RIGHT HON. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. Ir is with deep regret we announce to our Readers the death of the Right hon. Richard Brinsley Sheridan, who, after a severe and protracted illness, expired on the 7th of July at noon, in the 65th year of his age. On this occasion we shall at once give expression to our own feelings, and afford gratification to every one who rightly appreciates a just discrimination of character, by transferring into our pages the excellent and well-written memoir of this extraordinary person which appeared in The Times Newspaper of July 8. "The various sensations under which we, with the rest of the world, contemplated the course of this extraordinary man while living, have been so far recalled to us by the recent event of his decease, that we cannot dismiss the account of it like a common-place article of the Obituary. We do not strive to check the pangs of grief and pity which mingle with our admiration for a lost son of genius. It is always interesting, whether gratifying or painful, to meditate the history of a distinguished man; and more especially of a man, from the materials of whose character even more of warning than of example may be collected. From the mixture and counteraction of high endowments with vulgar infirmities and unfortunate habits, ordinary men derive lessons of candour and contentment. We cease to murmur at any seeming partiality in the distribution of intellectual gifts among mankind, when we see the most useful qualities withheld from or disdained by those upon whom the most splendid ones have been munificently lavished. It extends our charity, and abates our pride, to reflect with calmness on the fate of one who was equally the delight of society, and the grace of literature whom it has been for many years the fashion to quote as a bold reprover of the selfish spirit of party; and throughout a period fruitful of able men and trying circumstances, as the most popular specimen in the British senate of political consistency, intrepidity, and honour. Panegyric becomes worthless when it is no longer true-and we do not mean to eulogize Mr.Sheridan in unqualified terms. Neither fact nor principle will bear out the silly adoration with which, for some days past, he has been worshiped by the most furious of his old detractors-by men who seem inclined to pay their debts to his character with usurious interest, as if they were discharging a post obit bond. It is needless to say much on those intellectual powers whose living memorials are formed to command the admiration of every future age. The astonishing talent for observation, and knowledge of characGENT. MAG. July, 1816. ter, displayed by Mr. Sheridan in his dramatic writings, will surprise us more when we recollect that he composed The Rivals whilst yet a boy; and that his School for Scandal was written at four and twenty. Those who are best acquainted with the history of the Stage for an hundred years preceding their appearance, can best appreciate the obligations of the publick to an author, whose dialogue has the spirit of reality without its coarseness-who neither wearies nor offends his audience-but whose sentiment is animated, and his wit refined. His opera is another specimen of various power, which has eclipsed all but one of those which went before it; and all, without exception, of those which have followed. The Duenna has but a single rival on the stage; and if the broad licentiousness of the Beggar's Opera has given its author the means of indulging a nervous and pregnant vein of satire, to be found in no other English work, Sheridan has combined in the plot and language of his Duenna the charms of delicacy, elegance, and ingenuity; and in his songs has discovered a taste and pathos of high poetical beauty. If we pursue Mr. Sheridan into political life, we shall have equal cause to admire the vigour and versatility of his genius. The field on every side of him was occupied by the ablest men who had appeared in Parliament for more than half a century. Burke, whose mature mind was richly furnished from the intellectual stores of all ages and of all nations-Pitt and Fox, not left like Sheridan to chance, but trained and moulded into orators and statesmen; -these were formidable checks to the rise of an adventurer not recommended by character nor connexion-never educated for public life-beset by a thousand mischievous habits-crusted over with indolence, and depressed by fortune. Some wonderous internal power buoyed him up, and a temper invulnerable to ordinary attacks left him at all times in possession of his unshaken faculties. In co-operation, therefore, or rivalry, or hostility, with the first men of his day, he distinguished himself amongst them by wielding with success the various weapons for which they were respectively celebrated. In flow of diction he yielded not even to Mr. Pitt-in force and acuteness he might justly be compared with the great Opposition Leader-while in splendour of imagination he equalled Burke, and in its use and management far excelled him. His sarcasms were finer, but less severe, than those by which Mr. Pitt indulged his anger; and the wit displayed by Sheridan in Parliament was, perhaps, from the suavity of his