Page:Every Woman's Encyclopedia Volume 1.djvu/693

 667 WOiVlAN IN LOVE Romance is not confined solely to the realms of fiction. The romances of fact, indeed, arc greater and more interesting ; they have made history, and have laid the foundations of the greatness both of artists and of poets. This section of Every Woman's Encyclop.tdia, therefore, will include, among thousands ol other subjects : Lo"oe Poems and Songs The Superstitions of Love The Engaged Girl in Many Climes Love Famous Historical Stories Love Letters of Fainotis People Love Scenes from Fiction Veslerday and Proposals of To-day Elopements in Olden Days, etc., etc. TRUE I^OVE^STOIRIES ©F FAMOUS PEOPLE No. 5. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN In Irish soil romance thrives nobly; the now to raise it above the dull level of hum- drum sentiment. And Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan was an Irishman to his finger-tips. He was a genius — delightful, lovable, and utterly irresponsible. But he was always aspiring after the unattainable, and, although fame, true fame, often was within his reach, he seems to have been incapable of grasping it. He failed to be- come as great as he might have been, or, indeed, as he should have been. Fate played with him, tan- talised him, but al- ways withheld from him the great oppo] - tunity. Posterity, for the most part, therefore, is content to regard him as an interesting man and as the author of " The School for Scandal." But Sheri- dan was more than this. He was a great man, and a splendid member of that gor- geous constellation of wits, beaux, and politicians which illuminated England during the reign of George III. Moreover, not as a playwright, not as a man of letters, did Sheridan desire to per- petuate his name, but as a statesman. The impeachment of Warren Hcistings he con- ducted with consummate skill ; his speeches, Pitt himself declared, " surpassed the elo- quence of ancient and modern times." But in the arena of poli- tics Sheridan never rose into the first rank. He lacked ballast : he was incapable of managing his own affairs ; his nature was wildly extravagant, and of the existence of a line of demarca- tion between the pos- sible and the impos- sible he had no idea. In short, Sheridan was an Irishman : his ancestors before him were Irishmen ; and his father, in addition to being irresponsible and improvident, was a talented actor with ideas on education. This, however, is not the occasion, nor is there space here. . to deal with Sheri- was not only a playwright, but a wit. an orator, and a man of fashion -J- ^'o ^ nri^trv or his Ay Sir Jos/nta Kfy'wuis Q^" S aUCeStry OF HIS Richard Brinsley Sheridan. This brilliinl and ver«tile Irishman
 * • Irishman knows, as does no other man,