 
 as disappointing as those of George Selwyn, Hare, or the 
 other brilliant talkers of the time. It was probably manner 
 rather than matter that gave point to such a remark as 
 " By the silence that prevails I conclude that Lauderdale 
 has been making a joke " ; or his reply to the same 
 friend's request to repeat one of his stories, " I must be 
 on my guard in future ; for a joke in your mouth is no 
 laughing matter." Rather better was his answer to the 
 elderly maiden lady who wished to take him for a walk 
 in doubtful weather "It has cleared up enough for one 
 but not enough for tivo ; " and the saying that a tax upon 
 milestones would be unconstitutional, " as they were a 
 race that could not meet to remonstrate." 
 
 This much at any rate seems clear, that Sheridan's 
 aim was to delight and amuse rather than to wound. 
 He was a man 
 
 " Whose humour, as gay as the fire- fly's light, 
 
 Played round every subject, and shone as it played, 
 Whose wit, in the combat as gentle as bright, 
 Ne'er carried a heart-stain away on its blade." 
 
 And in the same way his practical jokes in country- 
 houses were the sheer outcome of animal spirits, and on 
 the whole as innocent as his cricket with the children, 
 and as harmless as his Cockney attempts at shooting. 
 Fairly familiar specimens of them are his introduction of 
 a young farmer to Mrs. Crewe as his friend Joseph 
 Richardson, with the result that she was horrified at the 
 oddness of his manners and language; and the sermon 
 
SHERIDAN. 121 
 
 which he wrote for Mr. O'Beirne, afterwards a bishop, 
 and which, besides containing the unintentional blunder, 
 " It is easier for a camel, as Moses says," was nothing 
 less than a scathing comment on the penurious habits of 
 a member of the congregation. In his later years, when 
 past playing jokes himself, he was the inspiring spirit of 
 Charles Mathews' most famous mystifications. Practical 
 jokes formed indeed a prominent feature in Sheridan's 
 more intimate friendships, as Tickell discovered when he 
 pursued Sheridan into an ambuscade of crockery care- 
 fully prepared in a dark passage. Richardson he once 
 compelled to pay his cab fare by beckoning him into a 
 cab, entangling him in a violent disputation, and then 
 jumping out with the exclamation that he would not sit 
 any longer by the side of such a fellow. Another feature 
 in his friendships was li terary jealousy, for Sheridan was 
 not too scrupulous in laying claim to the best part of his 
 friends' work, and gravely assured Tierney that he had 
 written the greater portion of Tickell's pamphlet, "Anti- 
 cipation." Yet, though the relations between the two were 
 often strained, Sheridan on the suicide of Tickell, in 1793, 
 at once gave a home to his widow, 1 and provided for his 
 boys, sending one of them into the Navy, and procuring 
 for the other a situation in India, and this though he 
 was in great straits at the time. Ten years later, when 
 Joseph Richardson died, Sheridan arrived too late for the 
 funeral, but characteristically made up for the neglect by 
 persuading the clergyman to perform the ceremony over 
 again. With these two exceptions, however, Sheridan 
 
 1 Born Leigh. Tickell's first wife, who died in 1787, was a sister 
 of Mrs. Sheridan. 
 
122 LIFE OF 
 
 seems to have been a man of many acquaintances rather 
 than of many friends. Everybody knew him, but with 
 few people did he ever open out his heart. His connection 
 with Fox, Lord John Townshend, and Lord Lauderdale, 
 seems to have been prompted by political motives 
 quite as much as by the affections, and to have 
 waned when his devotion to Carlton House caused him 
 to act in opposition to the bulk of the Whig party. It 
 was characterized by that love of independence which 
 marked his relations with the Prince; he was never 
 a parasite, and never in the habit of sponging on his 
 associates. 
 
 Sheridan's dealings with his family were in many 
 respects admirable. He was a good son, and though his 
 father had treated him with harshness and caprice, his 
 efforts to win back the old man's heart were persevering, 
 and his attentions during his last illness unceasing. As 
 his brother and sisters lived mostly in Ireland, Sheridan 
 saw little of them, but their relations, thanks to the 
 industrious correspondence of Mrs. Sheridan, seem to 
 have been conducted on the most affectionate terms. As 
 to his married life, the evidence is rather inconclusive. 
 Mrs. Sheridan, beautiful, amiable, and natural, whom 
 even the licentious Wilkes declared to be the most lovely 
 flower that ever grew in nature's garden, seems to have 
 been thoroughly devoted to her husband's interests. She 
 acted as his political secretary and confidante, and 
 watched over the interests of the theatre. There she kept 
 an account of the receipts, read the new pieces sent in, 
 and besides helping him in the composition of "The 
 Duenna," is known to have adapted from the French 
 
SHERIDAN. 123 
 
 a spectacular piece called "Richard Coeur de Lion." 
 She may have been liable to be carried away by her own 
 and her husband's social success; but, on the whole, she 
 made Sheridan an excellent wife. Her letters are among 
 the most pleasant in Moore's book, and combine a good 
 deal of very excellent advice with much artless gaiety 
 and wholly spontaneous affection. This is how the pair 
 appeared to Fanny Burney in 1779 : 
 
 "The elegance of Mrs. Sheridan's beauty is unequalled by any 
 that I ever saw, except Mrs. Crewe. I was pleased with her in all 
 respects. She is much more lively and agreeable than I had any 
 idea of finding her ; she was very gay and unaffected and totally 
 free from airs of any kind. . . . Mr. Sheridan has a fine figure, 
 and a good, though I don't think a handsome, face. He is tall and 
 very upright, and his appearance and address are at once manly 
 and fashionable without the smallest tincture of foppery or modish 
 graces. In short, I like him vastly, and think him every way 
 worthy of his beautiful companion. And let me tell you what I 
 know will give you as much pleasure as it gave me, that, by all I 
 could observe in the course of the evening, and we stayed very late, 
 they are extremely happy in each other : he evidently adores her, 
 and she as evidently idolizes him. The world has by no means 
 done him justice." 
 
 Unfortunately this mutual idolatry was by no means 
 incompatible with numerous quarrels. They were alike 
 of a romantic and jealous disposition. And while it is 
 certain that on Mrs. Sheridan's side there was only too 
 much cause for tears and recriminations, Sheridan seems 
 to have been racked by suspicions which had no real 
 foundation notwithstanding the scandal that connected 
 his wife's name with that of Lord Edward Fitzgerald 
 and to have been indignant that while he took his 
 
124 LIFE OF 
 
 pleasures abroad she should have entertained a circle of 
 worshippers at home. Even in her happier moments 
 
 she wrote to her sister-in-law : "So Mrs. is not 
 
 happy j poor thing, I dare say, if the truth were known, 
 he teases her to death. Your very good husbands 
 generally contrive to make you sensible of their merit 
 somehow or other." With all his faults as a husband, 
 Sheridan loved her deeply, and was filled with remorse 
 during their temporary estrangements. " Could anything 
 bring back those first feelings ? " he used to say ; " Yes, 
 perhaps, the cottage in East Burnham might." But 
 there does not seem to have been anything like a 
 permanent coldness ; indeed the failure to appreciate so 
 charming a companion would have argued a vulgarity of 
 taste of which he was quite incapable. Sheridan pos- 
 sibly remembered a sentence in the Latin Grammar 
 " Amantinm irce, amoris integratio est " and acted upon 
 it. When, in spite of his constant devotion, she died of 
 consumption in 1792, his sorrow was prolonged and 
 violent. " The victory of the grave," he wrote, " is 
 sharper than the sting of death ; " and when shortly 
 after vvards the infant daughter followed the mother to the 
 tomb he was quite frantic with grief. 
 
 Of Sheridan's second marriage which, after a violent 
 flirtation with Pamela, the adopted daughter of Mme. 
 de Genlis, he contracted in 1795 w ^ tn Miss Ogle, 
 daughter of the Dean of Winchester, there is not much 
 to be said except that it may be described as an 
 exaggerated repetition of his first. He was then aged 
 forty-four and barely able to keep his head above water. 
 In Smyth's brief memoir of Sheridan is given an 
 
SHERIDAN. 125 
 
 animated picture of his restless and extravagant manner 
 of life immediately after the first Mrs. Sheridan's death, 
 of the three establishments kept up in various parts of 
 the country while he himself lived at an hotel, of the 
 livery-stables full of horses whose corn-bills were hope- 
 lessly in arrear, of a housekeeper without any money 
 to buy provisions, of a tutor without his salary. To 
 introduce order and economy into such a household 
 would have been a hopeless task for a young bride, and 
 certainly the second Mrs. Sheridan seems to have 
 thought that the attempt was not worth making. For, 
 except when provoked beyond measure by his irregu- 
 larities, she seems to have been content to regard him 
 with an uncritical admiration, as may be judged from 
 her remark "As to my husband's talents, I will not 
 say anything about them, but I will say that he is the 
 handsomest and honestest man in England." * Yet at 
 times she was severely tried. Thus Harness records 
 that he once discovered her walking up and down her 
 drawing-room in a frantic state of mind and calling her 
 husband a villain. After some hesitation she explained 
 the cause of her disorder. She had just discovered that 
 the love-letters written to her were copies of those which 
 Sheridan had sent to his first wife. Towards the other 
 member of the strange household, his son Tom, 
 Sheridan acted, as one might expect, the part of an 
 easy-going elder brother, rather than that of a father. 
 He was morbidly anxious after his health, and took 
 pride in his cleverness, but gave him no regular educa- 
 
 1 Catalani, on the contrary, remarked, with much more truth, that 
 he had " beaucoup de talent et tres peu de beaute." 
 
126 LIFE OF 
 
 tion, and, with the exception of a brief spell at soldiering, 
 no regular profession. "Tom," he complacently re- 
 marked, M you have genius enough to get a dinner every 
 day ' the week at the first tables in London, and that 
 is something, but that is all, you will go no farther." 
 And when Tom said that if he went into Parliament he 
 would attach himself to neither party, but hang out a 
 notice, "Lodgings to let," his parent rejoined, "Yes, 
 Unfurnished." Not a good sort of bringing-up, but 
 much the same as Sheridan himself had received. 
 
 When Sheridan's critics talk about his want of 
 principle, they usually mean his laxity in money matters. 
 It was Lord Holland's theory that he had formed a 
 totally unattainable ideal of moral rectitude, and thought 
 nothing worth aiming at which fell short of that ideal, 
 and that kind of reasoning is by no means rare. But 
 Richardson, who knew Sheridan far more intimately 
 than Lord Holland they frequently backed one 
 another's bills was probably nearer the . truth when he 
 said, "that it was his sincere conviction that could some 
 enchanter's wand touch Sheridan into the possession of 
 fortune it would instantly convert him into a being of 
 the nicest honour and the most unimpeachable moral 
 excellence." And to those who possess a fluctuating 
 income themselves, or who have friends in that position, 
 the good sense of Richardson's observation will be at 
 once apparent. 
 
 Sheridan's difficulties sprang from several causes. 
 Thriftlessness was in his blood, and the tendency had 
 been increased by his haphazard education as well as by 
 the extraordinary rapidity of his rise. Even if he had 
 
SHERIDAN. 127 
 
 not been naturally inclined to display, his public position 
 both as the chief proprietor of Drury Lane and as a 
 statesman compelled him to adopt a lavish style of 
 entertainment. Besides, it would have been Jmost 
 impossible, even if he had tried to regulate his expendi- 
 ture, to anticipate with any certainty what his income 
 from the theatre would be for the next month or even for 
 the next week. Again, his sanguine nature induced him\ 
 to underrate his embarrassments, while his habits of pro- J 
 destination and want of method caused him to increase/ 
 them tenfold. "Letters unanswered," groans Smyth,/ 
 "promises, engagements, the most natural expectations 
 totally disregarded. He seemed quite lawless and out 
 of the pale of human sympathies and obligations." 
 Certainly any one who became in any way a creditor of 
 Sheridan's must have had many an anxious moment. 
 Yet Smyth forgave him. So too Messrs. Hammersley, 
 his bankers, who must have known Sheridan well, told 
 Moore that they were certain he never meant to cheat. 
 Again the Linleys were the victims of one of his most 
 discreditable transactions, whereby they were induced to 
 part with their share in Drury Lane for annuities which 
 were never paid them. Yet the younger Linley told the 
 same authority that he acquitted Sheridan of any low pre- 
 meditated design in his various shifts and contrivances. 
 Sheridan's tradesmen are far less deserving of sympathy, 
 indeed it is probable that much pity has been wasted on 
 them. His theory evidently was that it was a trial of 
 skill between them and himself, if by repeated dunning 
 they could get their money, well and good. But if he 
 could talk them over or evade payment so much the 
 
128 LIFE OF 
 
 better. Boaden, in his "Life of Kemble," tells us that so 
 cordial were Sheridan's manners, his glance so masterly, 
 and his address so captivating, that tradesmen for the 
 most part seemed to forget that they actually wanted 
 money, and went away from his levee as if they had 
 only come to look at him. Their case Was regarded by 
 him as altogether different to an obligation incurred 
 towards a friend. A creditor once found Sheridan in 
 unexpected possession of money. He was told that it was 
 to meet a debt of honour. The creditor thereupon burnt 
 his bond before Sheridan's face, and declared that he 
 should consider his debt as one of honour, and Sheridan 
 paid him at once. As a rule he was eventually driven 
 into a corner. Though his tradesmen had to wait for 
 their money, they received in the end a hundred and 
 fifty per cent., while as he never kept his receipts and 
 scorned to examine items, the dishonest were paid two or 
 three times over. It is clear too that a pure love of 
 fun was the actuating motive of many of his most in- 
 genious/ subterfuges. ,It gave him supreme pleasure to 
 induce a creditor to show off the paces of a horse 
 while he bolted up a narrow passage, or to borrow ^25 
 more from a lender to whom he already owed 
 several hundreds. " My dear fellow," he once said, 
 "hear reason; the sum you ask me for is a very con- 
 siderable one ; whereas I only ask you for five-and- 
 twenty pounds." It would be absurd to criticise 
 seriously a person of such an irresponsible tempera- 
 ment. Rogers was right when he said that in his 
 dealings with the world Sheridan certainly carried the 
 privileges of genius as far as they were ever carried by 
 
SHERIDAN. 120 
 
 any man. But after all posterity has no right to look 
 upon such abuses as a matter in which it has any 
 personal concern. 
 
 To these remarks on Sheridan's money transactions 
 may be added, by way of illustration, some extracts from 
 his letters to Peake, the treasurer of Drury Lane, a 
 collection of which is among the MSS. at the British 
 Museum. It is needless to state that they are undated. 
 Here is one written from the Shakespeare Club on 
 Saturday night, and couched in a curiously rambling 
 hand : 
 
 " You must positively come to me here and bring 60 in your 
 pocket. Fear nothing. Be civil to all claimants, and trust me 
 in three months there will not exist one unsatisfied claimant. Shut 
 up the office and come here directly. Keep as punctual with 
 Kemble as you can. . . . Borrow and fear not. . . . God Lless 
 you till I see you again, when I will make a success of all diffi- 
 culties." 
 
 Here is another letter written from Newcastle where 
 Sheridan was, as was often the case with him, "money- 
 bound " :-r 
 
 11 1 am so uneasy that I send Edwards back. I am sure you will 
 do anything possible to keep things straight for a fortnight. I am 
 
 without a shilling for Tom and Mrs. S . Try a few small loans 
 
 as a personal favour to me. I never ask'd anyone but Mitchell. 
 Don't write me a croaking letter, and you shall see what a lasting 
 settlement I will make on my return so that you shall have no more 
 of these anxieties. God bless you. 
 
 " I owe ^40 at Newcastle." 
 
 Poor Peake 1 his must have been an anxious life. At 
 9 
 
133 LIFE OF 
 
 one time he is directed to arrange some way of settling 
 a tradesman's bill, at another to borrow money for the 
 taxes. "Discounting small acceptance with a douceur 
 must be the way," wrote Sheridan, and the phrase is 
 worthy of insertion in one of his comedies. Then Mrs. 
 Sheridan had been assured by her husband that a certain 
 sum should be sent her every week ; why did not Peake 
 forward it? And it is needless to add that Tom 
 Sheridan's appeals for money were incessant. The 
 following is a specimen : 
 
 " If you can possibly do so, send me ten or twenty pounds. I 
 have not, by God, been master of a guinea scarcely since I have 
 been in town and wherever I turn myself I am disgrac'd to my 
 Father it is in vain to apply. He is mad and so shall I be if I 
 don't hear from you." x 
 
 Sheridan once told Charles Butler that his supreme 
 ambition was to be the best possible manager of a 
 theatre. But when a manager is compelled by his 
 private debts to make perpetual raids on the treasury, it 
 is evident that he falls very short of that ideal. On the 
 other hand, it is certain that Sheridan had great and 
 abnormal difficulties to struggle against. The nature of 
 the ownership of theatrical property must always be a 
 
 1 Here is another of Tom Sheridan's missives: "To-morrow 
 I propose setting off for Stafford town, if I can raise the supplies. 
 I want io to start with, and on the road I have a hoard lying 
 perdtie that will carry me through. I should have wished a few 
 minutes' conversation with you before I went. Can you give me 
 any hint or advice as to my conduct there ? Write me an answer, 
 but, above all, do not disappoint me as to the cash. My father 
 C;ives me noue, and is mad I believe." 
 
SHERIDAN. 131 
 
 mystery to the layman, and Moore who might have 
 fathomed its depths, so far as Drury Lane was concerned, 
 seems to have shirked the difficulty with the conven- 
 tional plea that it was unnecessary to bother the reader 
 with a mass of wearisome details. As an excuse for 
 Moore it may be stated that the variety of interests and 
 authorities in the theatre seems to have been consider- 
 able. The profits from the private boxes did not go to 
 the ordinary shareholders, but were under a separate and 
 conflicting control ; there were also two classes of renters, 
 the old and the new. Besides Sheridan, so far from being 
 the autocrat that one would imagine, was supposed 
 latterly, at any rate, to act under the directions of a 
 Board of Management before he accepted a piece for the 
 stage. 
 
 "Every day's experience," he writes on May 26, 1778, after a 
 dispute about the- boxes, " with the persons I have had to deal with 
 determines me to be trifled with in this business no longer, and paid 
 I will be the whole of my debt some way or other. At least I will 
 not look on and see many other persons paid before me, for no 
 reason but because I have never pressed my claims, or because 
 I have done the greatest service to the Property, and been the 
 principal cause of other People getting paid at all." 
 
