Sheridan, Richard Brinsley

(1751-1816)

   Born in Dublin, the grandson of Thomas Sheridan (see entry), he was educated at Harrow school, Middlesex. Living in Bath, in 1770, Sheridan fell in love with Eliza Linley, daughter of a music teacher, and the pair eloped to France and went through a form of marriage in Calais. Both fathers opposed the relationship, but Eliza's father withdrew his opposition and the couple were married in 1773. Sheridan's Rivals was performed at Covent Garden Theatre in 1775, and by 1776 he was manager of Drury Lane Theatre, in partnership with Eliza's father. His crowning triumph came in 1777 with The School for Scandal. He was elected to Parliament in 1780 and soon ranked highly among parliamentary orators, and fought for the freedom of the press. His funeral was a grand affair. He is memorialized by a stone in Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. Some of his poems: "An Address to the Prince Regent," "Drinking Song," "Epitaph on Brooks," "On the Death of Elizabeth Sheridan," "The Bath Picture," "The Duenna," "Think Not, My Love, When Secret Grief," "The Gentle Primrose," "The Swallows," "To Elizabeth Linley."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. Life and Works of Richard Brinsley Sheridan (http://www.rbsheridan.com/). The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg. org.uk). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Faber Book of Drink, Drinkers and Drinking. Simon Rae, ed. Faber and Faber, 1991. The Oxford Anthology of English Poetry, Vol. I: Spenser to Crabbe. John Wain, ed. Oxford University Press, 1990. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. The Plays and Poems of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, 3 vols. R. Crompton Rhodes, ed. Blackwell, 1928.