Frontmatter

Copyright Page

Oxford University Press, Ely House, London W. 1

GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE WELLINGTON

CAPE TOWN SALISBURY IBADAN NAIROBI LUSAKA ADDIS ABABA

BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS KARACHI LAHORE DACCA

KUALA LUMPUR HONG KONG

ELIZABETH SHERIDAN

by Thomas Gainsborough

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Andrew Mellon Collection

Title Page

THE LETTERS OF

Richard Brinsley Sheridan

EDITED BY

CECIL PRICE

VOLUME I

OXFORD

AT THE CLARENDON PRESS

1966

Printer's Page

© Oxford University Press 1966

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

Dedication Page

TO

JAMES MARSHALL OSBORN

Acknowledgements

I am obliged to Her Majesty the Queen for graciously permitting me to transcribe and publish the Sheridan letters in the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle.

I wish to thank descendants of Sheridan's family for their ready help. The owner of copyright, Mary, Comtesse de Renéville, has kindly allowed me to print the letters. Mr. H. F. Brinsley Sheridan has put the material in his possession at my disposal. To the Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava and Judge John Maude I am most grateful for access to, and help in studying, the Dufferin collections. My friend W. R. LeFanu has assisted me considerably by letting me draw on his family papers and on his own extensive knowledge of their background.

A number of owners of original letters have been good enough to allow me either to publish or to check them. For these privileges I am indebted to the Duke of Norfolk, the Duke of Devonshire, Earl Spencer, the late Earl of Ilchester, Earl Grey, the Earl of Lichfield, Viscount Sidmouth, Lord Kenyon, the late Lord Bolton, Lord Cottesloe, Sir Shane Leslie, Bart., and Sir Edward Hoare. Mr. Simon Whitbread kindly allowed me to see the relevant Whitbread papers, and to print the Sheridan letters among them. Miss Margaret J. M. Grubbe generously put John Grubb's papers in my hands. To Mr. and Mrs. J. R. Blackett-Ord, Mr. Brinsley Ford, Mr. Paul M. Gilmore, Mr. Bertram Shuttleworth, Mrs. Alfred Western, and Mrs. L. A. H. Wright I am grateful for opportunities of working through much valuable background material, and for permission to print original letters. I must also thank Mr. T. S. Blakeney, Mr. Alec Clunes, Mr. George Fortescue, Mr. R. G. E. Sandbach, and the late Richard Border for similar privileges.

American scholars and collectors have been equally generous in giving me the use of their manuscripts, and I must express my sincere gratitude for this kindness to Mr. F. W. Hilles, Mr. A. A. Houghton, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Donald Hyde, Mr. Robert E. Keighton, Mr. E. L. McAdam, Jr.,

Mr. Gordon N. Ray, Mr. Jack H. Samuels, and Mr. Robert H. Taylor. My greatest debt in this respect is inadequately acknowledged in the dedication.

Among the institutions that have granted me the privilege of working on and printing their manuscripts, I must record the names of the owners of the two largest Sheridan collections: the Harvard College Library and the British Museum. I am also grateful to the officials of the Bath Municipal Library, Bodleian Library, Brotherton Collection, Butler Library of Columbia University, Cornell University Library, Fitzwilliam Museum, the Goldsmiths' Company, Harrow School, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Henry E. Huntington Library, the University of Indiana Library, the University of Kansas Library, Lehigh University Library, Maine Historical Society, the University of Michigan Library, Mitchell Library, Sydney, National Library of Ireland, National Library of Scotland, National Library of Wales, New York Public Library, Oesterreichische-Bibliotek, Pierpont Morgan Library, Princeton University Library, Public Record Office, Riksarkivet, Stockholm, the University of Rochester Library, Royal Irish Academy, Salt Library, Stafford, Saltikova-Schredin Library, Leningrad, Sheffield Public Library, Sir John Soane's Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Public Library of Victoria, Melbourne, the University of Virginia Library, and Yale University Library.

I have also received much help from the Registrar and staff of the National Register of Archives, as well as from the Archivists at the Record Offices of Bedford (Whitbread MSS.), Devon (Sidmouth MSS./D 152M), Hampshire (Tierney MSS.), Northern Ireland (Dufferin MSS.), and West Sussex (Norfolk MSS.). The staffs of the India Record Office, the Royal Academy of Arts, the Royal College of Physicians, the Prior's Kitchen, Durham University, and the City of Westminster Public Libraries have also given me much assistance. I am grateful, too, for the aid I received when working in the archives of the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth, and in those of the Duke of Northumberland at Alnwick.