 Under the circumstances it can hardly be wondered 
 that he should have been feverishly anxious to buy out 
 as many of the other proprietors as possible, in order to 
 get the control of the theatre into his own hands. And 
 when once he had made up his mind, he was not a man 
 to stick at obstacles whether they were great or small. 
 Lacy, Dr. Ford, and the Linleys were successively got rid 
 of; the Linleys by the ingenious expedient of annuities, 
 
132 LIFE OF 
 
 but Dr. Ford demanded ;i 7,000 in cash. It was some 
 time before the sum was paid. Even Sheridan could 
 not raise money by magic, and that he should have been 
 able to do so at all argues considerable confidence 0:1 
 the part of his anonymous money-lenders in his business 
 integrity and capacity. 
 
 These obligations had doubtless considerable effect 
 upon the internal economy of the theatre. We read in 
 Kelly's " Reminiscences " of tradesmen and scenery- 
 painters unpaid, and it is known that the actors 
 frequently had to go without their salaries. 1 Miss Farren 
 once took the extreme step of absenting herself from the 
 theatre the occasion was during the run of Holcroft's 
 "Force of Ridicule" in 1796 as a protest against 
 Sheridan's conduct. But the manoeuvre does not seem 
 to have succeeded, for after her marriage she sent her 
 husband, Lord Derby, to press for arrears. Sheridan 
 gently remonstrated with the noble dun, "You have 
 taken away from us the brightest jewel in the world ; and 
 you now quarrel with us for a little dust she has left 
 behind her." But Miss Farren's conduct seems to have 
 been quite the exception, and the actors, an easy-going 
 class themselves, were blind to Sheridan's faults, and full 
 of admiration for his fertility of resource. When an 
 alarm of fire was raised, Suett was instructed to tell the 
 audience that if they did not keep still they would be 
 drowned by the enormous supplies of water in the 
 
 1 On the other hand, Reynolds the playwright declares in his 
 " Reminiscences " that his royalties were paid with the utmost regu- 
 larity. So contradictory are the statements about this perplexing 
 man. 
 
SHERIDAN. 133 
 
 establishment, and to wind up his remarks by making 
 a face. When the King, while sitting in the royal box 
 in the theatre, was shot at by a madman, Sheridan was 
 equal to the occasion, and scribbled off an impromptu 
 verse to " God Save the King," which evoked from all 
 present a wild demonstration of patriotic fervour. Hear 
 Kelly, who served him in several capacities, as 
 manager of the Italian opera, as composer, and as an 
 operatic singer : " During the five-and-twenty years 
 through which I enjoyed his friendship and society, 
 I never heard him say a word that could wound the 
 feelings of a human being." And yet Kelly in his time 
 was arrested for debt to an upholsterer on furniture 
 which Sheridan had ordered, but with which he had 
 been rash enough to identify himself. Never did 
 Sheridan's fascination of manner stand him in better 
 stead than when dealing with his company, and it is 
 only just to him to say that he never seems to have 
 forgotten that he was himself an actor's son. For 
 instance, nothing could exceed his kindness to Mrs. 
 Robinson, and he never took advantage of the unpro- 
 
 1 This tribute to Sheridan does all the more credit to Kelly, 
 because they had more than one tiff about money-matters. Thus 
 there is at the British Museum the draft of a letter from Peake to 
 Kelly : 
 
 " I am desired by Mr. Sheridan to express his extreme astonish- 
 ment at the letter you have thought fit to write to Mr. Peake. Your 
 talking of ' lending hitti the .100 he wants,' he considers an insult 
 and not proceeding from ignorance, real or pretended, of the 
 Proposition he made you, which was that you should actually abate 
 ^ioo from your salary this year, and certify it to the Trustees, in 
 consequence of your having taken a sum of money last year from 
 the Theatre for doing so little." 
 
134 LIFE OF 
 
 tected situation in which she was placed by her scamp 
 of a husband. 
 
 Nor does this power of managing men exhaust the 
 list of Sheridan's good qualities as the director of a 
 theatre. He had an instinctive knowledge of the public, 
 and he inspired them with quite as much confidence in 
 his undertakings as Whitbread and the other capitalists 
 and business men who succeeded him. And if his own 
 improvidence was the cause of the numerous financial 
 crises that arose during his regime, he was unequalled in 
 the resource with which those crises were overcome. 
 Kelly tells us that he once went to Sheridan's house in 
 despair, the performers of the Italian Opera having 
 struck for arrears of salary amounting to ^"3,000, and 
 the bankers, Messrs. Morland, having declined to advance 
 a shilling. After two hours Sheridan appeared from his 
 bedroom. " Three thousand pounds, Kelly," he said 
 with the utmost coolness, " why there is no such sum in 
 nature. There is one passage in Shakespeare," he con- 
 tinued, " which I have always admired particularly, and 
 that is where Falstaff says, ' Master Robert Shallow, 
 I owe you a thousand pounds.' c Yes, Sir John,' says 
 Shallow, c which I beg you will let me take home with 
 me.' 'That may not so easy be, Master Robert 
 Shallow,' replies Falstaff; and so I say unto thee Master 
 Mick Kelly, to get three thousand pounds may not so 
 easy be." However, he drove off with Kelly to the 
 bankers, and, continues the latter, " in less than a quarter 
 of an hour, to my joy and surprise, out he came, with- 
 ^3,000 in bank-notes in his hand. By what hocus-pocus 
 he got them, I know not, nor can I imagine even at this 
 
SHERIDAN. 135 
 
 moment, but those notes he brought to me, out of the 
 very house, where, an hour or two before, the firm had 
 sworn that they would not advance him another six- 
 pence." Similarly when the opera-house had at last to 
 close its doors, Sheridan allowed his co-lessee, Mrs. 
 Harris, to find asylum at Boulogne while he remained 
 and serenely faced the storm. Nor was it long before 
 his plausible address enabled him to dispose of the 
 remainder of the lease on very advantageous terms. 
 
 Even in minor matters Sheridan was probably far 
 more energetic than has been generally supposed. 
 Boaden says that although it took a Troy siege to 
 engage his attention, he decided at length rapidly and 
 correctly. In knowledge of stage-effect, as might be 
 expected from his life-long connection with the theatre, 
 he was very skilled. Kelly describes the method by 
 which he was directed to compose the incidental music 
 for " Pizarro." Sheridan, he says, made a sort of 
 rumbling noise with his voice, resembling a dog's gruff 
 bow-wow-wow, but though there was not the slightest re- 
 semblance to an air in the noise he made, yet so clear 
 were his ideas of effect that Kelly perfectly understood 
 his meaning. He seems, in fact, to have confined his 
 own superintendence to the production of those specta- 
 cular pieces which the low taste of the public demanded, 
 and where Shakespeare's plays were concerned to have 
 relied entirely upon Kemble. It cannot, indeed, be said 
 of Sheridan, that he was ambitious to raise the tone of 
 the stage by the production of new plays of merit. He 
 brought out at haphazard farces, spectacular pieces, 
 musical medleys, Shakespeare, and revivals of his own 
 
136 LIFE OF 
 
 comedies. But with his own exception it was an age of 
 great actors rather than of great dramatists. Against 
 Kemble, Mrs. Siddons, Mrs. Jordan, Miss Farren, Mrs. 
 Powell, Bannister, and John Palmer are to be set writers 
 like Holcroft, Cumberland, Reynolds, Monk Lewis, Mrs. 
 Inchbald, and the other small fry whom Gifford trounced 
 in the " Mseviad." O'Keeffe was a respectable playwright, 
 but owing apparently to the impression that he was re- 
 tained by Covent Garden, Sheridan employed him only 
 once. Most of the plays of the younger Colman were 
 produced at the Haymarket. And if Sheridan did not, 
 as Kemble complained, take the trouble to look at the 
 plays of the " great unacted," he was not the first or last 
 manager against whom that failing has been alleged. But 
 during the earlier years of his management the first Mrs. 
 Sheridan performed the functions of dramatic reader, 
 and that Sheridan himself was not altogether neglectful 
 of rising talent is proved by several collections of 
 unacted plays in the British Museum, in which the 
 dialogue is freely corrected and condensed by Sheridan's 
 hand. 1 Altogether it is probable that in spite of his 
 
 1 Some of Sheridan's comments are perhaps worth quoting. 
 Thus in an opera called "The Castles of Athlyn and Dunbayne," 
 a peasant, who had appeared in the first act, is introduced very 
 abruptly in the last. Sheridan notes that the " Peasant must be 
 introduced or spoke of otherwise he will be totally forgot before his 
 entrance." In another opera without a title there is a note : " The 
 young soldier Albert wants a horse to go three miles in search of his 
 mistress! Make it longer." A play called "The Picturesque 
 Incidents," after several alternative titles have been suggested, 
 becomes, " The Artist, or Love in a Garret," and the names of 
 some of the characters are altered, thus Sir Gregory Greylove 
 becomes Sir Lionel Latelove. A soliloquy by Sir Lionel with the 
 
SHERIDAN. 137 
 
 natural indolence and dilatoriness, he really spent much 
 time and trouble over the interests of the theatre, though, 
 no doubt, in an irregular and spasmodic manner. 
 
 It is evident that much of the chaos, that prevailed 
 behind the scenes during the earlier years of Sheridan's 
 connection with Drury Lane, was due to the incapacity of 
 his acting-managers. His old father, who was appointed 
 to the post in 1778, was not a success, owing apparently 
 to his fussiness. In 1782 he drifted off once more to 
 his " Attic Entertainments," the curious medleys of 
 recitations and lectures, with a facetious address to the 
 ladies thrown in, to which he had recourse when regular 
 engagements failed. Old Sherry's successor, King, was 
 too good-natured to do well, and his regime is memorable 
 only for the return of Mrs. Siddons to the London stage, 
 on which she had appeared in Garrick's time without 
 attracting notice. The season of 1788 opened without 
 a stage-manager, and it was not until October of that 
 year that Kemble undertook the post, and a period of 
 Shakesperian revivals, well - mounted and admirably 
 acted, began. With Kemble and Mrs. Siddons at their 
 best, the fortunes of Drury Lane must have been 
 exceedingly prosperous, and Sheridan seems to have 
 managed the pair with considerable tact, though Kemble 
 
 stilted opening, " It is a thousand pities that I should not have felt 
 sweet Love's influence sooner. Summer is gone," &c., is made by 
 Sheridan to begin much more naturally, " Rather late in the day to 
 be sure for both of us. Summer is gone." Again, a farce entitled 
 " Folygamy " had been sent in without the author's name. Sheridan 
 read it until he came to a passage where either of six ladies is 
 spoken of. "Mr. O'B's for a million" is his conclusion possibly 
 O'Brien, author of " The Friend in Need." 
 
138 LIFE OF 
 
 complained that he would trouble himself very little 
 about Shakespeare. The significant warning to Peake 
 already quoted, " Keep as punctual with Kemble as you 
 can," is not the only intimation of the sort that occurs in 
 the correspondence. Here is another: 
 
 " Ten Pounds will not break our bank. Therefore by no means 
 I beg most particularly fail to pay Kern by a draught to-day the 
 order I have given him. His wife is staying at Polesden, and after 
 what has happened there for him to be sent back without money 
 would be the Devil." x 
 
 In spite of the deference paid him, Kemble seems 
 to have been inclined to kick against managerial pro- 
 ceedings, especially when he was in his cups. Thus 
 Boaden describes him as proclaiming in the irregular 
 blank-verse which he affected when in that condition : " I 
 am an Eagle, whose wings have been bound down by 
 frosts and snows, but now I shake my pinions and cleave 
 into the general air into which I was born." But on the 
 appearance of Sheridan he soon laid his resentment by, 
 and a mutual reconciliation was effected by the deity to 
 whom they were both devoted. 
 
 In 1792 a new crisis occurred in Sheridan's fortunes. 
 The theatre, which in the previous year had been pro- 
 nounced unsafe and incapable of repair, was pulled 
 down, and pending the rebuilding the company had 
 to find a temporary home, at considerable expense, first 
 at the Opera House, and then at the Hay market 
 
 1 British Museum MSS. The letter was evidently written after 
 1795, as Polesden was settled on the second Mrs. Sheridan as a 
 marriage portion. 
 
SHERIDAN. 139 
 
 Theatre. Nor was this all; though 150,000 was 
 easily raised for the purposes of rebuilding and paying 
 off mortgages, the completion of the new theatre was 
 constantly delayed, and when it was finished the archi- 
 tect's estimate, ,75,000, was found to have been vastly 
 under the actual cost incurred. According to Moore 
 the new theatre started with a debt of 70,000, and 
 though Sheridan was full of expedients, in the way of 
 entering into new partnerships and creating new 
 shares, it never got clear. However, though the mine 
 of his fortunes showed signs of giving out, he laboured 
 on with unflagging spirits. 
 
 New Drury opened on the 21st of April, 1794, with 
 "Macbeth" performed by a cast in. all probability 
 unequalled either before or since Kemble as Macbeth ; 
 John Palmer, Macduff; Charles Kemble, a boy of 
 eighteen, Malcolm ; Charles Bannister, Hecate; Parsons, 
 Moody, and Baddeley, the witches ; and Mrs. Siddons, 
 Lady Macbeth. On the 2nd of July was acted, in 
 honour of Lord Howe's victory, The Glorious First of 
 June," a musical trifle written to order by Cobb, from 
 a sketch supplied him by Sheridan, and conceived, 
 rehearsed, and produced within three days. Kelly took 
 a part, and not having time for study, requested Sheridan 
 that it might be short. Sheridan assured him that he 
 would comply with his wish, and gave to the innocent 
 Irishman the sublime and solitary speech, "There stands 
 my Louisa's cottage ; she must be either in it or out of 
 it." 
 
 Two years later Sheridan fell a dupe to William Ire- 
 land, and was induced by him to accept the forgery, 
 
140 LIFE OF 
 
 " Vortigern," as an original play of Shakespeare's. His 
 admirers may well wish that he had never been con- 
 nected with so dubious a transaction. It is probable, 
 however, that he looked at the matter purely from a 
 manager's point of view, and thought that the play would 
 win, at any rate, a success of curiosity. Besides, did not 
 his old tutor. Doctor Parr, and the equally learned 
 scholar, Dr. Warton, solemnly announce their belief in 
 the genuineness of Ireland's documents ? Why should 
 Sheridan, who was not an enthusiastic admirer of the 
 great dramatist, listen to Malone's denunciation of 
 Ireland, or pay any attention to the grumblings of 
 Kemble ? Not that his conscience was altogether at 
 rest. "This is strange," he said to Ireland, "for, 
 though you are acquainted with my opinion of Shake- 
 speare, he always wrote poetry." However his own 
 suggestion that " Vortigern " was an immature pro- 
 duction of the bard's came readily to his relief, and the 
 play was produced on the 2nd of April. As is well 
 known, the audience, after numerous expressions of rest- 
 lessness, broke out into loud cries of dissatisfaction, 
 which continued until Kemble, who had been trudging 
 gloomily through his part, came to the line 
 
 11 And when this solemn mockery is o'er." 
 
 Then they lifted up their voices, and damned the play 
 without mercy. 
 
 This, by the way, was not the last literary imposture 
 with which Sheridan was concerned ; but again his share 
 in the fraud was merely that of an innocent middle- 
 man. In April, 1802, a comedy entitled "Fashionable 
 
SHERIDAN. 141 
 
 Friends " was produced at Drury Lane, professedly as a 
 posthumous work by Horace Walpole. It was really by 
 Miss Berry, and its fate was that of dismal failure. 
 
 As a welcome relief to a treasury exhausted by the 
 Vortigern catastrophe came, in 1798, the striking success 
 of "The Stranger," a play adapted from the German 
 of Kotzebue by Mr. Thompson, and touched up by 
 Sheridan. His actual share in the dialogue is not very 
 clear, though he himself claimed, curiously enough, to 
 have written every word of it from beginning to end. 
 However, the familiar song, "I have a silent sorrow 
 here," was avowedly written by him, as was its music by 
 the Duchess of Devonshire. The literary merits of the 
 play are nil, and its popularity was due to the wonderful 
 acting of Mrs. Siddons as Mrs. Haller. According to an 
 anecdote, which would appear however to lack authen- 
 ticity, Sheridan did not deceive himself on the point, 
 and sought consolation in the lines 
 
 " The drama's laws, the drama's patrons give, 
 And those who live to please must please to live." 
 
 But he was too shrewd a manager not to see that the 
 vein of German drama might be exploited with profit, 
 and his adaptation of Kotzebue's " Spaniards in Peru," 
 was brought out on May 24, 1799, under the title of 
 "Pizarro." Its production was marked by his charac- 
 teristic indolence. The alterations from the plot, of 
 the German original, or rather from the English trans- 
 lation, by some unknown hack, upon which he relied, were 
 slight ; and Kelly tells the almost incredible story that 
 until the end of the fourth act, Mrs. Siddons, Charles 
 
142 LIFE OF 
 
 Kemble, and Barrymore, had not received their speeches 
 for the fifth, as Sheridan was writing them upstairs in 
 the prompter's room. 1 Nor did he take the trouble to 
 compose a new prologue, but reproduced that written by 
 himself for Lady Craven's "Miniature Picture," in 1780, 
 which had little relation to Spaniards or Peru, but con- 
 tained a neat passage describing the '' spark " in Hyde 
 Park : 
 
 " Careless he seems, yet vigilantly sly, 
 Woos the gay glance of ladies passing by, 
 While his off-heel, insidiously aside, 
 Provokes the caper that he seems to chide." 
 
 But he took much pains with the spectacular and 
 musical accessories, and was feverishly anxious for the 
 success of the piece. It was a great though wholly 
 spurious triumph, thanks to Kemble and Mrs. Siddons, 
 and brought in at least ^15,000 into the theatre during 
 its first season, while the published edition sold like 
 wild-fire. The book was dedicated to his wife, " whose 
 approbation of the drama, and whose peculiar delight in 
 the applause it had received from the public, had been 
 to him the highest gratification derived from its success." 
 Two celebrated men recorded their opinions of 
 "Pizarro," and both were substantially just. Charles 
 Fox declared that it was the worst thing possible, 
 and Pitt said that he had heard it already in the 
 
 1 Boadcn, on the other hand, represents him, on the first night, 
 as seated in a box with Richardson, and watching the performance 
 with great anxiety. He could hardly have been in two places at 
 once, any more than Sir Boyle Roche. Kelly's anecdote may be an 
 improved edition of what occurred at one of the rehearsals. 
 
SHERIDAN. 143 
 
 Begum speech. The style indeed is closely akin to that 
 of the oration, " something between poetry and prose," 
 and one of Sheridan's additions to the dialogue, the simile 
 of the vulture and the lamb, had actually done duty in 
 Westminster Hall. It occurs in Rolla's address to the 
 Peruvians : 
 
 "Yes; they will give enlightened freedom to our minds ! wfcO 
 are themselves the slaves of passion, avarice, and pride. They 
 offer us our protection ; yes, such protection as vultures give to 
 lambs covering and devouring them ! They call on us to barter 
 all of good we have inherited and proved, for the desperate chance 
 of something better which they promise. Be our plain answer this 
 The throne we honour is the people's choice ; the laws we 
 reverence are our brave fathers' legacy ; the faith we follow teaches 
 us to live in bonds of charity with all mankind, and die with hope 
 of bliss beyond the grave. Tell your invaders this, and tell them too 
 we seek no change ; and, least of all, such change as they would 
 bring us." 
 
