This neglect of letters once brought him into a troublesome lawsuit about the theatre.  It was necessary to pay certain demands, and he had applied to the Duke of Bedford to be his security.  The duke had consented, and for a whole year his letter of consent remained unopened.  In the meantime Sheridan had believed that the duke had neglected him, and allowed the demands to be brought into court.

In the same way he had long before committed himself in the affair with Captain Matthews.  In order to give a public denial of certain reports circulated in Bath, he had called upon an editor, requesting him to insert the said reports in his paper in order that he might write him a letter to refute them.  The editor at once complied, the calumny was printed and published, but Sheridan forgot all about his own refutation, which was applied for in vain till too late.

Other causes were his extravagance and intemperance.  There was an utter want of even common moderation in everything he did.  Whenever his boyish spirit suggested any freak, whenever a craving of any kind possessed him, no matter what the consequences here or hereafter, he rushed heedlessly into the indulgence of it.  Perhaps the enemy had never an easier subject to deal with.  Any sin in which there was a show of present mirth, or easy pleasure, was as easily taken up by Sheridan as if he had not a single particle of conscience or religious feeling, and yet we are not at all prepared to say that he lacked either; he had only deadened both by excessive indulgence of his fancies.  The temptation of wealth and fame had been too much for the poor and obscure young man who rose to them so suddenly, and, as so often happens, those very talents which should have been his glory, were, in fact, his ruin.

His extravagance was unbounded.  At a time when misfortune lay thick upon him, and bailiffs were hourly expected, he would invite a large party to a dinner, which a prince might have given, and to which one prince sometimes sat down.  On one occasion, having no plate left from the pawnbroker’s, he had to prevail on ‘my uncle’ to lend him some for a banquet he was to give.  The spoons and forks were sent, and with them two of his men, who, dressed in livery, waited, no doubt with the most vigilant attention, on the party.  Such at that period was the host’s reputation, when he could not even be trusted not to pledge another man’s property.  At one time his income was reckoned at L15,000 a year, when the theatre was prosperous.  Of this he is said to have spent not more than L5,000 on his household, while the balance went to pay for his former follies, debts, and the interest, lawsuits often arising from mere carelessness and judgments against the theatre!  Probably a great deal of it was betted away, drank away, thrown away in one way or another.  As for betting, he generally lost all the wagers he made:  as he said himself—­’I never made a bet upon my own judgment that I did not