Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Who was he?
Wikipedia:
Rt. Hon. Richard Brinsley Sheridan (30 October 1751 – 7 July 1816) was
a Irish born playwright and poet and long-term owner of the London
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. His first play,
The Rivals, produced at
Covent Garden in 1775, was a failure on its first night. Sheridan cast
a more capable actor for the role of the comic Irishman for its second
performance, and it was a smash which immediately established the young
playwright's reputation. It has gone on to become a standard of English
literature. His most famous play
The
School for Scandal (Drury Lane, 8
May 1777) is considered one of the greatest comedies of manners in
English. It was followed by
The Critic
(1779), an updating of the
satirical Restoration play
The
Rehearsal.
For thirty-two years, he was
also a Member of Parliament aligned with the British Whig Party. Such
was the esteem he was held in by his contemporaries when he died that
he was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Why was he in Bath?
His father,
Thomas Sheridan, was
for a while an actor-manager at the Theatre Royal, Dublin but
moved to England in 1758. In 1770 the family moved to Bath. Two years
later Richard eloped with the young singer Elizabeth Linley.
Location of plaque at 9, New King Street:
The text reads
"Near this site between 1770 and 1772 lived
Thomas Sheridan Actor & Orthoepist 1719-1788
Richard Brinsley Sheridan Dramatist 1751-1816"
Location map of 9, New King Street:
(c) 2011
Bath-Heritage.co.uk | Contact us|