 The whole address seems to have been composed of 
 tags from his speeches, and particularly from one on 
 the dangers of invasion delivered in the previous year, 
 and it had, at any rate, the merit of being a propos. 
 Indeed a madman imagined that its recitation was an 
 invaluable specific for raising recruits for the British 
 army, and knocked up the Prime Minister in the middle 
 of the night to communicate the discovery to him. But 
 there its good qualities begin and end, and Sheridan's 
 other amplifications of the original are the merest 
 Fitzball. The best that can be said of them is that they 
 are few in number, and that many of the false images 
 and "nice derangement of epitaphs," which have been 
 ascribed to the famous dramatist, are really the con- 
 
144 LIFE OF 
 
 tributions of the unknown hack, whose attempts to 
 write himself up to Sheridan were about on a par 
 with Sheridan's attempts to write himself down to his 
 understrapper. Why the author of "The Critic" ever 
 put his name to such a production it is easier to wonder 
 than to guess. Perhaps at the bottom of his heart he 
 had a sneaking fondness for " his magnificence, his noise, 
 and his procession." He must also have felt that the 
 piece would be more certain of success if it received his 
 endorsement, than if it appeared as the effort say of 
 the humble Cobb. 
 
 Meanwhile the tide of embarrassment was beating 
 upon the theatre with a violence which not even 
 " Pizarro " could stem. In the year of its produc- 
 tion an action was brought against him by some of 
 the co-proprietors who were unable to secure their 
 dividends. Sheridan defended in person, and won an 
 oratorical triumph in a totally untried field. But he had 
 to submit to comments on his improvidence from the 
 defendants' counsel, Mr. Mansfield, which wounded him 
 to the quick; while the Lord Chancellor, in tone 5 of 
 fatherly admonition, applied to him the concluding 
 words of Johnson's " Life of Savage " : "Negligence and 
 irregularity long-continued will make knowledge useless, 
 wit ridiculous, and genius contemptible." From time to 
 time he made half-hearted attempts to get straight. In 
 1 80 1 the following announcement appeared in The 
 Morning Post: 
 
 " The Principal Proprietor of the Theatre of Drury Lane has, at 
 length, made an arrangement by which Justice shall keep pace zvith 
 generosity. He retains to himself an income of ^"2,000 a year. To 
 
SHERIDAN. 145 
 
 his son he allots ^"500. The rest of his revenue is appropriated to 
 discharge within four years the whole of his debts." 
 
 The announcement was probably made on authority, 
 since it is corroborated by the following letter of Tom 
 Sheridan's to Peake, but it was never carried into effect : 
 
 " My Father's theatrical property was of his own creating. I had 
 no right to complain had he sold it twice over and told me to go and 
 seek my fortune as I would (would to God I had, even my present 
 standing in the army would have nearly afforded me independence), 
 but he was not justified in day after day pointing to the Theatre as 
 my ultimate object, and incessantly assuring me it was to be mine 
 (as far as he could make it so), precluding me from other pursuits." 
 
 It was in vain that Sheridan called in the talents of his 
 son to supply his own increasing deficiencies. Tom 
 worked hard and, unlike his father, kept appointments 
 with punctuality, while his practical and somewhat 
 cynical knowledge of the public may be gathered from 
 the following extract from one of his letters: "Much 
 depends on the arrangement of the people. Remember 
 ' St. Quentin,' and make a damnable noise and bustle 
 whatever you do." x But the accession of a second 
 Sheridan did but little to compensate the company for 
 the loss of Kemble, who, after throwing up the stage 
 management in 1796, and taking it up again in 1800, 
 finally seceded altogether from Drury Lane in 1802, 
 having failed to come to terms with Sheridan for the 
 purchase of a quarter share in the theatre. Deprived of 
 the great actor (who, availing himself of the fact that 
 
 x Dated February 13, 1809, a few days before the theatre was 
 destroyed by fire. 
 
 IO 
 
146 LIFE OF SHERIDAN. 
 
 <l Pizarro " had been printed, transferred the attraction to 
 Covent Garden), the management had recourse to plays 
 like Reynolds's " Caravan," with real water, from which a 
 still more real dog rescued a child, and to the precocious 
 talents of the infant phenomenon, Master Betty. 1 In 
 those days, according to Mrs. Mathews, Sheridan was 
 always morose, and entered the theatre as if stealthily 
 and unwillingly. "The Circassian Bride'' was announced 
 for approaching representation when, on February 24, 
 1809, Sheridan was summoned from the House of Com- 
 mons by the news that the theatre was on fire. He 
 witnessed the destruction of his property with fortitude, 
 and perhaps with merriment. Possibly he imagined that 
 the catastrophe would break the run of ill-luck which 
 had latterly haunted him. But, if so, he was wofully 
 mistaken. 
 
 1 During the run of " The Caravan," Dignum said to Sheridan, 
 " There is no guarding against illness, but really " " Really 
 what? " " I am so unwell that I cannot act any longer than to- 
 night." " You ! my good fellow," was the rejoinder, " you terrified 
 me; I thought you were going to say that the dog was taken ill." 
 Another version of the story transfers the compliment to Reynolds. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SHERIDAN'S great speech in Westminster Hall, in 
 1787, forms a fairly definite landmark in his political 
 life. Up to that point in his career he had acted, on the 
 whole, as a consistent member of the Whig party, ani- 
 mated perhaps by no very deep convictions, but still 
 zealously faithful to his friends and admirably disin- 
 terested in his conduct. Sheridan remained incorruptible 
 to the last. But already he had formed that connection 
 -with the Prince of Wales which induced him to separate 
 ihis interests from those of his associates, and eventually 
 led to his isolation and extinction. The fate that over- 
 look him was just 
 
 " The heart whose hopes could make it 
 Trust one so false, so low, 
 Deserved that thou should'st break it." 
 
 TSut it is evident that his aims were not altogether 
 ignoble, though his action in their pursuit was occa- 
 sionally the reverse of satisfactory. Naturally a man of 
 vast confidence in his own powers, he hoped to make 
 himself indispensable to the Prince, partly through the 
 charms of his conversation and the attractiveness of 
 
148 LIFE OF 
 
 his conviviality, but chiefly through the wisdom of his-- 
 advice in political emergencies. Then when the King 
 died or became incapable of conducting the affairs of 
 the nation, he would naturally step into the place of the 
 chief confidential adviser of the head of the State. A 
 great ambition truly for a political adventurer to enter- 
 tain, but unfortunately founded on several miscalcula- 
 tions. In the first place, George III. defied probability 
 by continuing to hold the reins of power until long after 
 his son had ceased to identify his fortunes with the Whig 
 friends of his youth. Secondly, the Prince was quite 
 clever enough to make use of Sheridan without being 
 governed by him. As a rule George had recourse to his 
 advice in the first instance, but Burke or Sir Gilbert 
 Elliot were frequently called in when a political or semi- 
 political apology had to be penned, while on the floor of 
 the House of Commons Fox and Grey, who had in- 
 fluence as well as abilities, were commissioned to act as- 
 his champions rather than Sheridan. In fact, after the- 
 mannerof princes, he played off one adherent against 
 the other, committing to Sheridan, who had most at stake,. 
 the execution of the most thankless tasks. Sheridan 
 never became more than a subordinate, a minor actor on. 
 the ignoble stage of Carlton House politics. Seldom 
 has a prince been more faithfully served, and seldom has. 
 a servant been treated with greater ingratitude. 
 
 Though Sheridan had acted for several years in a. 
 private capacity as the lay keeper of the Prince's apology 
 for a conscience, the first occasion on which he came 
 prominently forward as his confidential friend was irk 
 1787. The circumstances, so far as Sheridan was con- 
 
SHERIDAN. 149 
 
 v <erned, were briefly these: In April of that year the 
 Prince's debts were, not for the first time, brought before 
 *he notice of Parliament, and Mr. Rolle incidentally 
 raised the question of the Prince's alleged marriage with 
 Mrs. Fitzherbert. A lie came naturally to George, and 
 fae promptly authorized Fox to contradict Rolle's state- 
 ment, a request with which Fox, unsuspecting in disposi- 
 tion and not too nice in morals, promptly complied. A 
 revulsion of feeling naturally ensued, and the House 
 voted the increase of allowance, but then the Prince had 
 *to reckon with Mrs. Fitzherbert, who was naturally much 
 -distressed. He had recourse in the first instance to Mr. 
 Grey, but that high-minded statesman would give him no 
 help. " Well, then, Sheridan must say something," was 
 the Prince's significant determination, and to Sheridan 
 accordingly fell the unworthy lot of paying a few vapid 
 compliments to Mrs. Fitzherbert, in which the whole 
 -question was begged, and the royal lie indirectly con- 
 ifirmed. After Sheridan was dead, George added the 
 finishing touch to his baseness by authorizing Croker to 
 deny that the speech had been made on his authority; 
 sit was, he declared, actuated solely by the tears of Mrs. 
 Fitzherbert. 
 
 Unwarned by experience, Sheridan, on the illness of 
 the King in the following year, plunged again into the 
 mazes of princely intrigue. In the absence of Fox in 
 Italy, he directed the scramble for power, and, with a 
 keen eye for want of character, opened a secret negotia- 
 tion with Thurlow, the Lord Chancellor. On his return 
 from abroad, the step was condemned by Fox, who had 
 -a deserved contempt for Thurlow, and had more than 
 
150 LIFE OF 
 
 half promised the Chancellorship to Lord Loughborough* 
 in the event of a change of government ; still for the 
 moment it promised well. For himself Sheridan was- 
 content to bide his time, and accepted the inferior post 
 of Treasurer of the Navy in posse. In fact, with the 
 arrival of Fox, the conduct of affairs passed from 
 Sheridan's hands, but it cannot be said that what, 
 influence he possessed was exercised, during the debates 
 on the Regency Bill, on the side of discretion. On the 
 contrary, when Fox committed himself to the assertion, 
 of the Prince's unalienable right to assume the govern- 
 ment, Sheridan, though the damaging effect of the theory 
 upon the fortunes of the Opposition was immediately 
 perceived, set himself to pour oil on the flames. A few 
 days later, while asserting the right of the Prince of* 
 Wales to an unrestricted regency, he reminded the 
 House of " the danger of provoking that Prince to assert. 
 his right." " It was such a blunder," wrote Grenville 
 to his brother, "that I never knew any man of the 
 meanest talents guilty of before. During the whole time 
 that I have sat in Parliament I have never seen such an. 
 uproar as was raised by his threatening." Pitt imme- 
 diately availed himself of such rash tactics. Sheridan's 
 language was characterized as "an indecent menace 
 thrown out to awe and influence the proceedings of the 
 House." "To assert the inherent right of the Prince 
 of Wales to assume the government," he declared later 
 on, " is virtually to revive those exploded ideas of the 
 divine and indefeasible right of princes which have so 
 justly sunk into contempt and almost oblivion." The 
 Prime Minister was winning all along the line, when the- 
 
SHERIDAN. 151 
 
 recovery of the King, under the care 01 Dr. Willis, con- 
 summated his triumph. 
 
 The rout of the Opposition left many bitter memories 
 behind it, particularly in the minds of the two men who 
 had been most confident of victory Sheridan and 
 Burke. It is true that their quarrel was almost inevit- 
 able. Fortune had marked them out as rivals, and the 
 rivalry was deepened by the vastness of their ambitions, 
 the jealousy of their characters, and the insecurity of 
 their positions. But it is from this period that the 
 antagonism became markedly exhibited, and the Prince 
 of Wales was its conscious or unconscious fomenter. To 
 Burke he allotted the composition of a vindication of his 
 conduct in the shape of a letter to Mr. Pitt, to Sheridan 
 the task of criticising it, and Burke never forgave the 
 interference. These latent differences among the mem- 
 bers of Fox's staff became of vital importance on the 
 outbreak of the French Revolution. It was clear from 
 the outset which side Burke would take. His love of 
 liberty was tempered with a due respect for authority, 
 and he deplored alike the rapid advances of the French 
 towards democracy, and the tumultuous means by which 
 those advances were effected. Fox, on the contrary, 
 espoused the cause of the revolution with a genuine, if 
 unreasoning, enthusiasm, and it was clear that, with its 
 leaders thus divided, the dissolution of the Whig party 
 was imminent. The first passage of arms between Burke 
 and Fox, however, which occurred in 1790, during a 
 debate on the army estimates, would have passed off 
 without result had not Sheridan intervened with a speech 
 which, uncompromising though it was, no doubt was 
 
152 LIFE OF 
 
 unnecessarily treated by Burke as a declaration of war 
 between the last speaker and himself. "Henceforth," 
 he declared, "his honourable friend and he were 
 separated in politics," and though efforts were made 
 to reconcile the two, the rupture was never healed. 
 As a natural sequel came, in the following session, the 
 familiar and dramatic separation between Burke and Fox, 
 and in 1793 the secession of a considerable portion of 
 the Whig party, including three-fourths of its aristocratic 
 chiefs, to the ministerial benches. 
 
 Sheridan was of course not entirely responsible for 
 the turn affairs had taken. Still he had given the first 
 blow to the wedge that had split old political friendships 
 asunder, and he now set himself by his sarcasms to foil 
 all attempts at reconciliation. At the expense of Burke 
 he committed himself, in the course of 1793, to the 
 unworthy sneer, " It is hard that he whom we have 
 drummed out of the regiment as a deserter should be 
 lurking within our lines as a spy." The accusation 
 was unjust, though Burke's theatrical exclamation, "I 
 quit the camp ! " certainly provoked a retort. Nor was 
 there any real justice, though there was some plausibility, 
 in his famous condemnation of the seceding Whigs who 
 had accepted office and honours from Pitt, " Let them 
 go and hide their heads in their coronets." In short, 
 his mind during this period seems to have been wholly 
 out of gear, partly perhaps from private and domestic 
 reasons, but partly also from consternation at the com- 
 pleteness of his own handiwork of ruin. Neither in his 
 criticisms on the progress of the Revolution, nor in his 
 comments upon the war which was now forced upon 
 
SHERIDAN. 153 
 
 England, is there much wisdom or patriotism to be 
 found. It is unnecessary, therefore, to dwell upon 
 them at any length. But if Sheridan was infected by 
 faction he was at least superior to treachery. It is more 
 than probable that both then and afterwards he could 
 have made his peace with the Government, but in spite 
 of his pecuniary difficulties he remained faithful to his 
 principles. All credit to him for his incorruptibility. 
 
 " Sir," he once said in the hearing of Byron, " it is easy for my 
 
 Lord G , or Marquis B , or Lord H , with thousands 
 
 upon thousands a year, some of it either presently derived or inherited 
 in sinecure or acquisitions from the public money, to boast of their 
 patriotism and keep aloof from temptation ; but they do not know 
 -from what temptation those have kept aloof, who had equal pride, 
 .at least equal talents, and not unequal passions, and, nevertheless, 
 knew not in the course of their lives what it was to have a shilling 
 of their own." 
 
 Sheridan appears to have been rather drunk when he 
 Tnade the observation, but he never spoke a truer word. 
 Whatever his private conduct may have been, his 
 political record will bear the minutest scrutiny. 
 
 The mutiny at the Nore in 1797 gave Sheridan an 
 opportunity of setting himself right with the majority 
 of his fellow-countrymen. On that occasion he acted 
 a truly worthy part, and by his strenuous advocacy of 
 prompt measures for its suppression, undoubtedly 
 checked something like a national panic. We know 
 .also from Lord Holland's " Memoirs of the Whig 
 Party," that he opposed the ill-judged secession of the 
 Opposition from Parliament which had taken place a 
 few weeks previously, and though he shared in the 
 
154 LIFE OF 
 
 movement for awhile, soon returned to the House of 
 Commons, and resumed a fairly active part in debate. 
 In the absence of his leader he appears to have con- 
 sidered that he was entitled to take up a line of his 
 own, and his conciliatory attitude towards the ministry 
 was vehemently resented at St. Ann's Hill. Thus in 
 1797 Fox commented on the "incurable itch which 
 Sheridan seemed to have of distinguishing his conduct 
 from that of those with whom he wishes to be supposed 
 united;" and in 1802 he wrote to Grey, "whether 
 Sheridan will be with us I do not know, and I suspect 
 you do not care, or even that your wishes would be that 
 he should not." Stories were current that he had 
 separated from Fox ; some went even so far as to assert 
 that his services had been solicited by the Crown, but to 
 both statements he gave the most complete and vehement 
 denial. 
 
 The simple fact seems to be even if due allowance 
 is made for Sheridan's love of popularity, which was 
 considerable that having learnt wisdom by experience, 
 he repented the tone adopted by himself and other 
 extreme Whigs at the outbreak of the revolutionary war. 
 At last he began to see that unless something like a 
 national effort was made, the decline and fall of the- 
 British Empire was imminent. 
 
 "If," said he, in the year 1800, "we are threatened to be- 
 deprived of that which is the charter of our existence, which has 
 procured for us the commerce of the world, and been the means of 
 spreading our glory over every land if the rights and honours of 
 our flag are to be called in question, every risk should be run and 
 every danger braved. Then we should have a legitimate cause of 
 
SHERIDAN. \St 
 
 war then the heart of every Briton would burn with indignation, 
 and his hand be stretched forth in defence of his country. If our 
 flag is to be insulted, let us nail it to the top-mast of the nation ; . 
 there let it fly while we shed the last drop of our blood in pro- 
 tecting it, and let it be degraded only when the nation itself is 
 overwhelmed. " 
 
 Such being the general aspect of affairs, the formation' 
 of the Addington Ministry in 1801 seemed to Sheridan 
 to give an opening for a fusion of parties. It was 
 obvious that the administration only existed on the 
 sufferance of Pitt, and that to prevent Pitt from return- 
 ing to office the Whig Opposition must either support 
 the Government, or form a coalition with the "new 
 Opposition," headed by Lord Grenville. As the Gren- 
 villes formed an ultra war-party, the former step was the 
 more logical of the two, and Sheridan accordingly- 
 adopted an ironically favourable tone towards " the 
 Doctor " in public. Thus in a debate on the army 
 estimates, after characterizing the dislike entertained by 
 the Opposition towards the Minister as unreasonable,, 
 and quoting against them, amidst shouts of laughter,. 
 the familiar lines 
 
 " I do not like thee, Doctor Fell, 
 The reason why I cannot tell," &c, 
 
 he proceeded to urge that the foreign policy of the- 
 Government had been all that could be desired. 
 Addington, he said, had been a great success as. 
 Speaker ; 
 
 " but did the House expect that when he was minister he was to* 
 stand up and call Europe to order? Was he to send Mr. Coleman* 
 
156 LIFE OF 
 
 the Sergeant-at-Arms, to the Baltic, and summon the Northern 
 Powers to the Bar of the House ? Was he to see the Powers of 
 "Germany scrambling like members over the Benches, and say 
 Gentlemen must take their places? Was he to cast his eye on the 
 Tuscan Gallery and exclaim that strangers must withdraw? Was 
 he to stand across the Rhine, and say, The Germans to the right 
 
 and the French to the left ? If he could have done these things, 
 
 he (Sheridan), for one, should always vote that the Speaker of the 
 -House should be appointed the Minister of the country. But the 
 Right Honourable Gentleman had done all that a reasonable man 
 
 -could expect him to do." 
 