The work of assembling the text has been greatly assisted

by the grants made to me by the Leverhulme Trust, the University College of Wales, University College, Swansea, and (from its Pilgrim Trust Fund) by the British Academy. I warmly appreciate the fellowship awarded me at the Folger Shakespeare Library, for it enabled me to find much new material, to study the account books of Drury Lane Theatre during Sheridan's management, and to enjoy the help of the Director, Dr. Louis B. Wright, and his staff.

For much personal aid and advice I must first thank Professor Gwyn Jones and Mr. D. M. Davin. For other favours I am grateful to Dr. Arthur Aspinall, Mr. F. W. Bateson, Mr. John Carter, Mr. P. J. Croft, Dr. J. L. Clifford, Dr. Giles Dawson, Mr. C. I. E. Donaldson, Miss Elizabeth C. Ford, the late Dr. E. M. Hampson, Mr. John H. Harvey, Dr. C. B. Hogan, Dr. George M. Kahrl, Miss Letitia Kennedy-Skipton, the late William Van Lennep, Dr. Wilmarth S. Lewis, Dr. J. G. McManaway, Miss Dorothy Mason, Dr. Robert F. Metzdorf, Miss Eleanor Pitcher, Mr. E. V. C. Plumtre, Miss Sybil Rosenfeld, Mr. William H. Runge, the late Michael Sadleir, Dr. Arthur Sherbo, Mr. Grzegorz Sinko, Mr. Alexander D. Wainwright, Miss Helen Willard, Mr. J. L. Williams, Miss Marjorie Wynne, and Mr. R. C. Mackworth Young.

Mr. Robert K. Black, Mr. R. J. Dobell, Miss Emily Driscoll, Messrs. F. Edwards, Messrs. Maggs Bros., Mr. Michael Papantonio, Messrs. Bernard Quaritch, Mr. Philip Robinson, and Messrs. Sotheby have kindly aided me in locating missing Sheridan letters.

For permission to publish letters that have already appeared in print, I have to thank the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office, Messrs. Constable & Co., Messrs. Ernest Benn, Messrs. Maggs Bros., Sir John Murray, Miss Winifred A. Myers, Messrs. Sotheby, and The Times Publishing Company.

For material that has reached me since this book went to press, I should like to record my gratitude to the Earl of Harewood, Lord Abinger, Lady Beaverbrook and the late Lord Beaverbrook, Dr. W. H. Bond, Dr. N. E. Enkvist, Mr. P. Highfill, Jr., Dr. and Mrs. A. M. Kinloch, Dr. Eric Jacobson, Miss Patricia Sigl, the Secretary and Committee

of the Garrick Club, and the Librarians of the Leeds Central Library, Liverpool City Library, and Nottingham Public Library.

Thanks are too weak to acknowledge all the assistance my wife has given me over the years, in transcription, checking readings, and preparing an index. She has pored with me over the many puzzles presented by Sheridan's handwriting, and contempt for dates. Only I know how much I owe to her accurate eye and unstinting help.

C. P.

Contents

Volume I

     

Elizabeth Sheridan by Thomas Gainsborough	Frontispiece
INTRODUCTION	page xiii
REGISTER OF LETTERS	xxvii
ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE NOTES	lv
LETTERS 1-199	1-271

Volume II

  

Richard Brinsley Sheridan from the engraving by Hall after the painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds	Frontispiece
LETTERS 200-631	1-311

Volume III

     

Richard Brinsley Sheridan by George Romney	Frontispiece
LETTERS 632-937	1-248
SUMMARY OF OTHER LETTERS	249
APPENDIX OF FURTHER LETTERS	292
INDEX	345

Introduction

Collections of letters usually attract us because they are written by great men whose lives pique our curiosity, or by lesser men who report exactly what went on in their day or express a particular outlook on life. No one will find in Sheridan's letters a satisfying philosophy, but they show gleams of his greatness as well as glimpses of the theatrical, social, and political worlds of his time.

The main interest of the letters is biographical. Sheridan's character is so full of contradictions that it is difficult to assess. His biographers have been painstaking but hardly penetrating, and it is time that readers had the opportunity of studying his correspondence so as to be able to come close to the man and make their own judgements upon him.

His first efforts of any significance belong to 1769, when he tried to imitate the letters of 'Junius' that had appeared in the Public Advertiser and had bitterly satirized public figures. Two of Sheridan's attempts are careless drafts; the third is reprinted for the first time from the newspaper in which it was published. Not one of them is remarkable as a literary composition, but we are bound to perceive that even at the age of eighteen, Sheridan's mind was analytical and critical, and that his chief interest in life was politics.

