Sheridan

Richard Brinsley Sheridan is one of the most fascinating and flamboyant literary figures of the 18th Century. A playwright, satirist, theatre impresario, poet and noted wit, he also played a significant role in the public life of the time, serving as a Whig MP in the House of Commons for thirty-two years.

He remains to this day one of the most emblematic – and paradoxical – writers of his time: a radical Anglo-Irishman in the heart of the British establishment; a friend of royalty yet, in some ways, in sympathy with both the French revolution and 1798 United Irishmen rising; an artist and unabashed businessman with an eye for show business.

Born in Dublin in 1751 to a wealthy family he was raised in a house in fashionable Dorset Street. It was in stark contrast to the end of his life – he died in near penury, having accumulated considerable wealth but spending even more.

Married twice, his private life was ‘colourful’ and of the time, involving not one but two duels, a serious wounding, mistresses, public scandals and an elopement to marry his first wife Elizabeth Ann Linley. His behaviour led to the social ruin of Harriet Spencer. Harriet’s husband discovered her affair with Sheridan and divorced her, subsequently leading to her fall in society. His attitude towards women and his treatment of them was horrific, running from harassment and blackmail to downright assault.

As Sean Elliot says in his Greenwich Exchange Student Guide to Richard Brinsley Sheridan, it is this ‘doubleness’ that is central to understanding the Dubliner’s legacy.

In this study, Elliot explores the core of Sheridan’s dramatic works – The Rivals, A School of Scandal and The Critic. Taken together these three plays were considered the wittiest body of comedies since Shakespeare and would only be matched later by another Anglo-Irishman, Oscar Wilde.

If you would like to read about him further, Sean Elliot’s study guide Student Guide to Richard Brinsley Sheridan, is available here.