temper, much on Mr. Sheridan's patriotic spirit, we shall merely observe, that one object of our admiration is the exquisite judgment-the dexterity of tact-with which he at all times seized the full tide of public sentiment, and turned it into the proper channel. But it must be acknowledged that the longer he remained in the House of Commons, and before the publick, the more his personal consequence declined, Mr. Sheridan had never in his happiest days effected any thing by steady appli cation. much less sharp than brilliant. But the quality which predominated over all its companions in the mind of Mr. Sheridan was his exquisite and highly finished taste. In this rare talent he had no competitor; and this it was which gave such inimitable grace to his expressions, and which, in arguing or declaiming, in eulogy or invective, disposed his thoughts with an effect so full and admirable. We cannot expatiate farther on his rhetorical qualifications than by observing, that he joined to the higher attributes above spoken of, the natural advantages of a clear and melodious voice, a distinct, emphatic, and unaffected utterance, and a manly and becoming action. As Mr. Sheridan has produced a comedy which may be described as nearly the best in our language, so did he by a carious felicity of genius put forth, in his speech on the trial of Hastings, the finest specimen of English senatorial eloquence of which modern times can boast. Of this divine oration, although none but those who heard it can adequately judge, enough remains to justify our praises in the fragments handed down to us by the publications of that period, and in the recorded sentiments of the leaders of all parties, who hung in rapture and amazement on his words. Mr. Sheridan then reached the pinnacle of his fame. No length of days could add to the celebrity at that moment poured around him, as an orator and statesman of comprehensive and transcendant powers-no human fortune could have surpassed the expectations then formed of his future eminence. Why they have not since been realized, is a question which posterity will not fail to ask. We pass by the details of his parliamentary progress, from the discussions on the regency in 1789, to those on the same subject in 1811. Many important questions, many dangerous crises, which arose in the long interval between these periods, gave Mr. Sheridan the means to establish for himself an occasional interest with the people of England, distinct from any that could have been derived from mere proofs of tafent, or influence of party. On the mutiny at the Nore, he enjoyed the credit of essentially contributing to save the state. Whenever the liberty of the press was attacked, that bulwark of the constitution found in him its most zealous and consistent defender: and when the early burst of Spanish patriotism had raised a strong sympathy throughout this country, it was Mr. Sheridan who first gave form and expression to the feelings which swelled every English heart; and who traced in Parliament the natural relation between the sup-ginally kind, and his manners gentle: but port of Spain and the deliverance of Europe. Without instituting a too severe or invidious scrutiny into the justice of those high encomiums which have been passed He was capable of intense, but not of regular stady. When public duty or private difficulty urged him, he endured the burden as if asleep under its pressure. At length, when the pain could be no longer borne, he roused himself with one mighty effort, and burst like a lion through the toils. There are reasons for believing that his constitutional indolence began its operation upon his habits at an early age. His very first dramatic scenes were written by snatches, with considerable intervals between them. Convivial pleasures had lively charms for one whose wit was the soul of the table; and the sparkling glass-the medium of social intercoursehad no small share of his affection. These were joys to be indulged without effort: as such they were too well calculated to absorb the time of Mr. Sheridan, and sooner or later to make large encroachments on his character. His attendance in Parliament became every year more languid—the vis inertiæ more incurable— the plunges by which his genius had now and then extricated him in former times less frequent and more feeble. We never witnessed a contrast much more melancholy than between the brilliant and commanding talent displayed by Mr. Sheridan throughout the first Regency discussions, and the low scale of nerve, activity, and capacity, to which he seemed reduced, when that subject was more recently agitated in Parliament. But indolence and intemperance must banish reflection, if not corrected by it; since no man could support the torture of perpetual selfreproach. Aggravated, we fear, by some such causes, the naturally careless temper of Mr. Sheridan became ruinous to all his better hopes and prospects. Without a direct appetite for spending money, he thought not of checking its expenditure. The economy of time was as much disregarded as that of money. All the arrangements, punctualities, and minor obligations of life were forgotten, and the household of Mr. Sheridan was always in a state of nature. His domestic