Another important phase in his career is seen in seven letters written between September 1770 and August 1772, when he lived with his father, brother and two sisters, at Bath. The wit in him comes out early in an amusing letter to Mrs. Angelo. The romantic gallant, who accompanied the beautiful singer, Elizabeth Linley, to France, and afterwards fought two duels with her tormentor, Thomas Mathews, is found to be irascible and legalistic, as argumentative as he was brave.

After these escapades, he was banished to Waltham Abbey to pursue his studies and forget Elizabeth Linley. It is unfortunate that his letters to her over these seven months (September 1772 to March 1773) have never come to light. Percy Fitzgerald suggested that when Sheridan

came to woo his second wife, he copied from the love-letters he had written to his first, but I do not think we need take this view very seriously. Probably Sheridan learned early in his intimacy with Elizabeth a certain language of love, and used it habitually at a later date.

The correspondence of the Waltham Abbey period contains eleven letters addressed to Thomas Grenville, and they often read like essays on a set theme. Their composer (perhaps suiting himself to his correspondent) seems very earnest and even humourless in his long and didactic epistles. Yet they are revealing in the way they bring out a side of his character that is often forgotten: one that was to have its fullest expression in his play Pizarro.

Letters in this lofty and improving strain came to an abrupt end in April 1773, when Sheridan was married to Elizabeth Linley. In spite of his father's displeasure and his own poverty, Sheridan was a happy man at this period, and his joy is shown in the whimsical statement, 'When a man's married, it is time he should leave off speaking in metaphor'. The tone of the ten letters to his father-in-law, Thomas Linley, is as light-hearted as it is purposeful.

Some of them concern The Duenna. As Sheridan's chief composer of music for this ballad-opera, Linley carefully followed the hints that its author gave him, and it is interesting to see how they were conveyed. Sheridan relied considerably on his wife's musical knowledge, but he was always essentially a man of the theatre, knowing exactly what effect he wanted to achieve and where to find the necessary illustration and assistance. His ability as an organizer of other people's talents is shown at an early date.

We look in vain for anything equally important about the composition of The Rivals, The School for Scandal, or The Critic, and the next group of letters is largely concerned with the management of Drury Lane Theatre. Sheridan had become one of the proprietors of this playhouse because of the impression he had made on Garrick and Ford, and his connexion with Linley. He had extended his hold by buying out another of the proprietors, Willoughby Lacy. In 1778 he had also taken control (with Thomas Harris of Covent Garden Theatre) of the King's Theatre, but here

he over-reached himself and the venture failed after two years. The amount of ready money Sheridan put into all three transactions was comparatively small, but he had now made such a name for himself as the author of highly profitable entertainments that it was taken for granted that he could raise ample money at any time by writing.

As the dominant partner in the proprietorship of Drury Lane Theatre, his income was soon large enough to allow him to give time to his absorbing interest, politics. After taking a leading part in the anti-Government agitations of 1778-9, he was elected member for Stafford in September 1780, and became Under-Secretary of State in the Rockingham administration of 1782, and Secretary to the Treasury in the coalition of 1783.

There are sequences of excellent letters in 1782 and 1788 that show his standing as a trusted lieutenant of Fox, and afterwards of the Prince of Wales. They disclose a delight in intrigue and in the subtle manipulation of men; they imply that Sheridan was usually wary in his political dealings. The correspondence of the last decade of the century is much less informative on these matters. There is comparatively little here concerning the French revolution, the quarrel with Burke, the split in the Whig party, the government's repressive measures, or the naval mutinies. The letters that survive deal instead with the creation of the new Drury Lane Theatre as well as with the death of his first wife and his marriage to Hester Jane Ogle.

The first marriage that had begun so romantically was marred in its closing years by Sheridan's gallantries and by Elizabeth's liaison with Lord Edward Fitzgerald. Her illness is movingly described in Sheridan's letters to the Duchess of Devonshire and Lady Duncannon, and he was completely overwhelmed by his wife's death in June 1792.

In April 1795 he was married to the nineteen-year-old daughter of the Dean of Winchester, and his early letters to her are full of affection and tender absurdity. They become more sober as time goes on, and in some of them a brooding fit of melancholy takes possession of him. 'How unceasingly', he writes, 'do I meditate on Death and how continually do I

act as if the thought of it had never cross'd my mind.' These moods of self-criticism and flashes of self-knowledge give depth to offset the more superficial aspects of his character.