 Meanwhile he took care to assure Addington, in 
 [private, that his support was entirely disinterested. 
 "My visits to you," he said, "may possibly be mis- 
 construed by my friends, but I hope you know, Mr. 
 Addington, that I have an unpurchaseable mind." And 
 to prove that this was not mere talk he declined for his 
 son the appointment of Registrar of the Vice-Admiralty 
 Court at Malta, and possibly refused office for himself. 
 
 Sheridan, however, soon saw that if he went over to 
 Addington he must go over alone, unaccompanied 
 even by the small band of the friends of the Prince 
 of Wales. For the Prince, influenced by the refusal 
 of the Government to accept the offer of his military 
 services, declined to give them any active support; and 
 Fox, who looked upon Addington as a " vile fellow," 
 'had, in spite of loud murmurs from his followers, 
 determined on joining the Grenvilles. For the moment 
 Sheridan was absolutely isolated. Windham taunted 
 iiim with behaving like a new recruit; no sooner had 
 he fallen into the Government ranks than he fired off 
 3iis musket, without waiting for the word of command. 
 
1^- 
 
 SHERIDAN. 157 
 
 ft 
 
 Cobbctt addressed to him ten scathing letters, in wqgJ&J^i^K J 
 
 the apostasy of the " Political Proteus " was denounce^' ( T; - 
 in uncompromising terms. Accordingly he had to make 
 his peace with his party. " He is," wrote Fox to Grey, on. 
 April 6, 1804, "very desirous of getting right again, but 
 you will easily believe my dependence on him is not 
 very firm." To prove his sincerity he turned and rent 
 Addington, upon whose appearance in Windsor uniform 
 to announce the declaration of war with France he 
 passed the happy comment, "The Right Honourable 
 Gentleman has assumed his favourite character of the 
 sheep in wolfs clothing." And he was one of the mosfr 
 assiduous of the assailants of the dying Pitt. There, 
 however, he met his match, and in their last encounter 
 the Treasury Bench scored an easy victory. The 
 Prime Minister satirized Sheridan's eloquence as " an. 
 explosion of froth and air, of all his hoarded repartees,, 
 all his matured jests, the full contents of his common- 
 place book j " and Gillray drove the application home 
 by his famous cartoon, " Uncorking old Sherry." 
 
 In spite of his rejuvenated Whiggery, Sheridan was. 
 condemned for the remainder of his life to wander 
 without the fold. Though it is not true, as has been, 
 asserted, that he was excluded during the last illness of 
 Mr. Fox, he never regained the confidence of that 
 usually placable heart. By Grey he had long been, 
 disliked, while the cold and haughty Grenville resented, 
 his efforts to prevent the coalition. On the formation of 
 the Ministry of all the Talents, Sheridan was excluded 
 from the Cabinet, and compelled to put up with the 
 office of Treasurer of the Navy, for which he was. 
 
-158 LIFE OF 
 
 notoriously unfit. The reason assigned for the slight 
 was that his convivial habits rendered him an unsafe 
 possessor of Cabinet secrets, which, said Sheridan, might 
 have been a valid objection if there were any secrets to 
 be disclosed. After the death of Fox, Sheridan wished 
 'to succeed him as the representative of Westminster 
 indeed he had long coveted the honour, and is even said 
 by Lord Holland to have advised Fox's retirement from 
 public life in the year 1800, with the insidious design of 
 stepping into his shoes as the representative of that 
 popular constituency. On this occasion, however, Lord 
 Grenville interposed, and Sheridan was compelled to 
 withdraw his candidature ill favour of that of Lord 
 Percy, though he was returned at the general election 
 about three weeks later. He revenged himself by de- 
 clining to attend Lord Grenville's meetings, and by 
 ridiculing his downfall in 1807, owing to the injudicious 
 revival of the Catholic question. "I have often," he 
 said, " heard of people knocking their brains against a 
 wall, but I never before knew of any one building a wall 
 expressly for the purpose." 
 
 From this time forward, Sheridan, though still affect- 
 ing to keep up the Whig connection, adopted Carlton 
 House politics, pure and simple. After the death of 
 Fox, the Prince of Wales declined to pose any longer as 
 a party man, while his factotum disliked alike Grenville, 
 Grey, and Whitbread, who had become a leader of the 
 Opposition. Sheridan was a good hater, and when, in 
 1 810, the Prince, now become Regent, showed a dis- 
 position to summon the Whig chiefs to form a Govern- 
 ment, he had no hesitation in tripping up their heels. 
 
SHERIDAN. 159 
 
 The reply which Grenville and Grey, at the request of 
 the Regent, had drawn up in answer to the addresses of 
 the two Houses, was subjected by Sheridan to a search- 
 ing criticism, which even Moore, partizan as he was, is 
 constrained to confess that it thoroughly deserved; and a 
 totally different form of answer, drawn up by the Prince 
 and himself, was adopted. The remonstrance of Gren- 
 ville only evoked from Sheridan ridicule and satirical 
 rhymes, and the Tories in consequence remained in 
 ; po\ver. In the following year when the negotiations 
 were renewed, Sheridan suppressed in his communica- 
 tion to Lord Grenville all intimation that the Household 
 -were ready to resign, and over this supposed obstacle 
 the attempt to form a government broke down. His 
 conduct was not too scrupulous, but he was a broken 
 and disappointed man with a long series of slights to 
 avenge. 
 
 This was Sheridan's last action of importance in the 
 theatre of politics. In the month of September follow- 
 ing he stood once more for Stafford, but his Westminster 
 candidature, added to his known impecuniosity, had 
 alienated the electors, and he was defeated. And so 
 his long political career closed in failure. Throughout 
 it had been entirely characteristic of him. His name is 
 unconnected with a single legislative measure. No real 
 conviction is to be traced in his casual advocacy of the 
 causes of reform and abolition; his praises of the 
 French Revolution are inspired quite as much by 
 faction and party spirit as by any real zeal for liberty. 
 Though proud of being an Irishman, he showed little 
 appreciation of the wants of Ireland ; and his criticism 
 
160 LIFE OF SHERIDAN. 
 
 of Pitt's free-trade proposals, and of the act of union 
 with England, was equally unsound. During his later 
 years the friendship of the Prince of Wales hung like 
 a loadstone about his neck, and in combination with his 
 inordinate vanity induced him to attempt the role of at 
 moderator between parties, with the result that he was 
 alienated from his friends, and gained in return only the 
 empty compliments of his enemies. Yet it may fear- 
 lessly be asserted of him that he was a patriot at heart,. 
 and his support of Pitt and Addington, even if its- 
 motives were partly personal, was a more worthy course 
 of action than Fox's petulant retirement to St. Ann's 
 Hill. Above all, he was entirely incorrupt. In spite of 
 his necessities no offers of place or pension could tempt 
 him to go over to the enemy, and with the exception of 
 three brief intervals of office he began, continued, and. 
 ended in Opposition. He may have been an adventurer,, 
 and he was doubtless an insubordinate follower. But 
 though he fought for his own hand as the enfant perdu- 
 of politics, he was not a mere condottiere whose swordi 
 was at the service of the highest bidder. Besides to a. 
 man of wit, party shibboleths are apt in the end to 
 become rather ridiculous, and genius may fairly revolt 
 against the edicts of grandees of the stamp of Portland 
 or Grenville, to which it is the duty of mediocrity to 
 submit. After detraction has said its worst about 
 Sheridan, his remains a great name in the annals of the. 
 House of Commons. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SEVERAL years before he ceased to be a member 
 of Parliament, Sheridan had become a hopelessly 
 ruined man. The destruction of Drury Lane Theatre in * 
 1809 had deprived him of his only permanent source of ^ 
 income, with the exception of his salary as Receiver of 
 the Duchy of Cornwall an appointment to which he 
 was presented by the Prince of Wales in 1804 and that 
 was in all probability anticipated. It is true that he still 
 retained a considerable portion of the property, but the 
 committee which was formed for the rebuilding of the 
 theatre, with Whitbread as its guiding spirit, declined to 
 allow him any connection with the new undertaking. 
 They were willing to buy him out for ^28,000, but out 
 of that sum the Linleys and others were to be paid, and 
 the satisfaction of their claims could not have left a large 
 balance at the bankers. Further, Sheridan himself, 
 evidently wishing to get the blind side of the committee, 
 proposed the concession that his claims should not be 
 satisfied until after the theatre was built. His mortifica- 
 tion when he was held to his word was extreme, and his 
 correspondence with Whitbread is a painful exhibition 
 of the contest between wounded pride and pressing 
 necessity. 
 
 11 
 
162 LIFE OF 
 
 The explanation of the mystery of Sheridan's existence 
 during the last years of his life is that the sum total of 
 his debts was nothing like so large as was generally 
 imagined. When his pecuniary affairs were examined in 
 1808 it was found that his bond-fide obligations were only 
 about ten thousand pounds.. Indeed, had it not been 
 for the false pride which forbade him to contest any of 
 his creditor's claims, however extravagant, his friends 
 might possibly have extricated him from his difficulties, 
 though those difficulties would always have been liable 
 to recur. He preferred rather to pay his duns in pro- 
 portion to the importunity and extravagance of their 
 demands. How he contrived to rub along may be 
 gathered partly from the draft of an agreement among the 
 Sheridan MSS. in the British Museum, by which he 
 made over the copyright of his dramatic works to James 
 Grant Raymond for ;6oo, T and partly from Mr. Clay den's 
 " Life of Samuel Rogers," where it appears that the poet- 
 banker helped him to raise money on Mrs. Sheridan's 
 farms about Leatherhead. It would be remembered too 
 that Sheridan's powers of fascination were undoubtedly 
 great, even at this period of his life, and he relied 
 upon them as a weapon of defence. Kindhearted 
 tradesmen were easily persuaded to postpone presenting 
 their accounts ; and he was even competent in an 
 emergency, as Byron records with wondering admira- 
 tion, to soften the heart of an attorney. "Would 
 you have us proceed against Old Sherry?" asked the 
 
 1 The arrangement appears to have fallen through, but he must 
 have been in great straits to think of parting with the copyright for 
 so small a sum. 
 
SHERIDAN. 1G3 
 
 legal adviser of Sheridan's wine merchant whose bill, 
 one would think, must have been a heavy one. 
 " Besides what would be the use of it." And Byron 
 records that the attorney was so completely talked over 
 by Sheridan, that had his client come in, honest man 
 though he was, with all the law and some justice on his 
 side, he would promptly have been thrown out of the 
 window. 
 
 Mr. Whitbread seems, indeed, to have been almost the 
 only person, with whom Sheridan had business dealings, 
 whose determination he did not at one time or another 
 disarm. That cool-headed man however was inexorable, 
 and it was to his refusal to advance ^2,000 out of the 
 sum due to Sheridan by the Drury Lane Committee for 
 his share in the property, that he attributed his failure 
 at Stafford. That defeat was closely followed by a 
 breach between Sheridan and the patron for whom 
 he had sacrificed his political career. Nor can it 
 be denied that the Regent's version of the story, as 
 .given to the world for the first time in the Croker 
 Papers, is greatly to Sheridan's discredit. It appears 
 that though he refused, as stated by Moore, to re- 
 -enter Parliament as a direct nominee of the Regent, 
 he did not scruple to borrow ^"3,000 pounds from 
 him, to purchase a seat at Wootton Bassett, on his 
 own account. 1 The distinction drawn shows a curious 
 obliquity of moral vision, but it may even be doubted 
 1 The Regent was not the most trustworthy of men, but in this 
 instance he seems to have been speaking the truth. His version of 
 the story, as given in the Croker Papers, is corroborated by informa- 
 tion given by Lord Holland to Moore on the authority of Sheridan 
 J.imself. 
 
1G4 LIFE OF 
 
 whether Sheridan ever had any real intention of 
 devoting the money to the purpose for which it was 
 ostensibly procured. He made no attempt to visit the 
 borough, the money was lodged in the hands of a 
 solicitor by Sheridan without the slightest intimation 
 that it had been advanced to him with any restrictions, 
 and it was promptly devoted to the payment of certain 
 pressing debts, among them one to the solicitor. The 
 fraud was of course discovered, and Sheridan's explana- 
 tion, by which the solicitor was made to blame, must be: 
 pronounced ingenious rather than convincing. " I 
 never," continued the Regent, in tones of edifying if 
 over-elaborated morality, "saw Sheridan (to speak to) 
 after j not that it was much worse in principle than other 
 things of his, nor that I had given orders to exclude 
 him, but it was felt by Sheridan himself to be so gross. 
 a violation of confidence such a want of respect, and 
 such a series of lies and fraud, that he did not venture to 
 approach me, and, in fact, he never came near me again." 
 And yet a really royal heart would have overlooked the 
 injury, in consideration of Sheridan's lifelong devotion. 
 
 His exile from Carlton House must have been felt: 
 bitterly by the old courtier. Yet he fought bravely 
 against his troubles, and in the society of Moore, Rogers,. 
 and Byron, his wit still sparkled, even though as Byron 
 recorded, " It was always saturnine and sometimes 
 savage \ he never laughed at least that / saw, and. 
 I watched him." " I have seen him," Byron states in 
 another place, "cut up Whitbread, quiz Madame de 
 Stael, annihilate Colman, and do little less by some 
 others (whose names, as friends, I set not down) of good 
 
SHERIDAN. 165 
 
 fame on their side." 1 The cutting up of Whitbread must 
 Tiave been a most congenial occupation to Sheridan, and 
 of his recorded sayings few are neater than his comment 
 on the brewer-politician's allusion to the Phoenix in his 
 address for the opening of Urury Lane. "But Whit- 
 bread made more of this bird than any of them he 
 entered into particulars, and described its wings, beak, 
 tail, &c. ; in short, it was a Poulterer's description of 
 a Phoenix." What other sarcasms Sheridan may have 
 uttered at the expense of the new theatre we do not 
 know. But this we do know, that when, three years 
 after it was built, he was induced by Lord Essex to see 
 Kean, he promptly made his way to the green-room, 
 Avhere a bumper to his health was drunk by the assembled 
 actors. And so the father of the stage bade farewell to 
 the old region of his glory. 2 
 
 1 Mrs. Mathews, on the other hand, declares that "Mr. Colman 
 fairly broke him down with the force of his vivacity." However, 
 Byron could appreciate Sheridan, while Mrs. Mathews evidently 
 writes about him with prejudice. 
 
 2 Readers of Moore will remember how Whitbread offered Mrs. 
 Sheridan a box at the new theatre, and how she annoyed that pre- 
 cise person by not sending him an answer. It appears from the 
 MSS. at the British Museum that she did at last reply, though not 
 until more than three months after Whitbread's first letter, and 
 probably without Sheridan's knowledge. 
 
 " My dear Mr. Whitbread, I beg you will return my best 
 thanks to the Committee for the attention they have shewn me 
 respecting a Box at Drury Lane Theatre. I know nothing of the 
 same kind that could have been equally valuable to me, and I 
 accept the offer in the terms in which it is made. 
 " With much gratitude, I am, 
 
 " My dear Mr. Whitbread, 
 
 " Affectionately yours, 
 " Sept. 14, 181 2. E. T. Sheridan." 
 
166 LIFE OF 
 
 On the whole, however, Sheridan's decadence must 
 have been a most melancholy spectacle, even though in 
 his cups he was still capable of so supreme a witticism as 
 his'solemn assurance to the watchman, who came upon 
 him "fuddled, bewildered, almost insensible," that his- 
 name was Wilberforce. Byron was right when he- 
 urged 
 
 ' But should there be to whom the fatal blight, 
 Of failing wisdom yields a base delight, 
 Men who exult when minds of heavenly tone, 
 Jar in the music which was born their own. 
 Still let them pause Ah ! little do they know 
 That what to them seemed Vice might be but Woe. 
 Hard is his fate on whom the public gaze 
 Is fix'd for ever to detract or praise ; 
 Repose denies her requiem to his name, 
 And Folly loves the martyrdom of fame. " 
 
 That martyrdom was destined to be terribly acute. The 
 sum arising from the sale of his theatrical property in 
 1813-14 was soon exhausted by the various claims upon 
 it, and, his immunity from arrest having ceased with his 
 disappearance from the House of Commons, he made 
 the acquaintance of the interior of the sponging-house,. 
 " to the profanation," as he characteristically termed it, 
 "of his person." All his most cherished possessions 
 were disposed of one after the other, including the 
 famous portrait of his first wife, as St. Cecilia, by the 
 hand of Sir Joshua. Here is a statement which he seems 
 to have drawn up about this time for his friend Peter 
 Moore, and it shows the way that his money went : 
 
SHERIDAN. 107 
 
 s. d. 
 
 Taid Bill 50 o o 
 
 Interest, 2^ years ... ... ... 650 
 
 Attorney's Bill... 946 
 
 Expenses of arrest 260 
 
 67 15 6 ' 
 
 And yet, low as he had fallen, he retained much eleva- 
 tion of feeling. If society shut its gates against him, 
 he never whined outside, and Moore records that he 
 rarely borrowed money from the obscure friends who 
 stood by him to the last. It is only as we read the 
 concluding chapters of Moore's biography that we realize 
 the full force of Richardson's estimate of his friend's 
 character. 
 
 When his last illness came upon him Sheridan was 
 practically deserted by all, except that small band of men 
 who are remembered solely for their charity to the dying 
 genius, Peter Moore, Ironmonger, and " Hat " Vaughan. 
 Tom Sheridan was abroad, and already a victim to that 
 hereditary consumption under which he sank not many 
 years after his father's death. Mrs. Sheridan had borne 
 with her husband's failings patiently, as he would have 
 been the first to acknowledge, but she too was afflicted 
 by a fatal disease. The Regent declared, on the 
 authority of Vaughan, that during Sheridan's last days 
 upon earth she was too ill to leave her own bed. But 
 Smyth certainly saw her when he came to inquire after 
 his old patron, and it may be that the gruesome descrip- 
 tion of their common misery given in the Croker Papers 
 
 1 British Museum MSS. 
 
168 LIFE OF 
 
 owes a good deal to the Regent's, imagination, which was 
 notoriously exuberant. It certainly is not a pleasant 
 picture. 
 
