SHERIDAN, Rterrann Ilatssurv, was the son of Thomas Sheridan. a lecturer on oratory and elocution, in his day of some notoriety. He was born at Dublin in Sept., 1731, in due course was sent to school there, and afterward removed to Ilarrow. He gave no promise as a boy of the brilliancy he afterward displayed as a man, being pro nounced a hopeless dunce by all his teachers. He does not seem to have been brought up to any regular employment; and aftbr his elopement and marriage in 1773 with a Miss Linley, a public singer of great beauty and accomplishment, his prospects did not seem bright, more especially as he insisted, on a point of pride, that his wife should give up her profession. As the readiest resource he betook himself to literature. The lighter drama was the sphere which attracted him, and in Jan., 1775, his first comedy, The Bawls, was produced. Damned ou its first appearance, through certain deficiencies in the acting, this piece on its repetition found gradually the favor with the public which its wit and vivacity deserved, and made the reputation of the writer. In the course of the year following Sheridan followed up his success by a farce of no very great merit, entitled St. Patrick's Dag, or the Scheming Lieutenant, and a second comedy, The Duenna, amid the sparkling dialogue of which are interspersed sonic songs of exquisite merit. He now became in some unexplained manner—for though his pieces were most successful they could scarcely have brought him the necessary funds—part proprietor of the Drury Lane theater; and in 1777 his School for Scandal was produced there. This, which is by much his greatest effort, instantly leaped into the popularity it has ever since continued to retain. His other works for the stage were the inimitably clever farce, ?Ile Critic (1779), and, after a long interval, The Stranger and Pizarro (1798), both adapted from the German of Kotzebue. During this interval he was deeply engaged in politics. Sheri dan's wit and coruscated in society as brightly as they did in his comedies; he was an admirable table-companion—over a bottle the best of then living good-felloWs.
With Fox and his wild set these gifts made him a prime favorite; and through the influ ence of Fox it was that in 17S0 lie was returned to parliament for the -borough of Stafford. In his politics he faithfully followed Fox, and the wing party from time to time had good service from their brilliant recruit. He never failed to amuse the house, and when stirred by the trumpet-call of a great occasion, he was capable of rising to heights of noble eloquence. In particular, his famous speech urging the impeachment of Warren Hastings (q.v.), is still traditionally remembered as perhaps the very grandest triumph of oratory in a time prolific of such triumphs. ' In 1792 Sheridan lost his wife; and three years after, he was married again to a Miss Ogle, who brought him £5,000, to Sheridan no doubt welcome, though trifling as a relief to the difficulties in which he had become involved, and which more and more continued to accunmlate upon him. Always the most reckless and improvident of mortals he did not improve with time. His later years were years of wretched struggle, of which debt, dims, and dissipation may furnish a convenient alliterative summary. His health failed him with his fortunes; and his friends, not finding him in his sickness and adversity quite so amusing as formerly, naturally failed him also—notably and shamefully, the prince regent, whose dull brains over the wine'eup he had many in time been made use of to brighten. Some honorable exceptions there were,' among whom the poets Rogers and Moore may be mentioned as steadily kind to him to the last. He died in London on July 7, 1816, in his 65th year.
See his biography by Moore, and (for a just and delicate appreciation of his genius) Hazlitt's Lectures on the Comic Writers. A good edition of his works, edited by F. Stain forth, was published in 1874.