At these moments he deplored worldly ambitions, but the fact remains that his days were almost wholly given to them. Of these the most troublesome was the creation of the new Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Garrick's theatre was pulled down, and after much costly delay an immense building was erected. It was designed by Henry Holland to be the finest in Europe, and to stage the most spectacular productions. All this reflected Sheridan's delight in the flamboyant. Unfortunately Holland exceeded his estimates, and Sheridan had not sufficient capital to complete the original plan. Honourably but quixotically, he took on himself all the unpaid debts of the company. Then he had to resort to all kinds of expedients to improve his finances: he borrowed from his associates, John Grubb and Thomas Shaw; raised money by the sale of boxes; neglected his backers and his creditors. His extravagant tastes and unsound management even kept him short of pocket money, and in frequent notes to the under-treasurer, Richard Peake, he pleaded in a variety of passionate cries for small advances. I have printed many of these in full because they show his characteristic energy of phrasing, and give a fair idea of the way in which Sheridan was plagued with money troubles largely because of his own heedlessness.

This state of affairs was brought to a temporary halt in 1801-2, when the future of Drury Lane Theatre was discussed in detail in the Court of Chancery. The bankers, Hammersley and Company, declared that the proprietors had misapplied the takings of the theatre; and Sheridan appeared in person to rebut the charge. By his interruptions and lengthy defence, he successfully maintained his case; but Lord Chancellor Eldon also rebuked him by applying to him Johnson's famous words about Savage: 'negligence and irregularity long continued, make knowledge useless, wit ridiculous, and genius contemptible'.

The Chancellor also made an order for the payment of the theatre's liabilities from its takings in a certain scale of

priority; and he placed the concern under the control of a committee. Two of the leading figures in the new management were Sheridan's friends, Aaron Graham and Richard Wilson. More business-like methods were adopted, but control remained effectively in Sheridan's hands.

In February 1806 he found himself once again for a short time in political office, in the lucrative post of Treasurer of the Navy. The correspondence of the year is very full but chiefly concerns the Stafford election, the abortive candidature for Westminster, and the successful but very costly Westminster contest of November 1806. Sheridan went out of office with All the Talents in 1807, and his political correspondence after that date is chiefly interesting for the part he played in denying control of the government to Grey and Grenville in 1811 and 1812. As usual, he behaved with that mixture of the quixotic and the calculating that won him the confidence of nobody.

The same is true of his actions as chief proprietor of Drury Lane Theatre. His squabbles with the trustees and the bankers were patched up from time to time, and their uneasy relationship looked as if it would continue indefinitely. Then the theatre that was planned to be fireproof burned down, and a new start had to be made. Sheridan's letter to his wife about this catastrophe shows him behaving (in a slightly histrionic way) with manly philosophy. The banker, Thomas Hammersley, thought the destruction no disaster. In fact, he believed it gave Sheridan a splendid opportunity to repair his theatre and his shattered fortunes by drawing on private benefactions for rebuilding, just as J. P. Kemble had done at Covent Garden Theatre. And so it might have happened had Sheridan acted quickly, but his very proper desire for independence was only exceeded by his habitual procrastination, and nothing was done. Two years later, when an agitation for a third theatre was at its strongest, he began to act with vigour. He obtained the help of the wealthy brewer Samuel Whitbread, and persuaded him to head the Committee for rebuilding. He had a most remarkable faculty for persuading his friends to come to his rescue; but even Whitbread, with all his initial goodwill, found that potential subscribers now had to be assured, before they would

consider the new propositions, that Sheridan had no concern in the management of Drury Lane Theatre. They were tired of his shifts and his dilatoriness. Sheridan was forced out of the controlling interest which he had enjoyed for thirty-five years. Still, the new proprietors had to buy this from him, and he looked forward to being paid in hard cash. Even this was denied him, and his demands were satisfied (after long discussion) in the same manner as he had fobbed off many a creditor--with shares in the theatre.

The last years (1812-16) of his life saw him out of parliament and Drury Lane. Observers cried, 'Poor Sherry!' They quoted him as a genius ruined by drink and self-indulgence. Yet it must be remembered that this was the period when he made such a striking impression on Byron. Indeed, if Sheridan was in decline the letters written in these years hardly show it, for they indicate his delight in society, his critical yet appreciative temper, his eye for the main chance, his good nature and warm heart. He occasionally grumbled at not hearing from his wife or second son, but generally his letters were cheerful and optimistic. His wife commented on this tendency 'to eat the calf in the cow's belly', and it is certain that he always hoped to realize the many schemes, extravagant or sober, that passed through his mind. Sheridan was never short of invention, even though he too seldom applied that talent to writing plays. What he lacked was the power to stop himself squandering his energies in all directions. And what was worse was that he insisted on giving to his multiplicity of activities not as much time as they required, but as much as he felt disposed to yield to them.