feelings were ori the same bad habits seduced him from the House of Commons, and from home; and equally injured him as an agent of the public good, and as a dispenser of private hap happiness. It is painful, it is mortifying, but it is our sacred duty, to pursue this history to the end. Pecuniary embarrassments often lead men to shifts and expedients-these exhausted, to others of a less doubtful colour. Blunted sensibility-renewed excesses-loss of cast in societyfollow each other in melancholy succession, until solitude and darkness close the scene. It has been made a reproach by some persons, in lamenting Mr. Sheridan's cruel destiny, that "his friends" had not done more for him. We freely and conscientiously declare it as our opinion, that had Mr. Sheridan enjoyed ten receiverships of Cornwall instead of one, he would not have died in affluence. He never would have attained to comfort or independence in his fortune. A vain man may become rich, because his vanity may thirst for only a single mode of gratification. An ambitious man, a bon vivant, a sportsman, may severally control their expenses; but a man who is inveterately thoughtless of conse quences, and callous to reproof-who knows not when he squanders money, because he feels not those obligations which, constitute or direct its uses-such a man it is impossible to rescue from destruction. We go further-we profess not to conjecture to what individuals the above reproach of forgotten friendships has been applied. If against persons of illustrious rank, there never was a more unfounded accusation. Mr. Sheridan, throughout his whole life, stood as high as he ought to have done in the quarters alluded to. He received the most substantial proofs of kind and anxious attachment from these personages: and it is to his credit that he was not insensible to their regard. If the mistaken advocates of Mr. Sheridan were so much his enemies as to wish that he had been raised to some elevated office, are they not aware that even one month's active attendance out of twelve he was at all times utterly incapable of giving? But what friends are blamed for neglecting Mr. Sheridan? What friendships did he ever form? We more than doubt whether he could fairly claim the rights of friendship with any leader of the Whig administration. We know that he has publicly asserted Mr. Fox to be his friend, and that he has dwelt with much eloquence on the sweets and enjoyments of that connexion: but it has never been our fortune to find out that Mr Fox had on any public or priVate occasion bound himself by reciprocal pledges. Evidence against the admission of such ties on his part may be drawn from the well-known anecdotes of what occurred within a few days of that statesman's death. The fact is, that a life of conviviality and intemperance seldom favours the cultivation of those better tastes and affections which are necessary to the existence of intimate friendship. That Mr. Sheridan had as many admirers as acquaintances, there is no room to doubt: but they admired only his astonishing powers: there never was a second opinion. or feeling as to the unfortunate use which he made of them. Had he We have now performed an honest duty, and in many particulars an humbling and most distressing one we have found it. Never were such gifts as those which Providence showered upon Mr. Sheridan so abused-never were talents so miserably perverted. The term "greatness" has been most ridiculously, and, in a moral sense, most perniciously applied to the character of one who, to speak charitably of him, was the weakest of men. employed his matchless endowments with but ordinary judgment, nothing in England, hardly any thing in Europe, could have eclipsed his name, or obstructed his progress. It is the peculiar praise and glory of our political constitution, that great abilities may eme ge from the meanest station, and seize the first honours of the community. It is the nobler praise, and purer happiness of our moral system, that great vices throw obstacles before the march of ambition, which no force nor superiority of intellect can remove." We shall now enter more minutely on the circumstances of his life, as related in another respectable publication, and which could not with propriety be engrafted with the preceding observations. Richard Brinsley Sheridan was the third son of Mr. Thomas Sheridan, who, however eminent as an actor, was still more so for his excellent lectures on elocution, and his judicious and unremitted attention in contributing to the improvement of national education. As a performer, his declamatory powers constituted his chief merit; and to the admirable exercise of them Churchill, in his Rosciad, bears unqualified testimony: Were speech-fam'd Quin himself to hear him speak, Envy would drive the colour from his cheek." His works, with the exception of some Plays which he altered, and the Life of Dean Swift, which he prepared for publi cation, in general relate to the elements of language, and the instruction of youth, The following is a list of his principal Works: The Loyal Lover, Romeo and Juliet, together with Coriolanus, all altered and acted; British Education; a Discourse delivered in the Theatre at Oxford, and in the Senate-house at