 " They had hardly a servant left. Mrs. Sheridan's maid she was 
 about to send away, but they could not collect a guinea or two to 
 pay the woman her wages. When Vaughan entered the house he 
 found all the reception rooms bare, and the whole house in a state 
 of filth and stench that was quite intolerable. Sheridan himself 
 he found in a truckle bed in a garret, with a coarse blue and 
 red coverlid, such as one sees used as horse-cloths, over him ; out 
 of this bed he had not moved for a week, . . . and in this state the 
 unhappy man had been allowed to wallow, nor could Vaughan dis- 
 cover that anyone had taken any notice of him, except one old 
 female friend whose name I hardly know whether I am authorised 
 to mention Lady Bessborough, who sent ^20." 
 
 Even as Sheridan lay dying, and possibly starving, 
 his creditors pressed upon him; and had it not been 
 for the prompt assistance of Rogers, and the stout 
 interposition of his doctor, he would have been carried 
 off to die in the sponging-house. When it was too 
 late some efforts were made to assist him in his ne- 
 cessity. Indeed, it is only just to point out that until 
 an eloquent appeal for succour was inserted in The 
 Morning Post many of his old friends may well have 
 been in ignorance of his actual condition. But it was 
 all the same to Sheridan whether they were heartless 
 or simply thoughtless, and the Regent was justified in 
 characterizing the ice and currant water that was sent 
 from Holland House as " an odd contribution." From 
 the Regent himself came ^200, which Mrs. Sheridan, so 
 soon as the danger of actual want had passed away, 
 
SHERIDAN. 169 
 
 returned. The srnallness of the sum is naturally visited 
 by Moore, on the evidence before him, with just con- 
 demnation. But it seems that the Regent, who naturally 
 remembered his last money transaction with Sheridan, 
 was really in ignorance of the position in which his old 
 servant was placed ; that he set no limit to the sum to 
 be advanced ; and that Mr. Vaughan, who was himself 
 in ignorance that Sheridan was destitute of the necessi- 
 ties of life, only consented with reluctance to accept the 
 ^200. Besides, the gift was made anonymously. In 
 fact, taking into consideration the circumstances as a 
 whole, the candid critic will probably pronounce that so 
 far from being to the Regent's discredit, the gift con- 
 stitutes one of the few really worthy actions with which 
 his name is connected in the page of history. 
 
 The anguish of his last hours thus in a measure 
 relieved, Sheridan met death bravely and wittily. " My 
 friends," he said, " have been very kind in calling upon 
 me, and in offering their services in their respective ways j 
 
 Dick W has just been here with his will-making 
 
 face." To his old friend Lady Bessborough he sent 
 a last message that his eyes would look up to the coffin- 
 lid as brightly as ever. He passed beyond the clutch of 
 the sheriffs officer on July 7, 181 6, and a few days later 
 came a magnificent funeral in Westminster Abbey to 
 heighten the contrasts in his tragic close. 
 
 u How proud they can press to the funeral array, 
 
 Of him whom they shunn'd in his sickness and sorrow ! 
 How bailiffs may seize his last blanket to-day, 
 
 Whose pall shall be held up by nobles to-morrow ! 
 
170 LIFE OF SHERIDAN, 
 
 Was this then the fate of this high-gifted man, 
 The pride of the palace, the bower, and the hall 
 
 The orator, dramatist, minstrel who ran 
 
 Through each mood of the lyre, and was master of all?' 
 
 THE END. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 A. 
 
 Abington, Mrs., the actress, 59, 
 61, 62 
 
 Addington, Mr., 155-157, 160 
 
 "Adventures of Miss Sidney 
 Biddulph, The," Mrs. Sheri- 
 dan's, 11, 13, 30, 80 
 
 "Affectation," 91 
 
 Aristcenetus, Sheridan's verse 
 translation of, 15 
 
 B. 
 
 Baddeley, the actor, 62 
 
 Bannister, the actor, 82, 136, 139 
 
 Bath, 14-20 
 
 Bath Chronicle, The, 19 
 
 11 Beggar's Opera, The," Gay's, 
 
 47. 48, 52 
 Belgrave, Lord, 95 [note), 96 
 
 (note) 
 Bernard, Mr. John, quoted, 27 
 Bessborough, Lady, 168, 169 
 Bessborough, Lord, 94 
 Boaden, Mr., his "Life of 
 
 Kemble " quoted, 30, 78, 80, 
 
 128, 135, 138, 142 (note) 
 Bond, Dr., editor of Sheridan's 
 
 speeches, 103 
 
 Boswell, James, 10, 119 
 
 Buckingham, Duke of, his "Re- 
 hearsal," 85-86 
 
 Bulkley, Mrs., the actress, 26 
 
 Burke, Edmund, 92, 93, 99-102^ 
 107, no, 148, 151, 152 
 
 Burney, Fanny, quoted, 87, 119^ 
 123 
 
 Butler, Charles, his " Remini- 
 scences " quoted, 109, 130 
 
 Byron, Lord, 164 ; quoted, 15, 
 52, 60, 153, 162, 163, 164-165,. 
 166 
 
 c 
 
 Calais, 19 
 
 Camden, Lord, 93 
 
 "Camp, The," written by 
 Tickell, not Sheridan, 83 
 
 Catalani, quoted, 125 (note) 
 
 Chamberlaine, Frances, see Sheri- 
 dan, Frances 
 
 Chester, Mr., quoted, n (foot- 
 note) 
 
 Clinch, Larry, the actor, 26, 44 
 
 "Clio's Protest; or, The Picture 
 Varnished," 16 
 
 Clive, Mrs., the actress, n, 81 
 
172 
 
 INDEX, 
 
 'Cobb, the musician, 139 
 Cobbett, Mr., 157 
 ' ' Collection of Occasional Poems, " 
 
 14 
 
 Column, the wit, 164, 165 {note) 
 
 Congreve, influence of and com- 
 parison with, 27-29, 33, 42, 66- 
 67. 73- 77 '-78 ', 80 
 
 Courtenay, Mr., 95 
 
 Covent Garden Theatre, 25, 44, 
 
 47, 48, 146 
 " Crazy Tales," 14 
 
 Crewe, Mrs., 68 {note), 116, 119, 
 
 120, 123 
 "Critic, The," its production, 
 8 3 _8 5 ; t0 what extent borrowed, 
 85-86 ; its permanent worth, 
 86-88 ; referred to, 14, 53, 60, 
 116 ; quoted, 75-76 
 
 Croker, Mr., 149 
 
 Croker Papers, the, quoted, 163, 
 167-168 
 
 Cumberland, Richard, 84 
 
 D. 
 
 De Quincey, quoted, 95 {note) 
 
 "Discovery, The," Mrs. Sheri- 
 dan's, 11, 48 
 
 Dodd, the actor, 59, 62, 87 
 
 Drury Lane Theatre, 48, 55-60, 
 81-82, 130-146, 161, 163, 165 
 
 Dublin, 11 
 
 " Duenna, The," its composition, 
 46-48 ; first performance, 48- 
 49 ; its music, 49-50 ; its plot, 
 50-51 ; its characters, 51-52 ; 
 Sheridan's estimate of its worth, 
 52-53 ; referred to, 20, 55 and 
 note, 122 
 
 'Dundas, Mr., 44 
 
 Dunkirk, 19 
 
 "Dupe, The," Mrs. Sheridan's, 
 
 11 
 
 E. 
 Elliot, Sir Gilbert (Lord Minto), 
 
 quoted, 108-109, 148 
 English Illustrated Magazine, 
 
 The, 18 {foot-note), 56 {note) 
 English?nan, The, 94 
 " Essay on Irish Absentees," 94 
 " Essay on the Letters of Lord 
 
 Chesterfield, 24 
 Essex, Lord, 165 
 
 F. 
 Farm Hill, Waltham Abbey, 20 
 Farquhar, influence of, 27-29, 34, 
 
 43,73 
 
 Farren, Miss, the actress, 59, 61, 
 62, 132, 136 
 
 "Fashionable Friends," Miss 
 Berry's, 140-141 
 
 Fielding, influence of, 33, 79, 85, 
 86 
 
 Fitzgerald, Lord Edward, 123 
 
 Fitzherbert, Mrs., 149 
 
 Fitzpatrick, General, 16, 68 ; 
 quoted, 115 
 
 Fletcher's " Knight of the Burn- 
 ing Pestle," 85 
 
 Foote, influence of, 28, 80 
 
 Ford, Dr., 55-57, iS 1 "^ 2 
 
 Fordyce, Lady Margaret, 16 
 
 "Foresters, The," 90, 91 
 
 " Forty Thieves," 90 
 
 Fox, Charles James, 11, 93, 96 
 {note), 97-102, 107, 109, in, 
 117, 122, 148-151, 154, 156-8, 
 160 ; quoted, 115, 142 
 
 Frith Street, Soho, 13-14 
 
 G. 
 
 Garrick, David, 11, 47, 48-49, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 17a 
 
 55-60, 81-83, 91, 93 ; quoted, 
 
 70-71, 74, 81, 82 
 Genlis, Pamela de, 124 
 George IV., see Prince Regent 
 Gilray, Mr., 157 
 "Glorious First of June, The," 
 
 90 
 Goldsmith, Oliver, influence of, 
 
 28 
 Gosse, Mr., quoted, 77 
 Grenville, Lord, 155-160 ; quoted, 
 
 108, 150 
 Greville, Mrs., 116 
 Grey, Mr., 148, 149, 154, 157- 
 
 159 
 
 H. 
 
 Halhed, Mr., 13, 14, 18, 85 
 Hare, Mr., the wit, 68, 94, 120 
 Harness, Mr., quoted, 125 
 Harris, Mr., manager of Covent 
 
 Garden, 25 
 Harris, Mrs., 135 
 Harrow, 13 
 
 Hastings, Warren, 102-112 
 Hazlitt, the critic, quoted, 63-67, 
 
 70, 73- 79 
 Henderson, the actor, 83 
 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, 
 
 11 
 Herman's Miscellany, 14 
 Holland, Lord, quoted, 119, 126, 
 
 153, 158, 163 (note) 
 Hopkins, Miss, the actress, 61 
 
 I. 
 
 Ireland, William, his forgery of 
 
 " Vortigern," 139-40 
 Ironmonger, Mr., 167 
 
 J. 
 
 Johnson, Dr., IX, 12, 15, 22, 54- 
 
 55, 94 ; quoted, 11, 12, 14, 54- 
 
 55 
 Jordan, Mrs., the actress, 59,. 
 
 136 
 "Jupiter," 14, 85 
 
 K. 
 
 Kean, the actor, 165 
 
 Kelly, Michael, the musician and 
 
 singer, 53, 91, 139 ; quoted,. 
 
 132, 133 and note, I34~i35> 
 
 141 
 Kemble, Charles, the actor, 139,. 
 
 142 
 Kemble, the actor, 61, 62, 129,. 
 
 135-140, 142, 145 
 King, the actor, 62, 71, 8r, 84,. 
 
 87. 137 
 
 L. 
 
 Lacy, Mr. Willoughby, 55-58,. 
 
 131 
 
 Lamb, Charles, quoted, 61, 62, 
 
 70,71 
 
 Langford, Mr., 56 {note) 
 Lauderdale, Lord, 120, 122 
 "Lectures on the Comic Writers," 
 Hazlitt's, quoted, 63-67, 70,. 
 
 73 
 Lee, Mr. , the actor, 25, 26 (note) 
 Lefanu, Miss, quoted, 23, 65, 76 
 " Life of Sheridan," Moore's, see- 
 Moore, Thomas 
 Linley, Miss, see Sheridan, Mrs., 
 
 Sheridan's first wife 
 Linley, Mr., 17-20, 22, 24, 46-49. 
 
 55-57. 84. 127, 131, 161 
 Lisle, 19 
 
 Long, Mr., 17-18, 22 
 Loughborough, Lord, 150 
 
174 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 M. 
 
 Macmillan's Magazine, 114 [note) 
 
 "Mathews, Mr., 18-19, 37> 7^ 
 
 Mathews, Mrs., quoted, 71 {note) 
 146, 165 [note) 
 
 ^Mathews, the actor, 71 (note), 
 121 
 
 Matthews, Mr. Brander, quoted, 
 27. 3 8 - 55-56, 70 
 
 ^Melbourne, Lord, 114 
 
 " Memoirs of Mrs. Frances Sheri- 
 dan," Miss Lefanu's, quoted, 
 
 23 
 Miller, Lady, 15, 16 
 Minto, Professor, quoted, 118 
 Moliere, influence of, 44-45, 50, 
 
 77, 79 
 -Moore, Mr. Peter, 166, 167 
 -Moore, Thomas, 11, 88, 89, 90, 
 113, 114, 116, 131, 164, 168 ; 
 his " Life of Sheridan " quoted, 
 14, 20, 23, 24, 41, 46, 48, 49, 
 50. 5i. 55. 56, 64, 69, 72, 75, 76, 
 83, 85, 99, 123, 127, 139, 159, 
 163, 165 (note), 167, 169 
 -Morning Advertiser, The, 20 
 Morning Post, The, 23, 144-145, 
 
 168 
 -Murphy, Arthur, his "Know 
 your own Mind,'' 79 
 
 N. 
 
 " Nourjahad," Mrs. Sheridan's, 
 
 13 
 North, Lord, ir, 22, 93, 94, 96, 
 
 97 
 
 -Norton, Mrs., Sheridan's grand- 
 daughter, 114 and note ; quoted, 
 18 
 
 -Notes and Queries, 96 (note) 
 
 O. 
 
 O'Beirne, Mr., 121 
 
 Octogenarian, the Sheridan me- 
 moirs of an, 90, 114-115 
 
 " Ode to Scandal," 89 
 
 Ogle, Miss, see Sheridan, Mrs., 
 Sheridan's second wife 
 
 O'Keeffe, John, dramatist, 136 
 
 Orchard Street, Portman Square, 
 22, 23 
 
 Palmer, John, the actor, 62, 71, 
 
 87, 136, 139 
 "Panegyric to the Ridotto, A," 
 
 16-17 
 Parr, Dr., 13, 140 ; quoted, 12 
 Parsons, the actor, 162 
 Patmore, Mr. Coventry, 30 
 Peake, Mr., the treasurer at Drury 
 
 Lane, 129-130, 133 (note), 145 
 Pitt, William, 93, 94, 95, 98, 99 
 
 102, 109, 118, 150-152, 155, 157, 
 
 160 ; quoted, 142 
 " Pizarro," 60, 88, 90, 135, 141- 
 
 144, 146 
 Pope, Miss, the actress, 62 
 Prince Regent, the, 113, 115, 117- 
 
 118 147-151, 156, 158-160, 161, 
 
 163- 164, 167-169 ; quoted, 10 
 " Pronouncing Dictionary of the 
 
 English Language," Thomas 
 
 Sheridan's, 12, 14 
 
 R. 
 
 Raymond, Mr. J. G., 162 
 "Relapse, The," Vanbrugh's, 
 Sheridan's "Trip to Scar- 
 borough '' an adaptation of, 59 
 Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 68, 166 
 1 ' Reynolds's Life and Times " 
 quoted, 26 (note), 132 (note) 
 
INDEX. 
 
 175 
 
 Richardson, Joseph, 120, 121, 
 126, 142 [note), 167 
 
 Richardson, Samuel, 11 
 
 Ridgway, Mr., 64 
 
 "'Rivals, The," its first appear- 
 ance, 25-29 ; charges of plagi- 
 arism made against it, 29-34 ; 
 its plot, 34-36 ; its characters 
 and dialogue, 36-43 ; its suc- 
 cess, 44 ; referred to, 53, 55, 
 and note, 57, 61, 63, 64, 70 
 
 "Robinson Crusoe," a panto- 
 mime, 90 
 
 Robinson, Mrs., the actress, 59, 133 
 
 Rogers, the poet, 162, 164, 168 ; 
 quoted, 30, 61, 128 
 
 Rolle, Mr,, 149 
 
 "School for Scandal, The," first 
 performance and success, 60- 
 63 ; its brilliant dialogue, 63- 
 65 ; its shortcomings, 65-67 ; 
 its wit, 67-68 ; its length and 
 its plot, 68-70 ; its morality, 
 7~75 > tne charges of plagi- 
 arism brought against it, 75- 
 80 ; referred to, 41, 53, 81, 114, 
 116 
 
 Scott, Major, 100, 101 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter, quoted, 52 
 
 Selwyn, George, the wit, 68, 94, 
 120 
 
 Shelburne, Lord, 97 
 
 Sheridan, Alicia, Sheridan's sister, 
 11, 122 
 
 Sheridan, Charles, Sheridan's 
 brother, 13, 18, 122 
 
 Sheridan, Dr. Thomas, Sheridan's 
 grandfather, 9-10 
 
 -Sheridan, Frances, Sheridan's 
 mother, 10-13, l8 2 5 4 8 ', her 
 
 son'sborrowings from her works, 
 30-33, 80 
 
 Sheridan, Mrs., Sheridan's first 
 wife, 17-24, 37, 46-47, 93, 103, ' 
 116, 118, 122-125, I 36. 166 
 
 Sheridan, Mrs., Sheridan's second 
 wife, 124-125, 130, 162, 165 
 (note), 167, 168 
 
 Sheridan, Richard Brinsley Butler, 
 his ancestors, 9-10 ; parents, 
 10-13 ; birth, 12 ; school at 
 Harrow, 13 ; life at Frith "Street, 
 Soho, 13-14 ; removal to Bath, 
 14 ; first literary efforts, 14-15 ; 
 his entry into Bath society, 15- 
 17 ; his elopement and marriage 
 with Miss Linley, 17-21 ; they 
 settle in Orchard Street, Port- 
 man Square, 22 ; their entrance 
 into society, 23-24 ; he chooses V 
 literature as a profession, 24 ; ? 
 his preference for the drama, 
 25; "The Rivals," 25-44; 
 "St. Patrick's Day, or The 
 Scheming Lieutenant," 44-46; 
 collaboration with Mr. Linley, 
 46-48 ; "The Duenna," 48-53; 
 popularity, 54-55 ; he purchases 
 a share in Drury Lane Theatre, 
 55-57 > his troubles as manager, 
 57-58; "A Trip to Scar- 
 borough," 59-60 ; " The School 
 for Scandal,'' 60-81 ; continued 
 troubles at Drury Lane, 81-82 ; 
 a monody on the death of 
 Garrick, 82-83 '> " The Critic," 
 83-88 ; his later literary pro- 
 ductions, 88-91 ; the circum- 
 stances in which he turned to 
 politics, 92-93 ; he joins the 
 Whigs, 93-94 ; is elected for 
 Stafford, 94 ; his position in the 
 
176 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 House of Commons, 94-96 ; he 
 holds office, 96-98 ; in opposi- 
 tion, 98-99 : his speech for the 
 impeachment of Warren Hast- 
 ings, 100-102 ; his great speech 
 against Hastings in Westmin- 
 ster Hall, 102-111 ; his final 
 speech in the Hastings trial, 
 111-112 ; unsatisfactory charac- 
 ter of all biographies of Sheri- 
 dan, 113-115 ; his general 
 characteristics, 115-116; his 
 attitude towards society, 116- 
 118 ; his dissipations, 118 ; 
 his brilliant conversation, 119- 
 
 120 ; his practical jokes, 120- 
 
 121 ; his friends, 121-122 ; his 
 relations with his family, 122- 
 124 ; his second marriage, 124- 
 126 ; his money difficulties, 
 126-130 ; his management of 
 Drury Lane Theatre, 130-137 ; 
 troubles with his stage-mana- 
 gers, 137-138 ; he rebuilds 
 Drury Lane Theatre, 138-139 ; 
 performances in the new theatre, 
 139-141 ; "Pizarro," 141-144 ; 
 his increasing embarrassments, 
 144-146 ; Drury Lane Theatre 
 burnt down, 146; his connec- 
 tion with the Prince of 
 Wales, 147-148 ; unfortunate 
 consequences, 148-151 ; he 
 quarrels with Burke, 151-152 ; 
 subsequent political career, 152- 
 159 ; review of his political life, 
 159-160 ; his financial position 
 after the burning of Drury Lane 
 Theatre, 161 ; his manner of j 
 existence thereafter, 162-163 ; | 
 rupture with the Prince Regent I 
 and exile from Carlton House, ; 
 
 163-164 ; his final relations 
 with Drury Lane, 164-165 ; his 
 property disposed of to pay his 
 debts, 166-167 ; the misery of 
 his last illness, 167-169 ; his 
 death, 169-170 
 
 Sheridan, Thomas, Sheridan's 
 father, 10-14, 18, 20, 22, 25, 37, 
 81-82, 122, 137'; quoted, 79 
 80 
 
 Sheridan, Tom, Sheridan's son, 
 114, 116, 125-126, 130, 145, 
 167 
 
 Siddons, Mrs., the actress, 136,. 
 137, 139, 141, 142 
 
 Smith, the actor, 61-62 
 
 Smollett, influence of, 33, 34 
 
 Smyth, Professor, 114, 118;. 
 quoted, 37, in, 115, 124-125, 
 127, 167 
 
 Stafford, Sheridan's representation 
 of, 94, 159, 163 
 
 Steele, influence of, 34 
 
 ' ' St. Patrick's Day, or The Schem- 
 ing Lieutenant," 44-46 
 
 "Stranger, The," 90, 141 
 
 Sumner, Dr., 13 
 
 T. 
 