Towards the end of his life he read some early verses of his and remarked, 'What an ardent romantic blockhead nature made me'. Surely what he meant (and what his letters reveal) was that there was a constant conflict in him between a shrewd, practical outlook that took full advantage of every situation, and a high-minded desire to show integrity in all his dealings. He liked (though he could seldom afford it) to be completely disinterested. He has had little credit for this scrupulous side of his nature; the other side has always been obvious, and it earned him a bad name.

He sometimes excused his procrastination as a 'perverse fatality in my nature', and meant this quite seriously. The moods of melancholy, the bouts of drunkenness, the cruel tricks, shifts, and excuses, the sophistries and winning words, were beyond his control. He would have us believe (and I believe him) that he usually meant well but could seldom manage to put his meaning into action.

He tantalizes us, but there is something so human in his foibles that he remains a curiously sympathetic character. Perhaps his gift of phrase-making catches our attention; or his rueful remarks about his own shortcomings endear him to us. Yet what holds us in the end is this intimate communing with a man of genius who knows his own faults only too well but can do nothing to change his nature. In that situation lies the pathos of these letters.

They are not brilliantly written, and anyone who expects them to be worthy of the author of The School for Scandal will be disappointed. To achieve elegance of that kind, Sheridan had to write and rewrite. He seldom gave his letters enough attention: 'I shall confess that I write much more precipitately and triflingly often than I could wish.'

Most of them are brief. John Taylor describes an evening at the Shakespeare Tavern when Sheridan wrote 'about thirty letters, which he tied up in a handkerchief, and then resigned himself to conversation'. Edmund Kean quotes Sheridan as saying that no gentleman ever turned over the page in a letter to a friend. Charles Brinsley Sheridan looked through his father's letters and noted that 'almost all are extremely short; and he always put off writing till post'.

Sheridan knew his weakness (the product of procrastination) only too well, and made one of his most clear-sighted statements when he told Garrick 'what I write in a hurry I always feel not to be worth reading, and what I try to take pains with, I am sure never to finish'. His long letters, in later life, were usually careful attempts at special pleading.

Secrecy, too, was necessary in his world of political manœuvre, financial juggling, and fashionable intrigue. This prevented the uninhibited expression of opinion, and robbed his letters of savour. In one of them he made this clear by remarking that he preferred to reserve 'the greater part of

what I meant to have written for personal communication'. Speech was less binding than writing. He knew how gifted he was in the art of oral persuasion: his genial, sympathetic manner and physical radiance all helped to convince. Sheridan was not a lazy man, but he could do so much with his tongue that his pen was always a more tedious medium. It is something of a wonder that he ever wrote any letters.

Those that remain are valuable records of the day-to-day variations of an elusive but always interesting character. They remind us sometimes of Lady Holland's comment on Sheridan, 'About him my reason and impulse are always at variance; reflection convinces me he ought to be despised for his private life and doubted for his political, but whenever I see him, if but for five minutes, a sort of cheerful frankness and pleasant wittiness puts to flight all the reasonable prejudices I entertain against him.' At other times we recall the words spoken in his own defence before the Lord Chancellor: 'I have had to struggle with the disadvantages of uncertain income. These, in all cases, are known to be great, but they are particularly formidable to a man of a sanguine temper, blessed with but a small share of resolution, who might expect much from the exertions of talent, who forms hopes which are never realised, and makes to himself promises he is unable to perform.' More rarely we recollect Byron's warm praise, 'his very dregs are better than the first sprightly runnings of others'. Yet even if the letters too seldom show Sheridan at his best, they clearly reveal the nature of the man and are a necessary supplement to his actions, speeches, and plays.

