Memoirs of the Life of the Rt. Hon. Richard Brinsley Sheridan Volume I Part 9

"_Falk._ Has Lydia changed her mind? I should have thought her duty and inclination would now have pointed to the same object.

"_Abs._ Ay, just as the eyes of a person who squints: when her love-eye was fixed on me, t'other--her eye of duty--was finely obliqued: but when duty bade her point that the same way, off turned t'other on a swivel, and secured its retreat with a frown."

This, though ingenious, is far too labored--and of that false taste by which sometimes, in his graver style, he was seduced into the display of second-rate ornament, the following speeches of Julia afford specimens:--

"Then on the bosom of your wedded Julia, you may lull your keen regret to slumbering; while virtuous love, with a cherub's hand, shall smooth the brow of upbraiding thought, and pluck the thorn from compunction."

Again:--"When hearts deserving happiness would unite their fortunes, virtue would crown them with an unfading garland of modest hurtless flowers: but ill-judging pa.s.sion will force the gaudier rose into the wreath, whose thorn offends them when its leaves are dropt."

But, notwithstanding such blemishes,--and it is easy for the microscopic eye of criticism to discover gaps and inequalities in the finest edge of genius,--this play, from the liveliness of its plot, the variety and whimsicality of its characters, and the exquisite humor of its dialogue, is one of the most amusing in the whole range of the drama; and even without the aid of its more splendid successor, The School for Scandal, would have placed Sheridan in the first rank of comic writers.

A copy of The Rivals has fallen into my hands, which once belonged to Tickell, the friend and brother-in-law of Sheridan, and on the margin of which I find written by him in many places his opinion of particular parts of the dialogue. [Footnote: These opinions are generally expressed in two or three words, and are, for the most part, judicious. Upon Mrs.

Malaprop's quotation from Shakspeare, "Hesperian curls," &c. he writes, "overdone--fitter for farce than comedy." Acres's cla.s.sification of oaths, "This we call the _oath referential,"_ &c. he p.r.o.nounces to be "very good, but above the speaker's capacity." Of Julia's speech, "Oh woman, how true should be your judgment, when your resolution is so weak!" he remarks, "On the contrary, it seems to be of little consequence whether any person's judgment be weak or not, who wants resolution to act according to it."] He has also prefixed to it, as coming from Sheridan, the following humorous dedication, which, I take for granted, has never before met the light, and which the reader will perceive, by the allusions in it to the two Whig ministries, could not have been written before the year 1784:--

"DEDICATION TO IDLENESS.

"MY DEAR FRIEND,

"If it were necessary to make any apology for this freedom, I know you would think it a sufficient one, that I shall find it easier to dedicate my play to you than to any other person. There is likewise a propriety in prefixing your name to a work begun entirely at your suggestion, and finished under your auspices; and I should think myself wanting in grat.i.tude to you, if I did not take an early opportunity of acknowledging the obligations which I owe you. There was a time--though it is so long ago that I now scarcely remember it, and cannot mention it without compunction--but there was a time, when the importunity of parents, and the example of a few injudicious young men of my acquaintance, had almost prevailed on me to thwart my genius, and prost.i.tute my abilities by an application to serious pursuits. And if you had not opened my eyes to the absurdity and profligacy of such a perversion of the best gifts of nature, I am by no means clear that I might not have been a wealthy merchant or an eminent lawyer at this very moment. Nor was it only on my first setting out in life that I availed myself of a connection with you, though perhaps I never reaped such signal advantages from it as at that critical period. I have frequently since stood in need of your admonitions, and have always found you ready to a.s.sist me--though you were frequently brought by your zeal for me into new and awkward situations, and such as you were at first, naturally enough, unwilling to appear in. Amongst innumerable other instances, I cannot omit two, where you afforded me considerable and unexpected relief, and in fact converted employments, usually attended by dry and disgusting business, into scenes of perpetual merriment and recreation. I allude, as you will easily imagine, to those cheerful hours which I spent in the Secretary of State's office and the Treasury, during all which time you were my inseparable companion, and showed me such a preference over the rest of my colleagues, as excited at once their envy and admiration. Indeed, it was very natural for them to repine at your having taught me a way of doing business, which it was impossible for them to follow--it was both original and inimitable.