 Thompson, Mr., his adaptation^ 
 
 of " The Stranger, " 141 
 Thurlow, Lord, 149 
 Tickell, Mr., 83, 89, 121 
 Townshend, Charles, the wit, 94 
 Townshend, Lord John, 93, 97- 
 
 {note), 122; quoted, 115 
 "Trip to Bath," Mrs. Sheridan's, 
 
 30-33, 80 
 "Trip to Scarborough, A," 59 
 
 60 
 
INDEX. 
 
 177 
 
 V. 
 
 Vanbrugh, adaptation of his 
 
 "Relapse," 59 
 Vaughan, " Hat," 85, 167, 168, 
 
 169 
 "Vortigern," William Ireland's, 
 
 140 
 
 W. 
 Wallis, Mr., 55-56 
 Walpole, Horace, 141 ; quoted, 
 
 16, 61-65, 68-69, 8 5. 9 8 > 108 
 Warton, Dr., 140 
 Watkins, Dr., 114; quoted, 55- 
 
 57,75 
 Westminster Abbey, 169 
 
 Whitbread, Mr., 134, 159, 161, 
 163, 164, 165 and note 
 
 Whyte, Mr., Sheridan's school- 
 master, 11 
 
 Wilberforce, William, 94, 166 
 
 Windham, Mr., 93, 156 ; quoted, 
 2 3> "9 
 
 Woodfall, Mr., 94 
 
 Wraxall, Mr., quoted, 94, 95, 97 
 {note) 
 
 Wright, Mr., the publisher, 89 
 
 Wycherley, influence of, 27, 28, 
 30. 38, 50, 77 
 
 Y. 
 
 Yates, Mrs., the actress, 82 
 
 12 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN P. ANDERSON 
 (British Museum). 
 
 L Works. 
 II. Dramatic Works. 
 
 III. Speeches. 
 
 IV. Selections. 
 
 V. Single Works. 
 
 VI. Appendix 
 
 Biography, Criticism, etc. 
 Magazine Articles, etc. 
 
 VII. Chronological List of 
 Works. 
 
 I. WORKS. 
 
 The Works of the late Right 
 Honourable Richard Brinsley 
 Sheridan. 2 vols. London, 
 1821, 8vo. 
 
 The Works of the late Right 
 Honourable Richard Brinsley 
 Sheridan. Collected by Thomas 
 Moore, Esq. A new edition. 
 Complete in one volume. 
 Leipsic, 1833, 8vo. 
 
 The Works of the Right Honour- 
 able Richard Brinsley Sheridan, 
 with a memoir by James P. 
 Browne, M.D. Containing ex- 
 tracts from the life by Thomas 
 
 Moore. 2 vols. London, 1873, 
 8vo. 
 
 Also issued the same year, in one 
 volume, without " The Camp, a 
 musical entertainment," not written 
 by Sheridan, but included in the 
 two-volume edition. 
 The Works of Richard Brinsley 
 Sheridan. Dramas, poems, 
 translations, speeches, and 
 unfinished sketches. Edited by 
 F. Stainforth. London, 1874, 
 8vo. 
 
 II. DRAMATIC WORKS. 
 
 The Dramatic Works of Richard 
 Brinsley Sheridan, containing 
 
11 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 The School for Scandal, The 
 Rivals, The Duenna, The Critic. 
 London [1795 ?], 12mo. 
 
 The Dramatic Works of Richard 
 Brinsley Sheridan. With some 
 ~> observations upon his personal 
 and literary character. Gree- 
 nock, 1828, 12mo. 
 
 The Dramatic Works of Richard 
 Brinsley Sheridan. With a 
 biographical and critical sketch. 
 By Leigh Hunt. London, 
 1840, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. London, 
 
 1846, 8vo, 
 
 The Dramatic Works of Richard 
 
 I Brinsley Sheridan. With a 
 
 memoir of his life, by G. G. 
 
 S[imund]. London, 1848, 8vo. 
 
 Part of "Bohn's Standard 
 
 Library." 
 
 The Dramatic Works of Richara 
 Brinsley Sheridan, with a bio- 
 graphical and critical sketch 
 Edited by Ludwig Gantter. 
 Stuttgart, 1854, 8vo. 
 
 No. 3 of " The Standard Poets of 
 Great Britain." 
 
 The Plays of Richard Brinsley 
 
 Sheridan, with an introduction 
 
 by Henry Morley. London, 
 
 1883, 8vo. 
 
 Part of Motley's Universal Library. 
 
 Sheridan's Comedies. The Rivals 
 and the School for Scandal. 
 
 \ 
 
 Edited, with an introduction, 
 and notes to each play, and a 
 biographical sketch of Sheridan, 
 by Brander Matthews. Illustra- 
 tions by E. A. Abbey, etc. 
 Boston, 1885, 8vo. 
 
 Dramatic Works of Sheridan and 
 Goldsmith. With Goldsmith's 
 Poems. 2 vols. London, 1884, 
 32mo. 
 
 Another edition. London 
 
 [1886], 16mo. 
 
 Part of "Cassell's Miniature 
 Library of the Poets." 
 
 The Rivals, and the School for 
 
 Scandal. London, 1886, 16ino. 
 Forms part of " Cassell's National 
 
 Library." 
 The Dramatic Works of Richard 
 
 Brinsley Sheridan. London 
 
 [1887], 8vo. 
 Forms part of "Cassell's Red 
 
 Library." 
 Plays of Sheridan. Containing 
 
 The Rivals, The School for 
 
 Scandal, The Critic. London, 
 
 1889, 8vo. 
 Part of "Bohn's Select Library." 
 The Rivals, The School for -, 
 
 Scandal, and other plays of 
 
 Richard Brinsley Sheridan. 
 
 London, 1890, 8vo. 
 
 III. SPEECHES. 
 
 Speeches of the late Right Honour- 
 able Richard Brinsley Sheridan. , 
 (Several corrected by himself.) 
 Edited by a Constitutional 
 Friend. 5 vols. London, 1816, 
 8vo. 
 
 The Speeches of the Right Honour- 
 able Richard Brinsley Sheridan. 
 {Modern Orator, vol. 1.) Lon- 
 don, 1845, 8vo. 
 
 The legislative independence of 
 Ireland vindicated in a speech 
 of Mr. Sheridan's on the Irish 
 Propositions in the British 
 House of Commons, etc. Dub- 
 lin, 1785, 8vo. 
 
 Speeches in the Trial of Warren 
 Hastings. Edited by E. A. 
 Bond. 4 vols. London, 1859-61, 
 8vo. 
 
 Vols. 1 and 4 contain Sheridan's 
 Speeches, taken from Gurney's 
 reports. 
 
 The Speech of R. B. Sheridan in 
 bringing forward the fourth 
 charge against Warren Hastings 
 relative to the Begums of Oude. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 111 
 
 The second edition. London, 
 1787, 8vo. 
 
 Speech before the High Court of 
 Parliament on summing up the 
 evidence on the Begum Charge 
 against Warren Hastings, Esq. 
 London, 1788, 8vo. 
 
 Speech in the House of Commons, 
 on the 21st of April, 1798, on 
 the motion to address His 
 Majesty, on the present alarm- 
 ing state of affairs. [London t 
 1798] 8vo. 
 
 Speech of Richard Brinsley 
 Sheridan in the House of 
 Commons in reply to Mr. Pitt's 
 speech on the Union with 
 Ireland. Dublin, 1799, 8vo. 
 
 The Speech of Richard Brinsley 
 Sheridan, in the House of 
 Commons (8th December 1802), 
 on the motion for the Army 
 Establishment for the ensuing 
 year. London, 1S02, 8vo. 
 
 New edition. London, 1803, 
 
 8vo. 
 
 The Speech of R. B. Sheridan 
 
 in the House of Commons, Dec. 
 8, 1802, on the Army Estimates, 
 etc. Birmingham [1802], 8vo. 
 
 IV. SELECTIONS. 
 
 The Beauties of Sheridan, con- 
 sisting of selections from his 
 poems, dramas, and speeches, 
 by A. Howard. London [1834?], 
 12mo. 
 
 V, SINGLE WORKS. 
 
 The Camp, a Musical Entertain- 
 ment. By Richard Brinsley 
 Sheridan [or rather by R. 
 Tickell]. London, 1795, 12mo 
 
 The Camp, a Musical Entertain- 
 ment. Another edition. Lon- 
 don, 1803, 12mo. 
 
 Another edition. (Cumber- 
 
 land's British Theatre, vol. 32.) 
 Loudon [1829], 12mo. 
 
 Clio's Protest ; or, the Picture 
 Varnished [signed Asmodeo 
 i.e., R. B. Sheridan]. {The 
 Rival Beauties, etc., pp. 5-17.) 
 London [1771], 4to. 
 
 Clio's Protest; or, " The Pic- 
 ture" varnished, with other 
 poems. London, 1819, 8vo. 
 
 A Comparative Statement of the 
 two Bills for the bettor govern- 
 ment of the British possessions 
 in India, brought into Parlia- 
 ment by Mr. Fox and Mr. Pitt ; 
 with explanatory observations. 
 London, 1788, 4to. 
 
 Third edition. London, 1788, 
 
 4to. 
 
 Crazy Tales. By the late Richard 
 Brinsley Sheridan [or rather by 
 J. H. Stevenson. In verse]. 
 London, 18:5, 12mo. 
 
 The Critic ; or, a tragedy re- 
 hearsed. A dramatic piece in 
 three acts. London, 1781, 8vo. 
 Produced at Drury Lane in 1779. 
 
 Fourth edition. London, 
 
 1781, 8vo. 
 The title-page is engraved. 
 
 Another edition. Dublin, 
 
 1785, 12mo. 
 
 Another edition. (Cavithorn's 
 
 Minor British Theatre, vol. 6.) 
 London, 1807, 8vo. 
 
 Auother edition. (Modern 
 
 British Drama, vol. 5, pp. 
 642-659.) London, 1811, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. (The Lon- 
 don Theatre, by Thomas Dibdin, 
 vol. 8.) London, 1814, 16mo. 
 
 Another edition. (Mrs. Inch- 
 bald's Collection of Farces, vol. 
 3.) London, 1815, 12mo. 
 
 v^ 
 
IV 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 The Critic. Another edition. 
 
 London, 1820, 8vo. 
 Oxberry's New English Drama, 
 
 vol. 9. 
 Another edition. (The Lon- 
 don Stage, vol. 1.) London 
 
 [1824], 8vo. 
 Another edition. (British 
 
 Drama, vol. 1, pp. 554-566.) 
 
 London, 1824, 8vo. 
 Another edition. (Cumber- 
 land's British Theatre, vol. 15.) 
 
 London [1829], 12mo. 
 Another edition. (Penny 
 
 National Library, vol. 5.) 
 
 London [1830], 8vo. 
 Another edition. (The Acting 
 
 Drama, pp. 27-38.) London, 
 
 1834, 8vo. 
 Another edition. (Lacy's 
 
 Acting Edition of Plays, vol. 
 
 8.) London [1850], 12mo. 
 Another edition. (British 
 
 Drama, vol. 3, pp. 657-670.) 
 
 London, 1865, 8vo. 
 The Duenna: a Comic Opera. 
 
 London, 1775, 8vo. 
 Produced at Covent Garden on 
 
 the 21st November, 1775. 
 The Duenna; or, the Double 
 
 Elopement; a comic opera as it 
 
 is acted at the Theatre, Smoke 
 
 Alley, Dublin. [Dublin] 1786, 
 
 8vo. 
 Another edition. London, 
 
 1794, 8vo. 
 Another edition. Dublin, 
 
 1794, 12mo. 
 Another edition. (Mrs. 
 
 Inchbald's British Theatre, vol. 
 
 19.) London, 1808, 12mo. 
 Another edition. London, 
 
 1818, 8vo. 
 
 Oxberry's New English Drama, 
 
 vol. 2. 
 Another edition. (London 
 
 Stage, vol. 1.) London [1824], 
 
 8vo. 
 Another edition. (Duncombe's 
 
 Edition, vol. 39.) London 
 [1825], 12mo. 
 
 Another edition. (British 
 
 Drama, vol. 2, pp. 1102- 
 1119.) London, 1826, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. (Cumber- 
 land's British Theatre, vol. 2.) 
 London, 1829, 12mo. 
 
 Another edition. ( The Penny 
 
 National Library, vol. 5.) Lon- 
 don [1830], 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. (The Lon- 
 don Theatre, pp. 78-95.) Lon- 
 don, 1834, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. (British 
 
 Drama, vol. 4, pp. 1055-1072.) 
 London, 1865, 8vo. 
 
 Songs, duets, trios, etc., 
 
 in the Duenna, etc. Sixth 
 edition. London, 1775, 8vo. 
 
 Eighth edition. London, 
 
 1776, 8vo. 
 
 Fifteenth edition. London, 
 
 1776, 4to. 
 
 Twenty-fifth edition. Lon- 
 don, 1778, 8vo. 
 
 Twenty-ninth edition. Lon- 
 don, 1783, 8vo. 
 
 The Forty Thieves ; a romantic 
 drama, by R. B. Sheridan and 
 Colman the Younger. (Dun- 
 combe's Edition, vol. 2.) Lon- 
 don [1825], 8vo. 
 
 The General Fast; a lyric ode: 
 with a form of prayer proper 
 for the occasion ; and a dedica- 
 tion to the King. By the 
 author of the Duenna. London 
 [1775 ?], 4to. 
 
 The Love Epistles of Aristaenetus, 
 translated from the Greek into 
 English metre [by N. B. 
 Halhed and R. B. Sheridan]; 
 with notes. London, 1771, 
 8vo. 
 
 Second edition, corrected. 
 
 London, 1773, 8vo. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 The Love Epistles of Aristsenetus. 
 Translated by R. B. Sheridan 
 and Mr. Halhed. {Erotica. 
 The Elegies of Propertius, etc.) 
 London, 1854, 8vo. 
 
 The Love Epistles comprise pp. 
 430-496. A ro-issue of this work 
 appeared in 1883. 
 
 An Ode to Scandal ; to which are 
 added, Stanzas on Fire. Second 
 edition. London, 1819, 8vo. 
 
 Pizarro, a tragedy in five acts, 
 taken from the Gorman drama 
 of Kotzebue, and adapted to 
 the English stage, by R. B. 
 Sheridan. London, 1799, 8vo. 
 
 Twentieth edition. London, 
 
 1799, 8vo. 
 
 Twenty-sixth edition. Lon- 
 don, 1800, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. {London 
 
 Stage, vol. 1.) London [182-1], 
 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. London, 
 1824, 8vo. 
 
 Oxberry's New English Drama, 
 vol. 20. 
 
 Another edition. {British 
 
 Drama, vol. 2, pp. 982-1000.) 
 London, 1826, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. {Cumber- 
 land's British Theatre, vol. 1.) 
 London, 1829, 12mo. 
 
 Another edition. ( The Penny 
 
 National Library, vol. 5.) Lon- 
 don [1830], 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. ( The Acting 
 
 Drama, pp. 95-111.) London, 
 1834, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. {Lacy's 
 
 Acting Edition of Plays, vol. 
 27.) London [1856], 12mo. 
 
 Another edition, with histori- 
 cal notes, by Charles Kean. 
 London [1856], 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. {British 
 Drama, vol. 1, pp. 65-81.) 
 London, 1864, 8vo. 
 
 The Rivals, a Comedy, as it is 
 
 acted at the Theatre Royal in 
 
 Covont Garden. London, 1775, 
 
 8vo. 
 
 Produced at Covent Garden on 
 
 the 17th of January 1775. 
 Second edition. London, 
 
 1775, 8vo. 
 Third edition. London, 1776, 
 
 8vo. 
 Another edition. {Collection 
 
 of New Plays, vol. 4, pp. 143- 
 
 282.) Altenburgh, 1778, 8vo. 
 Fifth edition. London, 1791, 
 
 8vo. 
 Another edition. Dublin, 
 
 1793, 12mo. 
 Another edition. {Mrs. Inch- J 
 
 bald's British Theatre, vol. 19.) 
 
 London, 1808, 12mo. 
 Another edition. {Modern J 
 
 British Drama, vol. 4, pp. 619- 
 
 648.) London, 1811, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. {The 
 
 London Theatre, by Thomas 
 Dibdin, vol. 1.) London, 1815, 
 16mo. 
 