The Text

When Sheridan died, his wife remarked on 'the incredible quantity of private papers' he had left behind him. Many of them were legal documents, and others were letters written to him as proprietor of Drury Lane Theatre and as a member of parliament. Some of the letters written by Sheridan himself seem to have been lent to Thomas Moore for the authorized biography, and to have been lost. Most of them were carefully preserved by Sheridan's grandson (and namesake) at Frampton Court, Dorset, and they remained in the family until they were dispersed at Sotheby's sale-rooms on 2 July 1930, 1 March 1955, and 18 February 1957. Another fine collection, gathered by Sophie, Lady Wavertree (Sheridan's great-great-granddaughter), was also sold there on 25 May 1954. These sources provide this edition with many letters. Others are drawn from the archives of the Prince Regent, C. J. Fox, Charles Grey, Samuel Whitbread, Thomas Creevey, and other public figures of the period. Sheridan's association with Drury Lane Theatre is well represented in numerous letters to his fellow manager, John Grubb, and to the Theatre's treasurer, Richard Peake. Letters to other correspondents are widely dispersed in public and private collections in this country and abroad.

I have made every effort to trace them all, but have now resigned myself to the probability that many have escaped me. It is to be hoped that when they come to light they will be found to be letters to his first wife, particularly of the Waltham Abbey period when Sheridan drafted some of the work that later made him famous.

Among the letters I have not traced are the following: eleven to Colonel Graham (sold to Spencer at Sotheby's, 1 August 1935); some in an extra-illustrated copy of Watkins's Memoirs of ... Sheridan (sold by Leavitt, New York, 14 October 1878, lot 1080), and of Moore's Memoirs of ... Sheridan (sold to Smythe at Sotheby's, 26 July 1923). Nor have I found the letter mentioned in Moore's memoranda (Widener MS.): 'see among Richardson's papers

Sheridan's letter to Richardson in '88 about purchasing Ford's share.'

Over the past ten years I have approached the agents of the Marchioness of Crewe on a number of occasions, about letters to Mrs. Crewe. I gather that some 'Sheridan letters' are extant, but that it is still not possible to gain access to them.

I have not included the text of two well-known letters that Sheridan signed with his friends: one was the 'Round Robin' to Johnson; the other, the address to Francis on 18 December 1787. Both are readily available in The Correspondence of Edmund Burke, iii (ed. G. H. Guttridge, Cambridge and Chicago, 1961), 273-4, and v (ed. H. Furber, 1965), 370-1.

While the present work has been in the press, some letters that it includes as unpublished have appeared in print. The Correspondence of Edmund Burke, iv (ed. J. A. Woods, 1963), 439-40, contains no. 78; volume v (ed. cit.), 121, 377-8, 457, presents nos. 89, 109, 143. Dr. N. E. Enkvist gives no. 178 in Acta Academiae Aboensis, Humaniora, xxvii, 3 (Åbo, 1964), 103. The first two volumes of Dr. Arthur Aspinall's edition of The Correspondence of George, Prince of Wales, 1770-1812 (1963-4) contain sixteen letters. I list my numbers followed (in brackets) by Dr. Aspinall's: nos. 117 (290), 118 (286), 120 (346), 121 (296), 122 (334), 126 (308), 127 (309), 128 (302), 130 (311), 131 (318), 132 (292), 135 (302), 137 (369), 158 (578), 209 (844), Summary G. 3 (466).

Sotheby's sale catalogue of 21 March 1966 notes (as item 260) a letter from Sheridan to his second wife, telling her that Burdett had been 'taken by force to the Tower'. He added that he did not know what would happen but was glad she was away. His postscript noted 'much blood spilt at the Tower'.

Conventions

I have printed the name of the recipient of the letter at the head of the text, and have then described the source. The names of private owners and of libraries possessing less than five Sheridan letters are quoted in full. Collections containing five or more letters are given an abbreviated title.

Unless there is an indication to the contrary, the letters are holographs. The description 'Draft' means an early version in Sheridan's hand: cancelled words have been omitted. 'Copy' refers to a Sheridan letter written in a hand not his own. Where the text is from photographic copies of original letters, that fact is indicated by the sign '[Ph.]'. Where the text is from a printed version, the earliest published form is followed.

A letter is described as published when the bulk of it has been printed elsewhere, but when brief extracts only have appeared publication is merely mentioned in footnotes. If a printed version is not named at the head of the letter or in a footnote, the letter is believed to be unpublished.

What are thought to be errors by other transcribers have usually been corrected without comment, but where the transcription remains in doubt or the alternative version has some other interest, then it is printed in a footnote.

When the date of a letter has not been placed by Sheridan at its head, the date is given in that position in italics. Dates supplied by the editor have been placed there in italics and square brackets. Abbreviated dates (e.g. 'Mond. eg.') have been expanded.