Cambridge; A Dissertation on the Causes of the Difficulties which occur in learning the English Tongue; a Course of Lectures on Elocu tion; A Plan of Education for the "young Nobility and Gentry of Great Britain; Lectures ou the Art of Reading, in two parts; a General Dictionary of the English Language; the Works of the Rev. Dr. Jonathan Swift, Dean of St. Patrick's, arranged, revised, and corrected; Elements of English. To the second edition of his Dictionary, in quarto, there is prefixed an exceeding good and expressive likeness of the author. His father, the Rev. Dr. Thomas Sheridan, was a distinguished Divine, the ablest school-master of his time, and the intimate friend of the Dean of St. Patrick. Mr. Thomas Sheridan died at Margate on the 14th of August, 1788. Mrs. Frances Sheridan, the mother of Richard Brinsley, a lady no less respected for her domestic virtues than admired for her literary attainments, was the author of Sidney Biddulph, a Novel, which has the merit of combining the purest morality with the most powerful interest. She also wrote Nourjahad, an Oriental Tale, and the Comedies of The Discovery, The Dupe, and A Trip to Bath. She died at Blois, in France, the 17th of September, 1766. Such was the respect paid to her memory by the Bishop of Blois, that he had it intimated to her friends, notwithstanding the difference of religious persuasion, that they might take advantage of the night to deposit her remains in consecrated ground, and no interruption should be given to the interment-an indulgence in France, which was perhaps never before extended to any reputed heretic. Dr. Young, in his Night Thoughts, bitterly complains of the different treatment which attended his daughter's burial in the same country. The subject of this memoir was born in Dorset-street*, Dublin, in the month of October, 1751. He was placed, in his seventh year, together with his elder brother, Charles Francis, late Secretary at War in Ireland, and the correct and elegant Historian of the Revolution in Sweden, under the tuition of Mr. Samuel Whyte, of Dublin, the friend of their father, who has been a long time highly esteemed for his care and ability in the instruction of youth. They were the two first pupils of Mr. Whyte, who opened his academy in April 1758; and it is a circumstance not unworthy of remark, that their early years afforded no promise of the abilities which they have since displayed. Mrs. Sheridan, whose discrimination cannot be questioned, took an opportunity, on committing them to the care of Mr. Whyte, to advert to the necessity of patience in the arduous profession which he had embraced, and addressed him in the following language-" These boys will be your tutors in that respect; I bave hitherto been their only instructor, and they bave sufficiently exercised mine: for two such impenetrable dunces I never met with." Having remained nearly eighteen months with Mr. Whyte, they were sent by that gentleman, in September 1759, to Mr. and Mrs. Sheridan, who then resided at Windsor. There they passed nearly a year, their education during that time being superintended by Mrs. Sheridan herself. Richard Brinsley was placed at Harrow school after the Christmas of 1762. The observation made by his inother on the occasion, taken from one of her letters, is, when connected with his subseqnent pursuits, rather of a singular kind. She says Dick has been at Harrow school since Christmas; as he probably may fall into a bustling life, we have a mind to ac custom him early to shift for himself." It has been reported, but without foundation, that he gave recitations from the English classicks during his father's lectures. His father, on the contrary, never entertained an idea of employing him in that manner, as his brother Charles was very much his superior in diligence, correctness of ear, and powers of voice, and was remarkable, when only eleven years old, for his elegant and impressive delivery of several passages from Milton. The literary advancement of Mr. Sheridan at Harrow, a Seminary which has sent into the world many finished scholars, and distinguished characters, appears to have been at first retarded, either by the bluntness of his powers, or the negligence of his disposition. Dr. Sumner, who was then master of the school, had probably, from his constant attention to the boys of the higher forms, no opportunity of distinguishing the talents of his pupil; and it was reserved for Dr. Parr, who was at that time one of the sub-preceptors, to discover and call into activity the faculties of young Sheridan's mind. Richard Brinsley was at length roused from the inactivity of which his parents had so frequently complained; and the rising spirit of emulation produced exertions, which admonition and the fear of correction had vainly endeavoured to excite. He felt, that to be distinguished, it was necessary to devote a considerable part of his time to study. His memory was found to be uncommonly retentive, and his judgment correct; so that when his mind was quickened by competition, his genius gradually expanded into an extraordinary versatility of powers. But to be I have heard Mr. Sheridan say, that he believed himself to have been born at Quilca, a small distance from Dublin, where