son of Thomas Sheridan, the actor and
lexicographer, His mother, Frances Sheridan, was also a writer of plays
and novels. Educated at Harrow, he was there considered a dunce; and when
he grew to manhood, he plunged into dissipation, and soon made a stir in
the London world by making a runaway match with Miss Linley, a singer, who
was noted as one of the handsomest women of the day. A duel with one of
her former admirers was the result.

As a dramatist, he began by presenting _A Trip to Scarborough_, which was
altered from Vanbrugh's _Relapse_; but his fame was at once assured by his
production, in 1775, of _The Duenna_ and _The Rivals_. The former is
called an opera, but is really a comedy containing many songs: the plot is
varied and entertaining; but it is far inferior to _The Rivals_, which is
based upon his own adventures, and is brimming with wit and humor. Mrs.
Malaprop, Bob Acres, Sir Lucius O'Trigger, and the Absolutes, father and
son, have been prime favorites upon the stage ever since.

In 1777 he produced _The School for Scandal_, a caustic satire on London
society, which has no superior in genteel comedy. It has been said that
the characters of Charles and Joseph Surface were suggested by the Tom
Jones and Blifil of Fielding; but, if this be true, the handling is so
original and natural, that they are in no sense a plagiarism. Without the
rippling brilliancy of _The Rivals, The School for Scandal_ is better
sustained in scene and colloquy; and in spite of some indelicacy, which is
due to the age, the moral lesson is far more valuable. The satire is
strong and instructive, and marks the great advance in social decorum over
the former age.

In 1779 appeared _The Critic_, a literary satire, in which the chief
character is that of Sir Fretful Plagiary.

Sheridan sat in parliament as member for Stafford. His first effort in
oratory was a failure; but by study he became one of the most effective
popular orators of his day. His speeches lose by reading: he abounded in
gaudy figures, and is not without bombast; but his wonderful flow of words
and his impassioned action dazzled his audience and kept it spellbound.
His oratory, whatever its faults, gained also the unstinted praise of his
colleagues and rivals in the art. Of his great speech in the trial of
Warren Hastings, in 1788, Fox declared that "all he had ever heard, all he
had ever read, when compared with it, dwindled into nothing, and vanished
like vapor