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British Drama

Notes friends to take over the government and drive out Prime Minister William Pitt. Sheridan was also
distrusted because of his part in the Whigs’ internecine squabbles (1791–93) with Edmund Burke
over the latter’s implacable hostility to the French Revolution. He was one of the few members
courageous enough openly to defend those who suffered for their support of the French Revolution.
Indeed, Sheridan liked taking an individual stand, and, although he supported Fox in urging that
the French had a right to choose their own way of government, he broke with Fox once the French
became warlike and threatened the security of England. He also came out on the side of the Tory
administration when he condemned mutineers who had rebelled against living conditions in the
British Navy (1797). Much to Fox’s disgust, Sheridan, although a Whig, gave some support to the
Tory administration of Prime Minister Henry Addington, later 1st Viscount Sidmouth (1801–04).
In November 1806, Sheridan succeeded Charles James Fox as member for Westminster—although
not, as he had hoped, as leader of the Whigs—but he lost the seat in May 1807. The Prince of Wales
then returned him as member for the “pocket borough” of Ilchester, but his dependence on the
prince’s favour rankled with Sheridan, for they differed in their attitude on Catholic emancipation.
Sheridan, who was determined to support emancipation, stood for election as member from Stafford
again in 1812, but he could not pay those who had previously supported him as much as they
expected and, as a result, was defeated.

Last Years and Death
Sheridan’s financial difficulties were largely brought about by his own extravagance and
procrastination, as well as by the destruction of Drury Lane Theatre by fire in February 1809. With
the loss of his parliamentary seat and his income from the theatre, he became a prey to his many
creditors. His last years were beset by these and other worries—his circulatory complaints and the
cancer that afflicted his second wife, Esther Jane Ogle. She was the daughter of the dean of Winchester
and was married to Sheridan in April 1795, three years after Elizabeth’s death. Pestered by bailiffs
to the end, Sheridan made a strong impression on the poet Lord Byron, who wrote a Monody on the
Death of the Right Honourable R.B. Sheridan (1816), to be spoken at the rebuilt Drury Lane Theatre.

18.1.2 Work Experience

Playwright
When Sheridan settled in London, he began writing for the stage. Less than two years later of his
marriage, in 1775, his first play, The Rivals, was produced at London’s Covent Garden Theatre. It
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 and the favour of fashionable London. It has gone on to become a standard of English
literature.
Shortly after the success of The Rivals, Sheridan and his father-in-law Thomas Linley the elder, a
successful composer, produced the opera, The Duenna. This piece was accorded such a warm reception
that it played for seventy-five performances.
In 1776, Sheridan, his father-in-law, and one other partner, bought a half interest in the Drury Lane
theatre and, two years later, bought out the other half. Sheridan was the manager of the theatre for
many years, and later became sole owner with no managerial role.
His most famous play The School for Scandal (Drury Lane, 8 May 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 as Mr. Puff, opening at the New Theatre on 18 October
1945 as part of an Old Vic Theatre Company season.

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