"If I were to say here all that I think of your excellencies, I might be suspected of flattery; but I beg leave to refer you for the test of my sincerity to the constant tenor of my life and actions; and shall conclude with a sentiment of which no one can dispute the truth, nor mistake the application,--that those persons usually deserve most of their friends who expect least of them.

"I am, &c. &c. &c.,

"R. B. SHERIDAN."

The celebrity which Sheridan had acquired, as the chivalrous lover of Miss Linley, was of course considerably increased by the success of The Rivals; and, gifted as he and his beautiful wife were with all that forms the magnetism of society,--the power to attract, and the disposition to be attracted,--their life, as may easily be supposed, was one of gaiety both at home and abroad. Though little able to cope with the entertainments of their wealthy acquaintance, her music and the good company which his talents drew around him, were an ample repayment for the more solid hospitalities which they received. Among the families visited by them was that of Mr. Coote (Purden), at whose musical parties Mrs. Sheridan frequently sung, accompanied occasionally by the two little daughters [Footnote: The charm of her singing, as well as her fondness for children, are interestingly described in a letter to my friend Mr. Rogers, from one of the most tasteful writers of the present day:--"Hers was truly 'a voice as of the cherub choir,' and she was always ready to sing without any pressing. She sung here a great deal, and to my infinite delight; but what had a particular charm was, that she used to take my daughter, then a child, on her lap, and sing a number of childish songs with such a playfulness of manner, and such a sweetness of look and voice, as was quite enchanting."] of Mr. Coote, who were the originals of the children introduced into Sir Joshua Reynolds's portrait of Mrs. Sheridan as St. Cecilia. It was here that the d.u.c.h.ess of Devons.h.i.+re first met Sheridan; and, as I have been told, long hesitated as to the propriety of inviting to her house two persons of such equivocal rank in society, as he and his wife were at that time considered. Her Grace was reminded of these scruples some years after, when "the player's son" had become the admiration of the proudest and fairest; and when a house, provided for the d.u.c.h.ess herself at Bath, was left two months unoccupied, in consequence of the social attractions of Sheridan, which prevented a party then a.s.sembled at Chatsworth from separating. These are triumphs which, for the sake of all humbly born heirs of genius, deserve to be commemorated.

In grat.i.tude, it is said, to Clinch, the actor, for the seasonable reinforcement which he had brought to The Rivals, Mr. Sheridan produced this year a farce called "St. Patrick's Day, or the Scheming Lieutenant," which was acted on the 2d of May, and had considerable success.

Though we must not look for the usual point of Sheridan in this piece, where the hits of pleasantry are performed with the broad end or _mace_ of his wit, there is yet a quick circulation of humor through the dialogue,--and laughter, the great end of farce, is abundantly achieved by it. The moralizing of Doctor Rosy, and the dispute between the justice's wife and her daughter, as to the respective merits of militia-men and regulars, are highly comic:--

"Psha, you know, Mamma, I hate militia officers; a set of dunghill c.o.c.ks with spurs on--heroes scratched off a church door. No, give me the bold upright youth, who makes love to-day, and has his head shot off to- morrow. Dear! to think how the sweet fellows sleep on the ground, and fight in silk stockings and lace ruffles.

"_Mother._ Oh barbarous! to want a husband that may wed you to-day and be sent the Lord knows where before night; then in a twelve-month, perhaps, to have him come like a Colossus, with one leg at New York and the other at Chelsea Hospital."

Sometimes, too, there occurs a phrase or sentence, which might be sworn to, as from the pen of Sheridan, any where. Thus, in the very opening:--

"_1st Soldier._ I say you are wrong; we should all speak together, each for himself, and all at once, that we may be heard the better.

"_2d Soldier._ Right, Jack, we'll _argue in platoons_."

Notwithstanding the great success of his first attempts in the drama, we find politics this year renewing its claims upon his attention, and tempting him to enter into the lists with no less an antagonist than Dr.

Johnson. That eminent man had just published his pamphlet on the American question, ent.i.tled "Taxation no Tyranny;"--a work whose pompous sarcasms on the Congress of Philadelphia, when compared with what has happened since, dwindle into puerilities, and show what straws upon the great tide of events are even the mightiest intellects of this world.

