Lecture 9 richard brinsley sheridan

1751-1816

Richard Brinsley Sheridan was born in Dublin in 1751. His grandfather had been an intimate friend of Dean Swift. His father, Thomas Sheridan, was an actor and elocutionist, who wrote a book to prove that oratory and elocution are the most important subjects in the education of a young gentleman: his mother, Frances Sheridan, was the author of the successful comedy and a successful novel. Literature and the theatre lay about Richard from his earliest days. He was sent to school first in Ireland and then, at the age of eleven, to Harrow. At 17 his formal education came to an end.

In 1770 Thomas Sheridan settled in the fashionable health-resort city of Bath where he opened an academy for oratorical education. It was there that Richard, aged 19, met Miss Elizabeth, aged 17, an accomplished professional singer and a raving beauty. They were married in April 1773. How should a penniless young man of 22 support his pretty young wife? He proudly refused to let her continue her career as a concert singer. The most obvious way to earn some money was to write a play.

"The Rivals'" was produced at Covent Garden Theatre of January 17, 1775, with very dubious success. For 11 days its author worked hard at revising it. From its second performance on January 28 to the present day it has been one of the “surefire” success of the English and American stage. In November Sheridan scored another success with a comic opera, "The Duenna". [25] In September 1776 he succeeded Garrick as manager of Drury Lane Theatre. And that theatre saw, on May 5, 1777, the triumphant first performance of “The School For Scandal”, which Sheridan had written directly for the remarkable stock company of able actors that Garrick had gathered together and trained. In 1780 Sheridan was elected to Parliament, where his gift as an orator and his intelligent good sense made him a very influential figure.

Sheridan deliberately set out to write comedies ihat should provoke laughter rather than tears, which should have the wit and animation of Restoration comedy.

"The School for Scandal" is one continuous sparkle of wit. Its plot is most ingeniously handled. The story of Sir Peter Leasle and his high-spirited young wife who so narrowly escapes disaster.

The reclamation of the prodigal and dissipated but essentially goodhearted Charles Surface and the showing-up of his hypocritical brother Joseph who pretended to be a man of sentiment like the hero of sentimental comedy; the satire of scandal-mongering. All these themes are inextricably knit together into what the spectator or the reader thinks of as a single action. The screen-scene in the 4^th act, the most famous dramatic situation in the whole of English comedy, brings Lady Leasle to her senses at the same moment that the unstable edifice of Joseph Surface's hypocritical moral sentiments comes tumbling about his ears-along with the screen.

Check yourself

1. When and where was Sheridan born? What were his parents?

2. Where did he get his education?

3. When and where did he open an academy for oratorical education?

4. How old was Sheridan when he married? Who and what was his wife?

5. Why did Richard refuse his wife to let her continue her career?

6. What did Sheridan do to revise his play "The Rivals"?

7. When did Drury Lane Theatre see the triumph of "The School For Scandal"?

8. Who are the main heroes of the play?

9. What can you say about the screen-scene in the 4^th act? [26]