Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/822

Rh 796 S H E K I D A N repute, a fashionable schoolmaster, with a small landed patrimony in Cavan, and a bishop in the family two generations back. He so won upon the dean with his mirthfulness, wit, scholarship, good-nature, and honesty that in a short time no party made for the dean's enter- tainment was considered complete without Sheridan. Sheridan was his confidant in the affair of Drapier's Letters ; it was at Quilca, 1 Sheridan's country cottage in Cavan, that Gulliver's Travels was prepared for the press ; and this favoured friend was from an early period in their acquaintance one of his most confidential correspondents when at a distance. Through Swift's influence he obtained a living near Cork, but damaged his prospects of further preferment by a feat of unlucky absence of mind. Having to preach at Cork on the anniversary of Queen Anne's death he hurriedly chose a sermon with the text, " Suffi- cient unto the day is the evil thereof," and was at once struck off the list of chaplains to the lord-lieutenant and forbidden the castle. In spite of this mishap, for which the archdeacon of Cork made amends by the present of a lease worth 250 per annum, he "still remained," accord- ing to Lord Orrery, " a punster, a quibbler, a fiddler, and a wit," the only person in whose genial presence Swift relaxed his habitual gloom. His latter days were not prosperous, probably owing to his having "a better know- ledge of books than of men or of the value of money," and he died in poverty and ill-health in 1738. The biographers of Brinsley Sheridan are disposed to dwell chiefly on the eccentricities of his ancestors, but both his grandfather and his father gave ample proof of more solid qualities than improvidence and wit. The original source of information about the schoolmaster grandfather is the father's Life of Surift (pp. 369-395), where his scholarship is dwelt upon as much as his improvident conviviality and simple kindliness of nature. Thomas 2. THOMAS SHERIDAN (1721-1788), son of the above, Sheridan. ^ orn a ^ Q u ii ca j n 1721, had a more conspicuous career than his father. This ambitious father sent him to an English school, Westminster ; but he was forced by stress of circumstances to return to Dublin and complete his education at Trinity College. Then he went on the stage, and at once made a local reputation. There is a tradition that on his first appearance in London he was set up as a rival to Garrick, and Moore countenances the idea that Garrick remained jealous of him to the end. For this tradition there is little foundation. Sheridan's first appearance in London was at Covent Garden in March 1744, when, heralded in advance as the brilliant Irish comedian, he acted for three weeks in a succession of leading parts, Hamlet being the first. He did not appear in London again till ten years afterwards, when he was the leading actor for a season at the same theatre. In the interval he had been manager of a theatre in Dublin, had married a highly accomplished and well-born lady (see next notice), and had been driven from Dublin as a result of taking the unpopular side in politics. After his season in London he tried Dublin again, but after two years more of unremunerative management, he left for England finally in 1758. By this time he had con- ceived his scheme of British education, and it was to push this rather than his connexion with the stage that he crossed St George's Channel. He lectured at Oxford and Cambridge, and received honorary degrees from both universities in 1758 and 1759. But the scheme did not make way, and we find him in 1760 acting under Garrick at Drury Lane. His merits as an actor may be judged from the description of him in the Rosciad (1. 987) at this period. He is placed in the second rank, next to Garrick, 1 Spelt Quilea, it may be noted, in the second T. Sheridan's Life of Swift. but there is no hint of possible rivalry. Churchill de- scribes him as an actor whose conceptions were superior to his powers of execution, whose action was always forc- ible but too mechanically calculated, and who in spite of all his defects rose to greatness in occasional scenes. Churchill never erred on the side of praising too much, and his description may be accepted as correct, supported as it is by the fact that the actor eked out his income by giving lessons in elocution. Bosvvell has some amus- ing remarks on his success with a distinguished Scotch pupil, who used his influence to get a pension for him from Lord Bute. Sheridan, however, attracted attention chiefly by his enthusiastic advocacy, in public lectures and books, of his scheme of education, in which oratory was to play a principal part. It is generally said that he traced all the evils and perils of the Commonwealth to the neglect of oratory. But this is a caricature. There was more serious substance in his indictment of the estab- lished system of 'education. His main count was that it did not fit the higher classes for their duties in life, that it was uniform for all and profitable for none ; and he urged as a matter of vital national concern that special training should be given for the various professions. Oratory came in as part of the special training of men intended for public affairs, but his main contention was one very familiar now, that more time should be given in schools to the study of the English language. He rode his hobby with great enthusiasm, published an elaborate and eloquent treatise on education, and lectured on the subject in London, Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, and other towns. In 1769, after a residence of some years in France, partly for economy, partly for his wife's health, partly to study the system of education there, he published a matured Plan of Education, with a letter to the king, in which he offered to devote the rest of his life to the execution of his theories on condition of receiving a pension equivalent to the sacrifice of his professional income. His offer was not accepted ; but Sheridan, still enthusiastic, retired to Bath, and prepared a pronouncing Dictionary of the English Language, with a prosodial grammar. After his son's brilliant success he assisted in the management of Drury Lane, and occasionally acted. His Life of Swift, a very entertaining book in spite of its incompleteness as a biography, was published in 1784. He died at Margate in 1788. The year before his death he had a prospect of realizing his scheme of education in Ireland, but the high official who had sought his advice died just as the old man eagerly reached Dublin, and his hopes were disappointed. 3. FRANCES SHERIDAN (1724-1766), wife of the above, Mn and mother of the dramatist, wrote two novels of high j^j repute in their day, Sidney Biddulph and Nourjahad, and two plays, The Discovery and The Dupe. We have it on the authority of Moore that, when The Rivals and The Duenna were running at Covent Garden, Garrick revived The Discovery at Drury Lane, as a counter-attraction, " to play the mother off against the son, taking on himself to act the principal part in it." But the statement, intrinsi- cally absurd, is inaccurate. The Discovery was not an old play at the time, but one of Garrick's stock pieces, and Anthony Bromville was one of his favourite characters. It was first produced in 1763. So far from being jealous of the elder Sheridan, Garrick seems to have been a most useful friend to the family, accepting his wife's play which he declared to be "one of the best comedies he ever read " and giving the husband several engagements. Mrs Sheridan's novels and plays were all written in the last six years of her life. She died at Blois in 1766. Her maiden name was Chamberlaine. Her father was a dignitary in the Irish Church, her grandfather an English