Some notes and fragments, found among the papers of Mr. Sheridan, prove that he had it in contemplation to answer this pamphlet; and, however inferior he might have been in style to his practised adversary, he would at least have had the advantage of a good cause, and of those durable materials of truth and justice, which outlive the mere workmans.h.i.+p, however splendid, of talent. Such arguments as the following, which Johnson did not scruple to use, are, by the haughtiness of their tone and thought, only fit for the lips of autocrats:--

"When they apply to our compa.s.sion, by telling us that they are to be carried from their own country to be tried for certain offences, we are not so ready to pity them, as to advise them not to offend. While they are innocent, they are safe.

"If they are condemned unheard, it is because there is no need of a trial. The crime is manifest and notorious," &c. &c.

It appears from the fragments of the projected answer, that Johnson's pension was one of the points upon which Mr. Sheridan intended to a.s.sail him. The prospect of being able to neutralize the effects of his zeal, by exposing the nature of the chief incentive from which it sprung, was so tempting, perhaps, as to overrule any feelings of delicacy, that might otherwise have suggested the illiberality of such an attack. The following are a few of the stray hints for this part of his subject:--

"It is hard when a learned man thinks himself obliged to commence politician.--Such pamphlets will be as trifling and insincere as the venal quit-rent of a birth-day ode. [Footnote: On another sc.r.a.p of paper I find "the miserable quit-rent of an annual pamphlet." It was his custom in composition (as will be seen by many other instances) thus to try the same thought in a variety of forms and combinations, in order to see in which it would yield the greatest produce of wit.]

"Dr. J.'s other works, his learning and infirmities, fully ent.i.tled him to such a mark of distinction.--There was no call on him to become politician,--the easy quit-rent of refined panegyric, and a few grateful rhymes or flowery dedications to the intermediate benefactor....

"The man of letters is rarely drawn from obscurity by the inquisitive eye of a sovereign:--it is enough for Royalty to gild the laurelled brow, not explore the garret or the cellar.--In this case, the return will generally be ungrateful--the patron is most possibly disgraced or in opposition--if he (the author) follows the dictates of grat.i.tude, he must speak his patron's language, but he may lose his pension--but to be a standing supporter of ministry, is probably to take advantage of that competence against his benefactor.--When it happens that there is great experience and political knowledge, this is more excusable; but it is truly unfortunate where the fame of far different abilities adds weight to the attempts of rashness...."

He then adds this very striking remark: "Men seldom think deeply on subjects on which they have no choice of opinion:--they are fearful of encountering obstacles to their faith (as in religion), and so are content with the surface."

Dr. Johnson says, in one part of his pamphlet,--"As all are born the subjects of some state or other, we may be said to have been all born consenting to some system of government." On this Sheridan remarks:-- "This is the most slavish doctrine that ever was inculcated. If by our birth we give a tacit bond for our acquiescence in that form of government under which we were born, there never would have been an alteration of the first modes of government--no Revolution in England."

Upon the argument derived from the right of conquest he observes--"This is the worst doctrine that can be with respect to America.--If America is ours by conquest, it is the conquerors who settled there that are to claim these powers."

He expresses strong indignation at the "arrogance" with which such a man as Montesquieu is described as "the fanciful Montesquieu," by "an eleemosynary politician, who writes on the subject merely because he has been rewarded for writing otherwise all his lifetime."

In answer to the argument against the claims of the Americans, founded on the small proportion of the population that is really represented even in England, he has the following desultory memorandums:--"In fact, every man in England is represented--every man can influence people, so as to get a vote, and even if in an election votes are divided, each candidate is supposed equally worthy--as in lots--fight Ajax or Agamemnon. [Footnote: He means to compare an election of this sort to the casting of lots between the Grecian chiefs in the 7th book of the Iliad.]--This an American cannot do in any way whatever.

"The votes in England are perpetually s.h.i.+fting:--were it an object, few could be excluded.--Wherever there is any one ambitious of a.s.sisting the empire, he need not put himself to much inconvenience.--If the Doctor indulged his studies in Cricklade or Old Sarum, he might vote:--the dressing meat, the simplest proof of existence, begets a t.i.tle.--His pamphlet shows that he thinks he can influence some one: not an anonymous writer in the paper but contributes his mite to the general tenor of opinion.--At the eve of an election, his Patriot [Footnote: The name of a short pamphlet, published by Dr. Johnson, on the dissolution of Parliament in 1774.] was meant to influence more than the single voice of a rustic.--Even the mob, in shouting, give votes where there is not corruption."

