Everything about Richard Sheridan totally explained
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (
October 30,
1751 –
July 7,
1816) was an
Irish playwright and
Whig statesman.
Early life
R.B. Sheridan was born in
Dublin on
October 30,
1751 at 12
Dorset Street, a fashionable street in the late eighteenth century. (Fellow playwright
Seán O'Casey was born in Dorset Street 130 years later.) He was
baptized on
November 4,
1751, his father
Thomas Sheridan being an actor-manager who managed the
Theatre Royal, Dublin for a time, and his mother,
Frances Sheridan, a writer (most famous for her novel
The Memoirs of Sidney Biddulph). She died when her son was fifteen. The Sheridans' eldest child, Thomas, died in 1750, the year when their second son, Charles Francis (d. 1806), was born. He later carried on an affair with Henrietta Spencer, Countess of Bessborough.
Works
He also wrote a selection of poems, and political speeches for his time in parliament.
Family and career
Richard was educated at
Harrow School, and was to study law. However, his highly romantic elopement with
Elizabeth Linley (1754-1792; daughter of
Thomas Linley), and their subsequent marriage on
13 April 1773 at
St Marylebone Parish Church, put paid to such hopes; they'd a son, Thomas (1775-1817).
Richard's second marriage was to
Esther Jane Ogle; they also had a son, Charles Brinsley Sheridan (died 1843).
When Richard returned to
London, he began writing for the stage. His first play,
The Rivals, produced at
Covent Garden in 1775, was a failure on its first night. Sheridan cast a more capable actor for the role of the comic Irishman for its second performance, and it was a smash which immediately established the young playwright's reputation. It has gone on to become a standard of
English literature.
Having quickly made his name and fortune, Sheridan bought a share in
Drury Lane. His most famous
play The School for Scandal (1777) is considered one of the greatest
comedies of manners in
English. It was followed by
The Critic (1779), an updating of the satirical Restoration play
The Rehearsal, which received a memorable revival (performed with
Oedipus in a single evening) starring
Laurence Olivier at the
Old Vic Theatre in
1946. Sheridan was plagued by
writer's block and managed only a limited output during his lifetime.
He was the grandfather of society beauty and author
Caroline Norton, and the great-grandfather of
Lord Dufferin, third
Governor General of
Canada and eighth
Viceroy of
India. The famous ghost story writer
Sheridan le Fanu was his great-nephew.
Politics
Sheridan was also a
Whig politician, entering parliament in
1780 under the sponsorship of
Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. A great public speaker, he remained in parliament until
1812, and was a leading figure in the party.
He held the posts of Receiver-General of the
Duchy of Cornwall (1804–1807) and
Treasurer of the Navy (1806–1807).
In December 1815 he became ill, largely confined to bed. Sheridan died in poverty, and was buried in the
Poets' Corner of
Westminster Abbey; his funeral was attended by dukes, earls, lords, viscounts, the
Lord Mayor of London, and other notables.
Further Information
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