Richard Brinsley Sheridan: The Impresario in Political and Cultural ContextJack DeRochi, Daniel Ennis This new collection of essays on Richard Brinsley Sheridan brings the most important British playwright of the eighteenth century back to the forefront of literary and cultural studies of the era. While his pyrotechnic life as a romantic hero, playwright, Member of Parliament, and theatre manager has generated a number of recent biographies, it is Sheridan’s works—not just plays but also poetry and orations—that endure. These essays reclaim the legacy of the man of letters and partisan bon vivant who burst from obscurity to become a powerful cultural force in Georgian London. This collection covers the many lives of Sheridan, taking into account both his variegated career and the competing accounts of the man, as well as his early verse, which lays the foundation for his success as a playwright. Chapters are devoted to Sheridan’s theatre, and provide innovative readings of his most famous dramatic pieces: The Rivals, The Duenna, The School for Scandal, The Critic, and Pizarro. The volume also includes extensive discussion of the dramatic highs of Sheridan’s long political career, thus placing the playwright-politician firmly in the world in which performance and politics were inextricably entwined. Contributors: Mita Choudhury, Jack E. DeRochi, Marianna D’Ezio, Daniel J. Ennis, Emily Friedman, Steven Gores, David Haley, Robert W. Jones, Daniel O’Quinn, Glynis Ridley, John Vance, David Francis Taylor |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 19 | |
Chapter 2 SHERIDANS EARLY STYLE | 41 |
Chapter 3 THE LITERARY ORIGINS OF SIR LUCIUS OTRIGGER | 61 |
Chapter 4 REFLECTIONS UPON MAINTAINING A COMPETITIVE EDGE | 83 |
Chapter 5 SCHOOLS BEYOND SCANDAL 17761800 | 105 |
Sheridan in the Age of Wilde and Shaw | 123 |
Chapter 7 NAUMACHIA AND THE STRUCTURE OF THE CRITIC | 145 |
An Unexamined Connection | 161 |
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actor actress Alonzo appeared audience Bath biography British Museum Burke Burke’s Cambridge career caricature Cecil Price character Charles comedy comic Covent Garden Critic cultural Dramatic Drury Lane duel Duenna eighteenth century Eliza Elizabeth Elizabeth Linley elopement Elvira English father fig figure film final finally find first five fleet France Garrick Halhed Hastings honor impeachment influence Isaac John King’s Lady Teazle Letters Linley London stage Lydia manager Mary Linley Mathews Moore Moore’s narrative naumachia novel O’Toole O’Toole’s ofthe Oliphant Oliphant’s Oxford patriotic performance Pizarro play’s playwright poem political R. B. Sheridan Reflections Review Richard Brinsley Sheridan Richard Sheridan Rivals role Rolla Royal satire scene School Schoolfor Scandal Seawit sentimental Sheri Sheridan Studies Sheridan’s play Sichel Siddons significant Sir Furious Sir Lucius O’Trigger Sir Peter Sophia Lee specific spectacle speech theatrical Thomas Linley Thomas Sheridan tion tragedy University Press vols Whig William William Farren women