his father had a Country House. admired admired seemed his only object, and when that end was attained, he relaxed in. his application, and sunk into his former indolence. His last year at Harrow was spent more in reflecting on the acquirements he had made, and the eventful scenes of a busy life, which were opening to his view, than in enlarging the circle of his classical and literary attainments. His father was so highly pleased with the progress which his son had made in his studies, that he deemed it unnecessary to send him to the University; and he was, a short time after his departure from Harrow, entered as a student of the Middle Temple. From that period to his marriage with Miss Linley, the life of Mr. Sheridan seems involved in obscurity, which it is difficult to clear up in a satisfactory way, He certainly was not, and this is mentioned on the authority of persons who were then on terms of intimacy with him, either the votary of fashion or of dissipation. Mr. Sheridan, when about the age of twenty, was peculiarly fond of the society of men of taste and learning, and soon gave proofs that he was inferior to none of his companions in wit aud argument. The sum allowed for his support must have been very small, as his father's pension from the Crown* was insufficient, even at that time, to provide for the expences incurred by a genteel, but moderate plan of living; nor were the emoluments arising from his lectures on elocution, and his performance as an actor, very considerable. In this situation, the son had recourse to his literary talents for pecuniary supplies. He had read, immediately after his leaving Harrow, with minute attention, the works of our most eminent writers, and applied himself to the study of English composition in its various branches. Nothing, however, but necessity, could have induced him to exert his powers, as Dryden and many others had done before him, for immediate profit; for, exclusively of an unaccountable propensity to indolence, which formed the distinguishing characteristic of his youthful days, and from which he could scarcely ever be stimulated but by some great and sudden impulse, he ever considered a mercenary writer, who is occasionally compelled to sacrifice his own conviction to the instructions of his employer, as a character truly wretched and contemptible. That he maintained his independence of sentiment there is no * A pension of 2001. per annum was granted by his Majesty, in 1762, to Mr. T. Sheridan, without solicitation, as an encouragement to complete his English Dictionary, and a reward for his literary labours. ground to disbelieve; but he had the prudence to conceal from most of his acquaintances, whatever share he had in the fleeting productions of the day. He also directed his attention to the drama, as a subject in every respect calculated to reward his labours with fame and emolument; but, disgusted with some sketches of comic character which he drew, he actually destroyed them, and, in a moment of despair, renounced every hope of excellence as a dramatic writer. A poetical translation of Aristænetus has been attributed to him; the share, however, which he had in that version was very limited+. But the views which he might then entertain, either with respect to the cultivation and exertion of his genius in literary pursuits, or to the study of the profession to which he had been destined by his father, were all lost in a passion that mastered his reason. He at once saw and loved Miss Linley, and from his first introduction to her, indulged the fond hope of triumphing over every obstacle that opposed his happiness. That lady was no less admirable for the elegant accomplishments of her sex, and the affecting simplicity of her conversation, than for the charms of her person and the fascinating powers of her voice. She was the principal performer in the Oratorios at Drury-lane theatre; and the science, taste, but above all the enthusiastic feeling which she displayed: in the execution of the airs assigned to her, are still remembered with delight, The strains which she poured forth were the happiest combinations of nature, and art; but nature predominated over art. Her accents were so melodious and captivating, and their passage to the heart so sudden and irresistible, that "list'ning Envy would have dropped her snakes, and stern-ey'd Fury's self have melted" at the sounds. Mr. Sheridan became her avow. ed suitor, and every idea of interest and ambition was absorbed in his passion. Her father, Mr. Linley, the late ingenious composer, was not at first propitious to his passion, and he had many rivals to overcome in his attempts to gain the lady's affections. His perseverance, however, increased with the difficulties that presented themselves; and his courage and resolution in vindicating Miss Linley's reputation from a calumnious report which had been basely thrown out against it, obtained for him the fair prize for which he twice exposed his life. Mr. Mathews, a gentleman then well + The Love Epistles of Aristænetus were translated by Mr. Sheridan and Mr. Halhed, before they left Harrow school, and were published in one small volume, in the year 1771. See the "Literary Anecdotes," vol. VIII. p. 365, ;. known |