It is not to be regretted that this pamphlet was left unfinished. Men of a high order of genius, such as Johnson and Sheridan, should never enter into warfare with each other, but, like the G.o.ds in Homer, leave the strife to inferior spirits. The publication of this pamphlet would most probably have precluded its author from the distinction and pleasure which he afterwards enjoyed in the society and conversation of the eloquent moralist, who, in the following year, proposed him as a member of the Literary Club, and always spoke of his character and genius with praise. Nor was Sheridan wanting on his part with corresponding tributes; for, in a prologue which he wrote about this time to the play of Sir Thomas Overbury, he thus alludes to Johnson's Life of its unfortunate author:--

"So pleads the tale, that gives to future times The son's misfortunes, and the parent's crimes; There shall his fame, if own'd to-night, survive; Fix'd by the hand that bids our language live."

CHAPTER IV.

THE DUENNA.--PURCHASE OF DRURY LANE THEATRE.--THE TRIP TO SCARBOROUGH.-- POETICAL CORRESPONDENCE WITH MRS. SHERIDAN.

Mr. Sheridan had now got into a current of dramatic fancy, of whose prosperous flow he continued to avail himself actively. The summer recess was employed in writing the Duenna; and his father-in-law, Mr.

Linley, a.s.sisted in selecting and composing the music for it. As every thing connected with the progress of a work, which is destined to be long the delight of English ears, must naturally have a charm for English readers, I feel happy at being enabled to give, from letters written at the time by Mr. Sheridan himself to Mr. Linley, some details relating to their joint adaptation of the music, which, judging from my own feelings, I cannot doubt will be interesting to others.

Mr. Linley was at this time at Bath, and the following letter to him is dated in October, 1775, about a month or five weeks before the opera was brought out:--

"DEAR SIR,

"We received your songs to-day, with which we are exceedingly pleased. I shall profit by your proposed alterations; but I'd have you to know that we are much too chaste in London to admit such strains as your Bath spring inspires. We dare not propose a peep beyond the ankle on any account; for the critics in the pit at a new play are much greater prudes than the ladies in the boxes. Betsey intended to have troubled you with some music for correction, and I with some stanzas, but an interview with Harris to-day has put me from the thoughts of it, and bent me upon a much more important pet.i.tion. You may easily suppose it is nothing else than what I said I would not ask in my last. But, in short, unless you can give us three days in town, I fear our opera will stand a chance to be ruined. Harris is extravagantly sanguine of its success as to plot and dialogue, which is to be rehea.r.s.ed next Wednesday at the theatre. They will exert themselves to the utmost in the scenery, &c., but I never saw any one so disconcerted as he was at the idea of there being no one to put them in the right way as to music. They have no one there whom he has any opinion of--as to Fisher (one of the managers), he don't choose he should meddle with it. He entreated me in the most pressing terms to write instantly to you, and wanted, if he thought it could be any weight, to write himself.

"Is it impossible to contrive this? couldn't you leave Tom [Footnote: Mrs. Sheridan's eldest brother] to superintend the concert for a few days? If you can manage it, you will really do me the greatest service in the world. As to the state of the music, I want but three more airs, but there are some glees and quintets in the last act, that will be inevitably ruined, if we have no one to set the performers at least in the right way. Harris has set his heart so much on my succeeding in this application, that he still flatters himself we may have a rehearsal of the music in Orchard Street to-morrow se'nnight. Every hour's delay is a material injury both to the opera and the theatre, so that if you can come and relieve us from this perplexity, the return of the post must only forerun your arrival; or (what will make us much happier) might it not bring _you_? I shall say nothing at present about the lady 'with the soft look and manner,' because I am full of more than hopes of seeing you. For the same reason I shall delay to speak about G---; [Footnote: Garrick] only this much I will say, that I am more than ever positive I could make good my part of the matter; but that I still remain an infidel as to G.'s retiring, or parting with his share, though I confess he _seems_ to come closer to the point in naming his price.

"Your ever sincere and affectionate,

"R. B. SHERIDAN."

On the opposite leaf of this letter is written, in Mrs. S.'s handwriting,--"Dearest Father, I shall have no spirits or hopes of the opera, unless we see you.