Background
Sheridan was born on October 30, 1751 in Dublin, Ireland. His father, Thomas, was an actor and theater manager; his mother, Frances, was the author of novels and plays.
(This edition of the complete plays of Sheridan, English d...)
This edition of the complete plays of Sheridan, English dramatist, theatre manager, and politician, includes The Rivals and The School for Scandal, as well as six lesser-known works: St. Patrick's Day, The Duenna, A Trip to Scarborough, The Camp, The Critic, and Pizarro. the only one available in paperback B
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( During a brief but brilliant literary career, Irish-bor...)
During a brief but brilliant literary career, Irish-born dramatist and statesman Richard Brinsley Sheridan (17511816) wrote cleverly plotted plays that revealed his nimble wit and keen eye for comic situations. Two of them The School for Scandal and The Rivals are among the funniest in the English language. The Rivals, brimming with false identities and with romantic entanglements carried on amid a cloud of parental disapproval, satirizes the pretentiousness and sentimentality of the age. It features a cast of memorable characters, among them the lovely Lydia Languish, whose pretty head has been filled with nonsense from romantic novels; Capt. Jack Absolute, a young officer in love with Lydia; Sir Anthony Absolute, Jack's autocratic father; Sir Lucius O'Trigger, a fiery Irishman; and Jack's provincial neighbor, Bob Acres, a bumptious but lovable country squire in love with Lydia. Hoping to win Lydia's affection, Captain Jack woos the pretty miss by pretending to be a penniless ensign named Beverley, an act that nearly incites a duel with Acres. His actions also provoke serious objections from Lydia's aunt, Mrs. Malaprop, a misspeaking matron whose ludicrous misuse of words gave the English language a new term: malapropism. Ultimately, the hilarious complications are resolved in a radiant comic masterpiece that will entertain and delight theater devotees and students of English drama alike.
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( The Critic was Sheridan's response to a very specific p...)
The Critic was Sheridan's response to a very specific political and theatrical situation. In the summer of 1779, a Franco-Spanish invasion seemed imminent and patriotic fervour superseded party divisions and personal animosities. The Critic satirises the panic of the summer in the form of the comically misconceived tragedy 'The Spanish Armada' that is in rehearsal in the second and third acts, but The Critic ends with genuine patriotic feeling. This edition traces both the political and the theatrical objects of Sheridan's satire and discusses its reliance (and improvement) on earlier meta-theatrical burlesques like The Duke of Buckingham's Restoration romp The Rehearsal.
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( The intrigues of such aptly named characters as Lady Sn...)
The intrigues of such aptly named characters as Lady Sneerwell, Sir Joseph Surface, Lady Candour, and Sir Benjamin Backbite have amused theater audiences for more than two centuries. They are the invention of the Irish-born playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and they unfold, collide, and backfire hilariously in his masterpiece, The School for Scandal, a play still considered by many the best comedy of manners in English. It is a comedy with two plots, one involving Sir Oliver Surface's attempts to discover the worthier of his two nephews, and the other unleashing Lady Sneerwell's strategies to ensnare both nephews and the hapless Lady Teazle in her designs. Both plots converge brilliantly in the screen scene one of the most famous in all of theater. The School for Scandal reveals not only Sheridan's mastery of the mechanics of stage comedy, but also his flair for witty dialogue and obvious delight in skewering the affectation and pretentiousness of aristocratic Londoners of the 1770s. Its evergreen appeal makes it one of the most produced of all theater classics today, and one of the most delightful to read.
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Sheridan was born on October 30, 1751 in Dublin, Ireland. His father, Thomas, was an actor and theater manager; his mother, Frances, was the author of novels and plays.
Sheridan was first educated by tutors and then sent to Harrow from 1762 to 1769; he next studied elocution with his father in London until the family moved to Bath in 1770.
Sheridan's first play, appropriately named The Rivals, opened at Covent Garden on January 17, 1775, and, after revision, had a great success.
In 1777, another of his plays, A Trip to Scarborough, an adaptation and expurgation of Vanbrugh's The Relapse, brought him more prosperity, and this was multiplied by the still greater success of The School for Scandal in the same season.
His dramatic burlesque, The Critic, or A Tragedy Rehearsed (1779), based on the tried-and-true formula of Buckingham's The Rehearsal, carried on the attack that his earlier plays had begun upon sentimentalism and other contemporary trends.
He represented various constituencies in the House of Commons from 1780 to 1812 as a supporter of Fox and the Whigs and held several offices during this period, finally being appointed treasurer of the Navy and a member of the Privy Council in 1806.
The Rivals has proved to be one of the most enduring of all English comedies. The play, containing the characters of Mrs. Malaprop and Faulkland, has been popular as a gay satire on life in a social capital like Bath, and is full of wit, humor, and harmless intrigues based on love affairs, disguises, and mistaken identity. Historically it is interesting because it carries on the attack against sentimentalism without really rejecting sentimentalism, since both the heroines, Lydia Languish and Julia, have sentimental characteristics, which are presented affectionately, though satirically.
Sheridan's play The School for Scandal is the best comedy of manners of the 18th century and one of the best such plays of all time. Joseph Surface, an apparently respectable, highly moral young man, is actually trying to seduce his friends' wives, notably Lady Teazle, the young bride of a middle-aged but generous and forgiving country knight, Sir Peter Teazle.
Charles is ultimately rewarded with the hand of Maria, the ward of Sir Peter, while Joseph is exposed.
( During a brief but brilliant literary career, Irish-bor...)
(This edition of the complete plays of Sheridan, English d...)
( The intrigues of such aptly named characters as Lady Sn...)
( The Critic was Sheridan's response to a very specific p...)
House of Commons
Sheridan was twice married. He and his first wife Elizabeth had a son, Thomas (Tom) Sheridan, who married Caroline Henrietta Callander, daughter of Col. Sir James Campbell of Craigforth, Stirling, and Ardkinglas [Argyll], and was the father of Helen Blackwood, Baroness Dufferin and Claneboye, Caroline Norton and Georgiana Seymour, Duchess of Somerset. Elizabeth also had a daughter, Mary, born 30 March 1792 but fathered by her lover, Lord Edward FitzGerald.
After Elizabeth's death, Sheridan fulfilled his promise to look after Elizabeth and FitzGerald's baby daughter. A nurse was employed to care for the child at his Wanstead home. The baby had a series of fits one evening in October 1793, when she was 18 months old, dying before a doctor could attend. She was interred beside her mother at Wells Cathedral.
In 1795, Richard B. Sheridan married Hester Jane Ogle (1776–1817), daughter of the Dean of Winchester. They had at least one child: Charles Brinsley Sheridan (1796–1843).
Treasurer of the Navy, The Right Honourable