 Another edition. London, > 
 
 1818, 8vo. v 
 
 Oxberry's New English Drama, 
 
 vol. 1. 
 Oxberry's Edition. London, 
 
 1820, 12mo. 
 Another edition. {British / 
 
 Drama, vol. 1, pp. 346-368.) 
 
 London, 1824, 8vo. 
 Another edition. {The Lon- ^/ 
 
 don Stage, vol. 1.) London 
 
 [1824], 8vo. 
 Another edition. {Cumber- y 
 
 land's British Theatre, vol. 2.) * 
 
 London, 1829, 12mo. 
 
 Another edition. {The 
 
 Penny National Library, vol. 
 5.) London [1830], 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. {Sinnett's 
 
 Family Drama, pp. 1-80.) 
 Hamburg, 1834, 8vo. 
 
VI 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 The Rivals. Another edition. 
 
 {The Acting Drama, pp. 39-60.) 
 
 London, 1834, 8vo. 
 Another edition. {Buncombe's 
 
 Edition, vol. 40.) London [1852], 
 
 12mo. 
 Another edition . {Lacy's 
 
 Acting Edition of Plays, vol. 
 
 33.) London [1858], 12mo. 
 Truchy's edition. Paris, 1861, 
 
 8vo. 
 Another edition. {Library 
 
 of English Literature, No. 1.) 
 
 Gouda [1885], 8vo. 
 The Rivals. Illustrated by 
 
 F. M. Gregory. London [1890], 
 
 4to. 
 
 Only 100 copies printed. 
 St. Patrick's Day. {Cumberland's 
 
 British Theatre, vol. 28.) Lon- 
 don [1829], 12mo. 
 
 Produced at Covent Garden in 
 
 1775. 
 Another edition. {Lacy's 
 
 Acting Edition of Plays, vol. 
 
 114.) London [1879], 12mo. 
 The School for Scandal, a Comedy. 
 
 Dublin [1777?], 8vo. 
 
 Performed on the 8th of May 
 
 1777. 
 Another edition. Dublin, 
 
 1781, 12mo. 
 Fourth edition. Dublin, 1782, 
 
 12mo. 
 Another edition. The real 
 
 and genuine School for Scandal. 
 
 London, 1783, 12mo. 
 Another edition. {A volume 
 
 of plays, as performed at the 
 
 Theatre Royal, Smoke Alley, 
 
 Dublin.) [Dublin], 1785, 16mo. 
 Another edition. Dublin, 
 
 1787, 12mo. 
 Fifth edition. London, 1788, 
 
 12mo. 
 Another edition. {Collection 
 
 of English Plays, vol.1.) Copen- 
 hagen, 1807, 12mo. 
 
 (Sinnett's 
 147-226.) 
 
 London 
 
 The School for Scandal. Another, 
 edition. London, 1823, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. ( The London 
 
 Stage, vol. 4.) London [1824], 
 8vo. 
 
 (Duncombe's edition, vol. 1.) 
 
 London [1825], 12mo. 
 
 Another edition. {British 
 
 Drama, vol. 2, pp. 1600-1624.) 
 London, 1826, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. {Cumber- 
 land's British Theatre, vol. 14.) 
 London [1829], 12mo. 
 
 Another edition. {The Penny 
 
 National Library, vol. 5.) Lon- 
 don [1830], 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. {The Acting 
 
 Drama, pp. 1-26.) London, 
 1834, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. 
 
 Family Drama, pp. 
 Hamburg, 1834, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. 
 
 [1837], 8vo. 
 
 Part of vol. vii. of Webster's 
 "Acting National Drama." 
 
 Another edition. Paris, 1852, 
 
 12mo. 
 
 Another edition. {Lacy's Act- 
 ing Edition of Plays, vol. 27.) 
 London [1856], 12mo. 
 
 Another edition. Leipzig, 
 
 1861, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. Gottingen, 
 
 1863, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. 
 
 Drama, vol. 2, pp 
 London, 1864, 8vo. 
 
 A Trip to Scarborough, a Comedy 
 . . . altered from Vanbrugh's 
 Relapse; or, Virtue in Danger, 
 etc. London, 1781, 8vo. 
 
 Produced at Drury Lane, 24th 
 February, 1777. 
 
 Another edition. (Mrs. Inch- 
 bald's Modern Theatre, vol. 7.) 
 London, 1811, 12mo. 
 
 Another edition. {The Lon- 
 
 / 
 
 {British 
 85-410.) 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 vn 
 
 / don Theatre, by Thomas Dibdin, 
 
 vol. 14.) London, 1815, 16mo. 
 
 Another edition. London, 
 
 / 1824, 8vo. 
 
 / Oxberry's New English Drama, 
 
 vol. 20. 
 Another edition. (London 
 
 Stage, vol. 2.) London [1824], 
 
 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. (Cumber- 
 
 ( land's British Theatre, vol. 4.) 
 
 London, 1829, 12mo. 
 Another edition. (The Penny 
 
 National Library, vol. 5.) 
 
 London [1830], 8vo. 
 Another edition. (The Acting 
 
 Drama, pp. 61-77.) London, 
 
 1834, 8vo. 
 Another edition. (Lacy's 
 
 Acting Edition of Plays, vol. 
 
 103.) London [1875], 12mo. 
 Verses to the memory of Garrick. 
 
 Spoken as a monody, at the 
 
 Theatre Royal in Drury Lane. 
 
 London, 1779, 4to. 
 Second edition. London, 
 
 1779, 4to. 
 
 Another edition. The Tears 
 
 of Genius. A monody on the 
 death of Mr. Garrick. Dublin, 
 
 1780, 12mo. 
 
 VI. APPENDIX. 
 
 Biography, Criticism, etc. 
 
 Albion, pseud. Second edition. 
 Four pleasant epistles written 
 for the entertainment and 
 gratification of four unpleasant 
 characters viz., A very exalted 
 subject in his Majesty's Domin- 
 ions [George Prince of Wales]. 
 The most unpatriotic man alive 
 [C. J. Fox]. The most artful 
 man alive [R. B. Sheridan], 
 and second childhood [E. Burke]. 
 London, 1789, 4to. 
 
 Bardsley, Samuel A. Critical 
 remarks on Pizarro, a tragedy 
 taken from the German drama 
 of Kotzebue, and adapted to the 
 English stage by R. B. Sheridan, 
 etc. London, 1800, 8vo. 
 
 Britton, J. Sheridan and Kotze- 
 bue. The enterprising adven- 
 tures of Pizarro . . .with bio- 
 graphical sketches of Sheridan 
 and Kotzebue, etc. London, 
 1799, 8vo. 
 
 Brougham, Henry, Lord. His- / 
 torical Sketches of Statesmen 
 who flourished in the time of 
 George III. London, 1839, 
 8vo. 
 
 Mr. Sheridan, pp. 210-218. 
 
 Byron, Lord. Monody on the ^ 
 death of the Right Honourable 
 R. B. Sheridan, written at the 
 request of a friend, to be spoken 
 at Drury Lane Theatre. [By 
 Lord Byron. London, 1816, 
 8vo. 
 
 Cobbett, William, The Political 
 Proteus. A view of the .public 
 character and conduct of R. B. 
 Sheridan, Esq., etc. London, 
 1804, 8vo. 
 
 Encyclopaedia Britannica. Ency- 
 clopaedia Britannica. Eighth 
 edition. Edinburgh, 1860, 4to. 
 Richard Brinsley Sheridan, by 
 James Browne, LL.D., vol. xx., pp. 
 106-112. 
 
 Ninth edition. London, . 
 
 1886, 4to. * 
 
 Richard Brinsley Sheridan, by 
 Professor W. Minto, vol. xxi., pp. 
 797-800. 
 
 Fitzgerald, Percy. The Lives of * 
 the Sheridans. 2 vols. Lon- ^ 
 don, 1886, 8vo. 
 
 Fry, Alfred A. A Lecture on the 
 Right Honourable R. Brinsley 
 Sheridan, delivered at Constan- 
 tinople. Constantinople, 1S62, 
 8vo. 
 
via 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Gent, Thomas. Monody : to the 
 memory of the Right Honour- 
 able Richard Brinsley Sheridan. 
 London, 1816, 4to. 
 
 Georgian Era. The Georgian 
 Era : Memoirs of the most 
 eminent persons, who have 
 flourished in Great Britain, 
 from the accession of George 
 the First to the demise of George 
 the Fourth. Loudon, 1832, 
 12 mo. 
 
 Richard Brinsley Sheridan, vol. i., 
 pp. 364-376. 
 
 Harsha, David A. The most 
 eminent Orators and Statesmen 
 of ancient and modern times. 
 Philadelphia [1875], 8vo. 
 
 Richard Brinsley Sheridan, pp. 
 240-255. 
 
 Hazlitt, "William. Lectures on 
 the English Comic Writers. 
 London, 1819, 8vo. 
 Sheridan, pp. 334-338. 
 j Heron, D. C. Richard Brinsley 
 Sheridan. (Afternoon Lectures 
 on Literature and Art, Dublin, 
 1867 and 1868.) Dublin, 1869, 
 8vo. 
 
 Lefanu, Alicia. Memoirs of the 
 life and writings of Mrs. Francis 
 Sheridan, with remarks upon a 
 late life of the Right Honour- 
 able R. B. Sheridan, etc. Lon- 
 don, 1824, 8vo. 
 
 Mangin, Edward. A Letter to 
 Thomas Moore, Esq., on the 
 subject of Sheridan's " School 
 for Scandal." Bath, 1826, 8vo. 
 
 Mathias, T. J. The Political 
 Dramatist of the House of 
 Commons in 1795. A satire 
 [in verse by T. J. Mathias]. 
 London, 1796, 8vo. 
 
 Molloy, J. Fitzgerald. Famous 
 v Plays, etc. 
 
 Sheridan's Rivals, and School for 
 Scandal, pp. 175-218. 
 
 / 
 
 Moore, Thomas. Memoirs of the ^ 
 life of the Right Honourable / 
 Richard Brinsley Sheridan. 
 London, 1825, 4to. 
 
 Nicoll, Henry James. Great 
 Orators. Burke, Fox, Sheridan, 
 Pitt. Edinburgh, 1880, 8vo. 
 
 Oliphant, Margaret Oliphant. i 
 Sheridan. London, 1883, 8vo. -* 
 
 Part of the English Men of 
 Letters Series. 
 
 Pepperpod, Peter, pseud. The 
 Literary Bazaar . . . with a 
 pic-nic elegy on Richard Brins- 
 ley Sheridan. London, 1816, 
 8vo. 
 
 Philips, Charles. A Garland for 
 the grave of Richard Brinsley 
 Sheridan. London, 1816, 8vo. 
 
 Rae, W. F. Wilkes, Sheridan, 
 Fox, etc. London, 1874, 8vo. 
 
 Richard Brinsley Sheridan, pp. 
 141-245. 
 
 S., R. B. The Critick Antici- 
 pated; or, the Humours of the 
 Green Room ; a farce [written 
 in imitation of Sheridan'spiece]. 
 London, 1779, 8vo. 
 
 Satiricon, Bamley, pseud. More 
 Kotzebue ! The origin of 
 My own Pizarro, a farce. [A 
 satire on Sheridan's "Pizarro."] 
 London, 1799, 8vo. 
 
 Scott, John. Observations upon 
 Mr. Sheridan's Pamphlet in- 
 tituled " Comparative State- 
 ment of the two Bills for the 
 better government of the British 
 Possessions in India." London, 
 1788, 4to. 
 
 Second edition. London, 
 
 1788, 4to. 
 
 Third edition. London, 1789, 
 
 4 to. 
 
 Sheridan, Richard Brinsley. The 
 case of the Stage in Ireland, 
 wherein the conduct and 
 abilities of Mr. Sheridan are 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 IX 
 
 examined, etc. Dublin [1758], 
 8vo. 
 
 La Governante ; or the 
 
 Duenna ; a new comic opera. 
 Tli3 poetry by Mr. Badini, the 
 music by Signor Bertoni. Lon- 
 don, 1779, 8vo. 
 
 The struggles of Sheridan, or 
 
 the Ministry in full cry. [A 
 satire in verse.] London, 1790, 
 4 to. 
 
 Memoir of the life of R. B. 
 
 Sheridan, with a concise critique 
 upon the New Tragedy of 
 Pizarro. London, 1799, 8vo. 
 
 A Critique on the Tragedy of 
 
 Pizarro, as represented at Drury 
 Lane Theatre with such un- 
 common applause. To which 
 is added, a new prologue, that 
 has not yet been spoken. Lon- 
 don, 1799, 8vo. 
 
 Mr. Fox's title to Patriot and 
 
 Man of the People disputed; 
 and the political conduct of Mr. 
 Sheridan and his adherents 
 accurately scrutinised, etc. 
 London, 1806, 8vo. 
 
 An Address to Richard Brins- 
 
 ley Sheridan, on the public and 
 private proceedings during the 
 late election for Westminster, 
 etc. London, 1807, 8vo. 
 
 Authentic Memoirs of the 
 
 life and death of R. B. Sheridan. 
 With an estimate of his charac- 
 ter and talents. London, 1816, 
 8vo. 
 
 Lines on the death of 
 
 [i.e., R. B. Sheridan], London, 
 1816, 8vo. 
 
 Lines supposed to be written 
 on the death of the late R. B. 
 Sheridan, Esq. . . . [Edited] 
 with additional lines, Addressed 
 to * Friendship [by M. Can- 
 canen]. London [1816], s.sh. 
 folio. 
 
 The Life of R. B. Sheridan, 
 with the remarks of Pitt, Fox, 
 and Burke on his most cele- 
 brated speeches. Second edi- 
 tion; London [1816 ?], 8vo. 
 
 Sheridaniana ; or, Anecdotes 
 
 of the life of Richard Brinsley 
 Sheridan ; his table-talk, and 
 bon-mots. London, 1826, 8vo. 
 
 Sheridan and his Times ; by 
 
 an Octogenarian who stood by 
 his knee in youth, and sat at hia k 
 table in manhood. 2 vols. Lon- 
 don, 1859, 8vo. 
 
 Smyth, William. Memoir of Mr. ^ 
 Sheiidan. Leeds, 1840, 8vo. 
 
 Stewart, C. B. A Second Letter 
 to Mr. Sheridan. With stric- 
 tures on the general conduct of 
 opposition. By a Suffolk Free- 
 holder [C. B. Stewart]. Bury 
 St. Edmunds, 1796, 8vo. 
 
 Surface, Joseph, pseud. An 
 epistle from Joseph Surface, 
 Esq., to Richard Brinsley 
 Sheridan, etc. [A satire.] 
 London, 1780, 4to. 
 
 Watkins, John. Memoirs of the 
 public and private life of the 
 Right Honorable Richard Brins- 
 ley Sheridan, with a particular 
 account of his family and con- 
 nexions. London, 1817, 4to. 
 
 Weiss, Kurt. Richard Brinsley 
 Sheridan, als Lustspieldichter. 
 Leipzig, 1888, 8vo. 
 
 Wharton, Grace and Philip, pseud. 
 i.e., Mrs. Katharine and J. C. 
 Thomson. The Wits and Beaux 
 of Society. 2 vols. London 
 [1860], 8vo. 
 
 Richard Brinsley Sheridan, vol. 
 fL, pp. 97-161. 
 Whipple, Edwin P. Essays and 
 Reviews. 2 vols. Third edi- v 
 tion. Boston, 1856, 8vo. 
 
 Richard Brinsley Sheridan, pp. 
 260-302. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Zinck, A. G. L. Congreve, Van- 
 brugh og Sheridan. Kj0ben- 
 havn, 1869, 8vo. 
 
 Magazine Articles, 
 
 Sheridan, Richard 
 
 Monthly Review, vol. 89, 1819, < 
 pp. 225-235 ; same article, 
 Analectic Magazine, vol. 14, 
 1819, pp. 341-350. Black- 
 wood's Mag azine, vol. 20, 1826, 
 pp. 25-41, 5*01-214. North 
 
 i AmericanReview,vol.4,1826,pp. 
 32-38. D ublin University Ma g- 
 azine, voTT9 r L837 T pp. 469-485. 
 600-615, 672-695; same article, 
 Eclectic Magazine, vol. 36, pp. 
 656-672. Southern Literary 
 Messenger, vol. 3, 1837, pp. 470- 
 472. Fr aser's Magazin e, vol. 
 26, 18427"pp. lOS-lll.-^North 
 Ajrifiricarj Rp.view., by T P. 
 
 c Whippl vnl. fifi, 14S J pp. 72- 
 
 IToT Universal Review, vol. 3, 
 I860, pp. 75-98 ; same article, 
 T,it.tftir Living Age, vol. 64. 
 pp. 771-785. Fortnightly Re- 
 vie^ by W. FTj tae, vol. 8, 
 1867, pp. 310-332; same article, 
 Li ttell's Living Age, vol. 95, 
 "ppT 102-115. New Monthly 
 Magazine, vol. 148, 1871, pp. 
 705-715. Gen tleman's Man a- 
 ging, hy H.TOkker. vol. ,243. 
 1878, 'pp. 304-320. Jl'emple 
 Bar, vol. 60j l 880, pp. 48 8^03^; 
 lame article. JLittell's Liyin g 
 
 Sheridan, Richard Brinsley. 
 
 and his Wives. Gentleman's 
 
 Magazine, by Percy Fitzgerald, 
 vol. 260, 1886, pp. 42-61. 
 
 as an Orator. Hogg's In- 
 structor, by G. Gilfillan, vol. 1 
 Brinsley. rjJ^JLS5_3u>P. 361-370. 
 
 vol. 148V 
 
 jp. 131-140.- 
 V. Dicey, vol. 
 
 JJaliojL, by A 
 
 "3*9, 1884, pp. 136, 137. 
 
 and his Biographers. Mac- 
 
 jmll an's M a gazine, by t he Hon. 
 MrsrJNorton, vol. 3, 1861, pp. 
 173-179. Princeton Re^ if^j h Y 
 B. M atthews, voL_13__N.S., 
 
 TS84, pp. 2y2-3U3. ~~ 
 
 -at Work. 
 
 ^oh47 i _pp J __ 
 
 -The GritieV Tinsley's Maga- 
 zine, by C. Matthews, vol. 11, 
 1872, pp. 414-418. Lippin- 
 cott's Magazine, by J. B. Mat- 
 thews, vol. 24, 1879, pp. 629- 
 635. 
 
 Duels with Captain Mathews. 
 
 All the Year Round, vol. 18, 
 1867, pp. 128-136. 
 
 The Duenna. Harper's Ne w 
 
 Monthl y, Magazin e, bv J. B. 
 Matthews, vol. 67), 1880, pp. 
 501-508. 
 
 Faulkland. New Monthly 
 
 Magazine, by F. Jacox, vol. 
 132, 1864, pp. 414-421. 
 
