Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Anglo-Irish dramatist, theatre manager and politician. He was born on 30 October 1751 in Dublin and died in London on 7 July 1816. Sheridan was educated for 6 or 7 years at Harrow, a private school, and taught by his parents (Thomas Sheridan an actor and Frances Chamberlaine Sheridan a writer) or tutors in Dublin, Bath and London, but he never visited university. His first plays were The Rivals (1775), St. Patrick´s Day; or, The Scheming Lieutnant (1775) and The Duenna (1775). After he became the principal manager and owner of the Drury Lane Theatre in 1776, all his plays were produced at this theatre (A trip to Scarborough (1777),The School for Scandal (1777) and The Critic; or, A Tragedy Rehearsed (1779)). In addition to his own works he also wrote several entertainments together with other authors and created a pantomime for Robinson Crusoe in 1781. He is said to be the link between 17th-century comedy and the comedy of Oscar Wilde and his period. Also he lived later in the 18th century Sheridan created plays which represented the values and content of the Restoration Comedy of Manners.

Sheridan was elected to the English Parliament in 1780 and he had a long political career, but was often in opposition to the government.

Sources

• Stares, Susan. "Richard Brinsley Sheridan". In: The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature VI. Ed. David Scott Kastan. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2006. [Pages??]
• Metzler Lexikon englischsprachiger Autorinnen und Autoren. Ed. Eberhard Kreutzer and Ansgar Nünning. J.B. Metzler: Stuttgart, 2006.
• The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. Ed. Phyllis Hartnall and Peter Found. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1996.