In transcribing original letters, I have tried to reproduce exactly what Sheridan wrote, but I have also compromised with this ideal by sometimes editing the text in the interests of readability. For example, all superior letters have been lowered to the line, and conventional abbreviations (including the ampersand) have been expanded. 'Mr', 'M .', and are all printed as 'Mr.' I have also supplied the missing stop if followed by a capital, and the missing capital if preceded by a stop. Unclosed parentheses have been

completed. Sheridan's use of 'your's' has been accepted, but 'it's' (for 'its') has been amended because of its ambiguity.

Sheridan is fond of using the dash. He also employs a very short downward stroke on the line that I have represented as a comma. His short level stroke on the line (or longer one followed by a wide space) I have shown as a point.

Of Sheridan's spelling, Moore writes: 'we find thing always spelt think--whether, where and which turned into wether, were, and wich; and double' ms and s's almost invariably reduced to "single blessedness".' The position is not quite as simple as Moore suggests, for in the very letter he alludes to, Sheridan spells 'thing' correctly and as 'think'. Sheridan is inconsistent even in his own inconsistencies, but the following generalizations have been accepted. He is confused about words containing 'ie', 'ei', and 'ai': for example, he writes 'peice', 'deceive', and 'villianous'. He sometimes metathesizes syllables, as in 'arbritation' and 'blasmephy'. 'Goverment' and 'seperate' are usual. These, and the following words, have all been normalized:

          

accomodation	agrieved	alltogether
allways	attonement	beautifull
benefitted	comands	compells
conexion	disapointment	disaprove
embarasment	emphaticaly	especialy
exagerated	existance	finaly
genious	infallably	inocence
inofensive	misaplied	privilige
realy	recolection	recomendation
subsistance	tranquility	tranquilize

Sometimes his spelling seems to reflect his own pronunciation: 'cridit', 'threasury', 'taching' (touching), 'deatis' (deities), 'Beiting' (biting), 'set' (said), 'begone' (begun).

Repetition of syllables (e.g. 'indepependently') and of words has been silently corrected. Nonsense words (e.g. 'insituate') have been amended, but eighteenth-century spellings (e.g. 'ideot') have been retained. Inadvertently omitted letters or words have been supplied in square brackets, and unclosed quotation marks have been silently closed. The £ sign which often appears in the manuscripts after or

above the figuring has been brought to the front. Sheridan's odd spelling of some proper names has not been amended.

Where the transcription is made from copies, any eccentricities of spelling and punctuation have been normalized.

References to the dates of auction catalogues are to the first day of sale only.

Manuscripts are listed by their locations at the time when I read them. I have not attempted to record their more recent movements, though it may be worth noting that Mr. Shuttleworth's manuscripts are now in the Bodleian Library, and that the Holland House letters are in the British Museum, temporarily catalogued as Add. MS. 51641.

In the 'Summary of other Letters' (iii. 249-91), extracts from the letters themselves appear in quotation marks.

Register of Letters

Volume I

                                  

1766
		PAGE
1. Richard Chamberlaine	2 Mar. [1766?]	1
2. Richard Chamberlaine	June	2
3. Richard Chamberlaine	[Oct.]	2
1769
4. [The Printer of the Public Advertiser]	[1769?]	3
5. The Printer of the Public Advertiser	Oct.	6
6. 'NOVUS'	[After 19 Oct.]	12
1770
7. Mrs. Angelo	[13 Oct. 1770?]	18
1772
8. His Father	24 Jan. [1772?]	22
9. His Father	29 Feb.	22
10. His Brother	15 Apr.	24
11. William Wade	2 May	26
12. [The Printer of the Bath Chronicle?]	[May-June]	27
13. Captain Knight	July	30
14. His Father	30 Aug.	34
15. His Sister Elizabeth	30 Aug.	37
16. Thomas Grenville	30 Aug.	39
17. His Sister Elizabeth	13 Sept.	41
18. Thomas Grenville	[Late Sept.]	43
19. [To the Queen]	[1772?]	47
20. Thomas Grenville	30 Oct.	59
21. Thomas Grenville	10 Nov.	63
22. Thomas Grenville	17 Nov.	65
23. Thomas Grenville	28 Nov.	66
24. Thomas Grenville	8 Dec.	68
25. Thomas Grenville	[Mid-Dec.]	69
26. Thomas Grenville	19 Dec.	69
1773
27. Thomas Grenville	4 Jan.	70
28. William Barnett	[1773?]	73

                                   

