Authors

Irish · 1751–1816

Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Richard Brinsley Sheridan was an Irish playwright, theatre owner, and politician whose The Rivals (1775) and The School for Scandal (1777) are the finest English comedies between Congreve and Wilde. He bought the Drury Lane Theatre in 1776 and managed it for over thirty years while simultaneously serving as a Whig Member of Parliament and Under-Secretary of State. His speech impeaching Warren Hastings (1787) was described as the greatest parliamentary oration of the century. He died in poverty; creditors were reportedly at his bedside.