Sheridan's pedigree forecast literary and theatrical achievement. His mother, Frances Chamberlaine Sheridan, who died while he was an adolescent student at Harrow, wrote one fairly successful play and one respected novel. His father, Thomas, was a playwright, actor, theater manager, orator, and also a scholar of English elocution who published a dictionary. His paternal grandfather Thomas Sheridan spent many intimate years with Jonathan Swift. Sheridan met and exceeded the gifts of this heritage and the expectations loaded upon his shoulders as the second son, the one sent to the famous boarding school Harrow in 1762 while his favored elder brother and his two younger sisters remained with the family, the one who was to learn to shift for himself. He rose from genteel Irish poverty to become holder of the royal patent for Drury Lane theater, a Member of Parliament, a minister of government (on three occasions), a finally a landowner. His time as an active playwright covered about five years; his career as a politician spanned three decades. During all of his mature life, even the last few years, he knew material success that far exceeded anything his parents had ever experienced; he enjoyed the respect and affection of the greatest peopled of his day; and he served his country on a broader stage than Smock Alley (the Dublin theater his father managed) or Drury Lane (the London theater he owned).
This is a free page. This page contains 177 words. This
biography contains 10,480 words (approx. 35 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Biography with our Richard Brinsley Sheridan Access Pass.
