Page:A Compendium of Irish Biography.djvu/501

 SHE

cess almost from the first, and has ever since held its place on the stage. Towards the end of the same year his opera of The Duenna was first acted. It was equally successful, and had a run of seventy-five nights the first season, longer even than the first run of The Beggars^ Opera. About this time it became known that Garrick meant to part with his moiety of the patent of Drury-lane Theatre, and retire from the stage. After some negotiation, Sheridan, then only in his twenty-fifth year, became patentee and manager — the price of the moiety (£35,000) being made up between himself, Mr. Linley, and Dr. Ford. We are not informed how he managed to raise his share — <£ 10,000. Mr. Moore remarks : " There was, indeed, something mysterious and miraculous about all his acquisitions, whether in love, in learning, in wit, or in wealth. How or when his stock of knowledge was laid in, nobody knew ; it was as much a matter of marvel to those who never saw him read, as the mode of existence of the chameleon has been to those who fancied it never eat. His advances in the heart of his mistress were, as we have seen, equally trackless and inaudible ; and his triumph was the first that even rivals knew of his •love. In like manner, the productions of his wit took the world by surprise — being perfected in secret, till ready for. display, and then seeming to break from under the cloud of his indolence in full maturity of splendour. His financial resources had no less an air of magic about them ; but the mode by which he conjured up, at this time, the money for his first purchase into the theatre, remains, as far as I can learn, still a mystery." The sketch of his masterpiece, The School for Scandal, was perhaps written before The Rivals, or at latest soon after ; it was first represented in May 1777. Such, was the predomi- nant attraction of this comedy, says Mr. Moore, " during the two years subse- quent to its first appearance, that, in the official account of receipts for 1779, we find the following remark subjoined by the Treasurer : ' School for Scandal damped the new pieces.' I have traced it by the same unequivocal marks of success through the years 1780 and 1781, and find the nights of its representations always rival- ling those on which the King went to the theatre, in the magnitude of their receipts." The merits of this comedy are so universally acknowledged, that it is unnecessary to expatiate upon them. Sheridan wrote many plays, but The Rivals, The School for Scandal, and The Critic stand out pre-eminently as his best.

SHE

In 1778 he bought Mr. Lacy's moiety of the theatre for .£45,000, and portions of his partners' shares, so as to make up his own interest to three-fourths of the whole. This arrangement was brought about by a series of financial operations and loans that afterwards involved him in disgrace and misery. His increased influence in the affairs of the theatre enabled him to ap- point his father to the management, and thus put an end to an unhappy estrange- ment which for years had existed between them. His mind must have been for some time gravitating towards politics. Amongst his manuscripts were the sheets of an essay on absentees, written about 1778, when The School for Scandal was in its first blush of success. His intimacy with Fox, Burke, Windham, and other public men, and the habit of discuss- ing with them questions of the day, tended to foster a taste for public life. His thirst for distinction, and quick apprehension of the service his talents might render in the warfare of party, hastened the result that both he and his friends desired. In 1780 he supported Fox's resolutions on the state of the representation (including a declaration in favour of annual parlia- ments and universal suffrage), and, in October 1780, he took his seat as mem- ber for Stafford, and bade adieu for ever to dramatic authorship. His seat in Parliament (including .£5 5s. each to 248 burgesses) cost him 2i,44o, besides .£800 spent during the six subsequent years " in keeping it warm." Sheridan's maiden speech on 20th November was listened to with breathless attention. After its conclusion, he went to Woodfall in the gallery, and asked with much anxiety what he thought of his first attempt. " I am sorry to say I do not think that this is your line," he replied ; "you had much better have stuck to your former pur- suits." Sheridan rested his head on his hand for a few minutes, and then vehe- mently exclaimed : " It is in me, how- ever, and by it shall come out." His

speech on 5 th March 1781 was most effect- ive, yet he spoke but seldom — even on the question of the American war, in which he took a deep interest. His friends came into power in 1 782, and he was ap- pointed one of the IJnder-Secretaries of State, and in 1783 Secretary of theTreasury. The efforts of Grattan's party for the eleva- tion of Ireland received his hearty support. Through his influence, his brother Charles was appointed Secretary of War in Ire- land. In 1785 he strenuously opposed Orde's Commercial Propositions, which were so unfavourably regarded by the 477