 Life of. Portfolio, vol. 3, 4th 
 
 Series, 1817, pp. 365-377. 
 
 Life and Writings of. 
 
 DublinJMY^iaity^Ias.azine, by 
 jr^CCajc raft, vol. 46, 1855, 
 *pp. 38-DSK ' 
 
 Loves of. Belgravia, by Percy 
 
 Fitzgerald, vol. 14, 1871, pp. 
 163-175. 
 
 Mrs. Oliphant's Life of. 
 
 Academy, by T. H. Caine, vol. 
 24, 1883, pp. 171, 172. Month, 
 vol. 49, 1883, pp. 281-286. 
 _Ajhhpnpftmr y Aug. 25. J S3^-DP. 
 234-236. Literary World (Bos- 
 ton), vol. 15, 1884, pp. 22, 23. 
 Spectator, Jan. 2 6^1884, pp. 
 124, 1 '2ft. Saturday ' Review, 
 
 vo l. 56, 18 83, pp. 3/ 
 
 ^Moore's 'Life of. Ed in] 
 
 .Revi ej K. by F. J effrey, vol. 45, 
 
 T3?6 T pp. 1-4?. Bla ckwood's 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 XI 
 
 Sheridan, Richard Brinsley. 
 
 Edinburgh Magazine, vol. 19. 
 ^T826, pp. 113-130, S51-353. 
 United States Literary Gazette, 
 vol. 3, 1826, pp. 361-367. 
 Monthly Review, vol. 108 N.S., 
 1825, pp. 149-162. Quarterly 
 Review, by J. "W . Croker, vol. 
 "3?, T82(5, pp. 561-593. -^lkuJ^ 
 TftY^aMis^llan y, vol , ] T 1S37, 
 r pp! JT9-427. New Monthly 
 Magazine, vol. 14 N.S., 1825, 
 pp. 474-484. Christian Obser- 
 ver, vol. 26, 1826, pp. 478-494. 
 Boston Monthly Magazine, 
 vol. 1, 1826, pp. 438-445. 
 Metropolitan Quarterly Maga- 
 zine, vol. 1, 1836, pp. 203-255. 
 Portfolio, vol. 20 N.S., 1825, 
 pp. 401-413. 
 
 Richard Grant White on. 
 
 Atlantic Month ly. Oct. 1883 
 pp. 566-5 
 
 Sheridan, Richard Brinsley. 
 
 Rivals. Scribner's .Mont hly. 
 
 by J . B. Mat thews, vol. 21, 
 l&STJfPP. 183-189. 
 
 First Cast of Rivals. 
 
 Theatre, by Austin Brereton, 
 June 2, 1884, pp. 281-289. 
 
 Rivals and School for 
 
 Scandal. All the year Round, 
 July 24, 1886, pp. 541-547. 
 
 School for Scandal. Apple- 
 ton's Journal, vol. 2 N.S., 
 1877, pp. 556-562. London 
 Magazine, vol. 5, 1822, pp. 
 481-483. Academy, by F. 
 Wedmore, vol. 21, 1882, pp. 
 109,110. Theatre, by Percy! 
 Fitzgerald, March 1, 1882, pp. 1 
 171-174. 
 
 Sheridaniana. London Maga- 
 zine, vol. 5 N.S.. 1826, pp. 97- 
 103. 
 
 VII. CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF WORKS. 
 
 Clio's Protest ; or, the Pic 
 
 ture Varnished 
 The Love Epistles of Aris 
 
 tsenetus translated . 
 The Rivals 
 St. Patrick's Day 
 The Duenna . 
 
 1771 
 
 1771 
 1775 
 1775 
 1775 
 
 A Trip to Scarborough . 1777 
 The School for Scandal . 1777 
 Verses to the Memory of 
 
 Garrick. . . . 1779 
 The Critic. ~T . . 1781 
 Pizarro . . . .1799 
 
 THE WALTER SCOTT PRESS, NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNR. 
 
Monthly Shilling Volumes. Cloth, cut or uncut edges. 
 
 THE CAMELOT SERIES. 
 
 Edited by Ernest Rhys. 
 
 ROMANCE OF KING ARTHUR. 
 THOREAU'S WALDEN. 
 ENGLISH OPIUM-EATER. 
 LANDOR'S CONVERSATIONS. 
 PLUTARCH'S LIVES. 
 RELIGIO MEDICI, &c. 
 SHELLEY'S LETTERS. 
 PROSE WRITINGS OF SWIFT. 
 MY STUDY WINDOWS. 
 GREAT ENGLISH PAINTERS. 
 LORD BYRON'S LETTERS. 
 ESSAYS BY LEIGH HUNT. 
 LONGFELLOW'S PROSE. 
 GREAT MUSICAL COMPOSERS. 
 MARCUS AURELIUS. 
 SPECIMEN DAYS IN AMERICA. 
 WHITE'S SELBORNE. 
 DEFOE'S SINGLETON. 
 MAZZINI'S ESSAYS. 
 PROSE WRITINGS OF HEINE. 
 REYNOLDS' DISCOURSES. 
 Papers of Steele and Addison. 
 BURNS'S LETTERS. 
 VOLSUNGA SAGA. 
 SARTOR RESARTUS. 
 WRITINGS OF EMERSON. 
 SENECA'S MORALS. 
 DEMOCRATIC VISTAS. 
 LIFE OF LORD HERBERT. 
 
 Volumes Already Issued 
 
 ENGLISH PROSE. 
 IBSEN'S PILLARS OF SOCIETY. 
 IRISH FAIRY AND FOLK TALES. 
 EPICTETUS. 
 THE ENGLISH POETS. 
 ESSAYS OF DR. JOHNSON. 
 ESSAYS OF WILLIAM HAZLITT. 
 LANDOR'S PENTAMERON, &c. 
 POE'S TALES AND ESSAYS. 
 VICAR OF WAKEFIELD. 
 POLITICAL ORATIONS. 
 CHESTERFIELD'S LETTERS. 
 THOREAU'S WEEK. 
 STORIES FROM CARLETON. 
 Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table 
 JANE EYRE. 
 
 ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. 
 WRITINGS OF THOMAS DAVIS. 
 SPENCE'S ANECDOTES. 
 MORE'S UTOPIA. 
 SADI'S GULISTAN. 
 ENGLISH FAIRY TALES. 
 NORTHERN STUDIES. 
 FAMOUS REVIEWS. 
 ARISTOTLE'S ETHICS. 
 PERICLES AND ASPASIA. 
 ANNALS OF TACITUS. 
 ESSAYS OF ELIA. 
 BALZAC. 
 
 London : WALTER SCOTT, 24 Warwick Lane, Paternoster Row. 
 
GREA T WR ITERS. 
 
 NEW SERIES OF CRITICAL BIOGRAPHIES. 
 
 Edited by Professor Eric S. Robertson, M.A. 
 
 MONTHLY SHILLING VOLUMES. 
 
 VOLUMES ALREADY ISSUED 
 
 LIFE OF LONGFELLOW. By Prof. Eric S. Robertson. 
 " A most readable little work." Liverpool Mercury. 
 
 LIFE OF COLERIDGE. By Hall Caine. 
 
 "Brief and vigorous, written throughout with spirit and great literary 
 skill." Scotsman. 
 
 LIFE OF DICKENS. By Frank T. Marzials. 
 
 " Notwithstanding the mass of matter that has been printed relating to 
 Dickens and his works ... we should, until we came across this volume, 
 have been at a loss to recommend any popular life of England's most 
 popular novelist as being really satisfactory. The difficulty is removed by 
 Mr. Marzials's little book." Athenceum. 
 
 LIFE OF DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI. By J. Knight. 
 
 "Mr. Knight's picture of the great poet and painter is the fullest and 
 best yet presented to the public." The Graphic. 
 
 LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. By Colonel F. Grant. 
 "Colonel Grant has performed his task with diligence, sound judgment, 
 good taste, and accuracy." Illustrated London News. 
 
 LIFE OF DARWIN. By G. T. Bettany. 
 
 " Mr. G. T. Bettany*s Life of Darwin is a sound and conscientious work." 
 Saturday Review. 
 
 LIFE OF CHARLOTTE BRONTE. By A. Birrell. 
 
 " Those who know much of Charlotte Bronte will learn more, and those 
 who know nothing about her will find all that is best worth learning in 
 Mr. Birrell's pleasant book." St. James' Gazette. 
 
 LIFE OF THOMAS CARLYLE. By R. Garnett, LL.D. 
 " This is an admirable book. Nothing could be more felicitous and fairer 
 than the way in which he takes us through Carlyle's life and works." Pall 
 Mall Gazette. 
 
 LIFE OF ADAM SMITH. By R. B. Haldane, M.P. 
 
 "Written with a perspicuity seldom exemplified when dealing with 
 economic science." Scotsman. 
 
 LIFE OF KEATS. By W. M. Rossetti. 
 
 "Valuable for the ample information which it contains." Cambridge 
 Independent. 
 LIFE OF SHELLEY. By William Sharp. 
 
 " The criticisms . . . entitle this capital monograph to be ranked with 
 the best biographies of Shelley." Westminster Review. 
 
 LIFE OF SMOLLETT. By David Hannay. 
 
 "A capable record of a writer who still remains one of the great masters 
 of the English novel." Saturday Review. 
 
 LIFE OF GOLDSMITH. By Austin Dobson. 
 
 " The story of his literary and social life in London, with all its humorous 
 and pathetic vicissitudes, is here retold, as none could tell it better." 
 Daily News. 
 
LIFE OF SCOTT. By Professor Yonge. 
 
 " This is a most enjoyable hook." Aberdeen Free Prut. 
 
 LIFE OF BURNS. By Professor Blackie. 
 
 "Tho editor certainly made a hit when he persuaded Blackie to write 
 about Burns." Pall Mall Gazette. - v 
 
 LIFE OF VICTOR HUGO. By Frank T. Marzials. 
 
 "Mr. Marzials's volume presents to us, in a more handy form than any 
 English or even French handbook gives, the summary of what is known 
 about the life of the great poet." Saturday Review. 
 
 LIFE OF EMERSON. By Richard Garnett, LL.D. 
 
 "No record of Emerson's life couldjbe more desirable." Saturday Review. 
 
 LIFE OF GOETHE. By James Sime. 
 
 "Mr. James Sime's competence as a biographer of Goethe is beyond 
 question." Manchester Guardian. 
 
 LIFE OF CONGREVE. By Edmund Gosse. 
 
 " Mr. Gosse has written an admirable biography." Academy. 
 
 LIFE OF BUNYAN. By Canon Venables. 
 
 "A most intelligent, appreciative, and valuable memoir." Scotsman. 
 LIFE OF CRABBE. By T. E. Kebbel. 
 
 "No English poet since Shakespeare has observed certain aspects of 
 nature and of human life more closely." Athenamm. 
 
 LIFE OF HEINE. By William Sharp. 
 
 "An admirable monograph . . . more fully written up to the level of 
 recent knowledge and criticism than any other English work." Scotsman. 
 
 LIFE OF MILL. By W. L. Courtney. 
 
 " A most sympathetic and discriminating memoir." Glasgow Herald. 
 LIFE OF SCHILLER. By Henry W. Nevinson. 
 
 " Presents the poet's life in a neatly rounded picture." Scotsman. 
 
 LIFE OF CAPTAIN MARRY AT. By David Hannay. 
 
 " We have nothing but praise for the manner in which Mr. Hannay has 
 done justice to him. Saturday Review. 
 LIFE OF LESSING. By T. W. Rolleston. 
 
 " One of the best books of the neriea." Manchester Guardian. 
 LIFE OF MILTON. By Richard Garnett, LL.D. 
 
 " Has never been more charmingly or adequately told." Scottish Leader. 
 
 LIFE OF BALZAC By Frederick Wedmore. 
 
 LIFE OF GEORGE ELIOT. By Oscar Browning. 
 
 LIFE OF JANE AUSTEN. By Goldwin Smith. 
 
 LIFE OF BROWNING. By William Sharp. 
 
 LIFE OF BYRON. By Hon. Roden Noel. 
 
 LIFE OF HAWTHORNE. By Moncure Conway. 
 
 LIFE OF SCHOPENHAUER. By Professor Wallace. 
 
 Complete Bibliography to each volume, by J. P. Anderson, British Museum. 
 
 Volumes are in preparation by Arthur Symons, W. E. Henley, Hermann 
 Merivale, H. E. Watts, Cosmo Monkhouse, Frank T. Marzials, W. H. Pollock, 
 T ohn Addington Symonds, Stepniak, Lloyd Sanders, etc., etc. 
 
 Library Edition of " Great Writers" Demy 8vo, 2s. 6d. 
 London : WALTER SCOTT, 24 Warwick Lane, Paternoster Row. 
 
Foels. 
 
 Edited by William Sharp 
 Cloth, Red Edges - Is. 
 Cloth, Uncut Edges - Is. 
 
 In i/- Monthly Volumes. 
 Red Roan, Gilt Edges 2s. 8d. 
 Pad. Morocco, Gilt Edges - 5s. 
 
 THE FOLLOWING VOLUMES ARE NOW READY. 
 
 KEBLE'S CHRISTIAN YEAR. 
 COLERIDGE. Ed. by J. Skipsey. 
 LONGFELLOW. Ed. by E. Hope. 
 CAMPBELL. Ed. by J. Hogben. 
 SHELLEY. Edited by J. Skipsey. 
 WORDSWORTH. 
 
 Edited by A. J. Symington. 
 BLAK^. Ed. by Joseph Skipsey. 
 WHITTIER. Ed. by Eva Hope. 
 POE. Edited by Joseph Skipsey. 
 
 CHATTERTON. By J. Richmond. 
 BURNS. Poems \ Edited by 
 BURNS. Songs /Joseph Skipsey. 
 MARLOWE. Ed.byP.E.Pinkerton. 
 KEATS. Edited by John Hogben. 
 HERBERT. Edited by E. Rhys. 
 HUGO. Trans, by Dean Carrington. 
 COWPER. Edited by Eva Hope. 
 SHAKESPEARE'S Poems, etc. 
 
 Edited by William Sharp. 
 EMERSON. Edited by W. Lewin. 
 SONNETS of this CENTURY. 
 
 Edited by William Sharp. 
 WHITMAN. Edited bv E. Rhys. 
 SCOTT. Marmion, etc. 
 SCOTT. Lady of the Lake, etc. 
 
 Edited by William Sharp. 
 PRAED. Edited by Fred. Cooper. 
 HOGG.ByhisDaughter.Mrs Garden. 
 GOLDSMITH. Ed. by W. Tirebuck. 
 MACK AY S LOVE LETTERS. 
 SPENSER. Edited by Hon. It. Noel. 
 CHILDREN OF THE POETS. 
 Edited by Eric S. Robertson. 
 JONSON. Edited by J. A. Symonds. 
 BYRON (2 Vols.) Ed.byM. Blind. 
 THE SONNETS OF EUROPE. 
 
 Edited by S. Waddington. 
 RAMSAY. Ed. by J. L.Robertson. 
 DOBELL. Edited by Mrs. Dobell. 
 DAYS OF THE YEAR. 
 
 With Introduction by Wm. Sharp. 
 POPE. Edited by John Hogben. 
 
 HEINE. Edited by Mrs. Kroeker. 
 BEAUMONT & FLETCHER. 
 
 Edited by J. S. Fletcher. 
 BOWLES, LAMB, &c. 
 
 Edited by William Tirebuck. 
 
 EARLY ENGLISH POETRY. 
 
 Edited by H. Macaulay Fitzgibbon. 
 
 SEA MUSIC. Edited by Mrs Sharp. 
 HERRICK. Edited by Ernestlthys. 
 BALLADES AND RONDEAUS 
 Edited by J. Gleeson White. 
 IRISH MINSTRELSY. 
 
 Edited by H. Halliday Sparling. 
 MILTON'S PARADISE LOST. 
 Edited by J. Bradshaw, M.A., LL.D. 
 JACOBITE BALLADS. 
 
 Edited by G. S. Macquoid. 
 AUSTRALIAN BALLADS. 
 
 Edited by D. B. W. Sladen, B.A. 
 MOORE. Edited by John Dorrian. 
 BORDER BALLADS. 
 
 Edited by Graham R. Tomson. 
 SONG-TIDE. By P. B. Marston. 
 ODES OF HORACE. 
 
 Translations by Sir S. de Vere, Bt. 
 OSSIAN. Edited by G. E. Todd. 
 ELFIN MUSIC. Ed. by A. Waite. 
 SOUTHEY. Ed. byS. R. Thompson. 
 CHAUCER. Edited by F. N. Paton. 
 POEMS OF WILD LIFE. 
 Edited by Chas. G. D. Roberts, M.A. 
 PARADISE REGAINED. 
 Edited by J. Bradshaw, M.A., LL.D. 
 CRABBE. Edited by E.Lamplough. 
 DORA GREENWELL. 
 
 Edited by William Dorling. 
 FAUST. Edited by E. Craigmyle. 
 AMERICAN SONNETS. 
 
 Edited by William Sharp. 
 LANDOR'S POEMS. 
 
 Selected and Edited by E. Radford. 
 GREEK ANTHOLOGY. 
 
 Edited by Graham R. Tomson. 
 HUNT AND HOOD. 
 
 Edited by J. Harwood Panting. 
 HUMOROUS POEMS. 
 
 Edited by Ralph H. Caine. 
 LYTTON'S PLAYS. 
 
 Edited by R. F. Sharp. 
 GREAT ODES. 
 
 Edited by William Sharp. 
 MEREDITHS POEMS 
 
 Edited by M. Betham-Edwards. 
 PAINTER-POETS. 
 
 Edited bv Kineton Parkes. 
 WOMEN POETS. 
 
 Edited by Mrs. Sharp. 
 
 London : WALTER SCOTT, 24 Warwick Lane, Paternoster Row. 
 
M 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 BERKELEY 
 
 Return to desk from which borrowed. 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 . 
 
 'NPOPTAL 
 MM 1 o 1952 
 
 HMr5 2lU 
 
 A7 ' 
 
 5** 
 
 LIBRARY USE 
 
 NOV 10 1956 
 
 iftN 9 
 
 A357 
 
 #f& 
 
 A** 
 
 MA . 2 7 1*0 
 
 27Ncv59Gl)\ 
 REC'D UO DE 
 
 1A 
 
 LD 21-95m-ll,'50(2877sl6)476 
 
 U23t 
 
 9Mar'60PM 
 REC D LD... 
 
 JUl5 , 64-3 r EM 
 MAY 3 1 1950 u^&ctf 1 * 
 
 , PiA 
 
 REC'D LD 
 
 JAN 7 1962 
 
 220ct'63SC 
 
 REC'D LD 
 
 C7 '63-^i 
 
 REC'D LD 
 
 L.OA^ 
 
 DEP 1 
 
d63 
 
 y 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA UBRARY