29. Thomas Grenville	24 Feb.	76
30. Thomas Linley the elder	12 May	79
31. Thomas Grenville	14 May	82
1774
32. Dinwoody	24 Feb.	84
33. Thomas Linley the elder	17 Nov.	84
1775
34. Thomas Linley the elder	Oct.	86
35. Thomas Linley the elder	[Oct.?]	88
36. Thomas Linley the elder	[23-27 Oct.?]	90
37. Thomas Linley the elder	2 Nov.	92
38. Thomas Linley the elder	31 Dec.	93
1776
39. Thomas Linley the elder	4 Jan.	96
40. Robert Crispin	12 Jan.	98
41. ----	16 Jan.	99
42. Thomas Linley the elder	31 Jan.	99
43. Thomas Linley the elder		102
44. David Garrick	15-16 Oct.	104
45. Carr	[1776?]	108
1777
46. ----	19 Jan[?]	109
47. [The Licencer of Plays]	17 Feb.	110
48. [The Licencer of Plays]	7 May	110
49. [The Proprietors of Drury Lane Theatre]	[Sept. 1777?]	111
50. [The Proprietors of the Drury Lane		116
Theatre and Covent Garden Theatres]
1778
51. David Garrick	10 Jan.	121
52. [The Licencer of Plays]	13 Oct.	122
53. David Garrick	26 Nov.	123
54. Bray	[1778-81?]	123
1779
55. Samuel Ireland	1 Jan.	124
56. Willoughby Lacy	[26 Jan.]	124

                                                                              

57. Richard Rigby	24 Mar.	125
58. Joseph Cradock	5 June	126
59. Samuel Ireland	29 Aug.	126
60. ----	[29 Oct.]	127
61. [The Licencer of Plays]	29 Oct.	128
62. Richard Fitzpatrick	[25 Oct. or
	1 Nov.]	128
1780
63. Samuel Ireland	5 Jan.	129
64. Samuel Ireland	23 Mar.	129
65. Joseph Cradock	12 July	130
66. Joseph Cradock	[1780?]	131
67. Joseph Cradock	[1780-4]	131
68. Ozias Humphry	[Aug.]	132
69. Ozias Humphry	18 Aug.	133
70. Ozias Humphry	[July-Sept.]	133
71. [His Stafford Supporters]	[13 Sept.]	134
72. The Duchess of Devonshire	19 Sept.	135
73. [Thomas Dudley]	16 Oct.	136
74. Mrs. Thrale	9 Nov.	136
1781
75. Frances Greville		137
1782
76. His Brother	2 Apr.	138
77. The Earl of Surrey	4 Apr.	140
78. Edmund Burke	7 Apr.	141
79. His Brother	8 Apr.	142
80. His Brother	20 Apr.	143
81. Richard Fitzpatrick	20 May	144
82. Thomas Grenville	21 May	147
83. Thomas Grenville	26 May	148
84. Thomas Harris	2 July	151
85. Thomas Grenville	4 July	152
1783
86. The Earl of Surrey	23 Apr.	154
87. William Brummell	6 June	155
88. Caleb Whitefoord		155
89. Edmund Burke		156
90. Sir Henry Clinton	17 Oct.	156
1784
91. Thomas Orde	[Feb.]	157
92. His Brother	[Feb.]	158
93. 'To the People of England'	18 Feb.	158
94. Joseph Cradock	23 Mar.	160
95. Evan Nepean	25 Aug.	160
96. Thomas Graham	23 Oct.	161
1785
97. Stratford Canning	[20 July]	162
98. Stratford Canning	[26 July]	163
99. His Brother	[Early Aug.?]	164
100. William Eden	[19 Aug.]	165
101. [Willoughby Lacy]	[Nov.]	165
102. [Albany Wallis?]	[c. 1783-5]	166
1787
103. [William Pitt]	[3 May]	176
104. William Pitt	[3 May]	177
105. William Pitt	[4 May]	177
106. Mehitabel Canning	[25 July]	178
107. William Thomson	[23 Aug.]	179
1788
108. Samuel Parr	20 Jan.	179
109. Edmund Burke	3 Feb.	180
110. [Sir Peter Burrell]	[1788?]	181
111. [Sir Peter Burrell]	[1788?]	181
112. H. S. Woodfall, Junr.	[1788?]	182
113. His Brother	[12 Aug.]	182
114. Daniel Jarvis	[15 Aug.]	183
115. The Duchess of Devonshire	[Oct. 1788?]	183
116. J. W. Payne	[6 Nov. 1788?]	186
117. The Prince of Wales	[6 Nov.?]	186
118. J. W. Payne	[7 Nov. 1788?]	188
119. J. W. Payne	[8 Nov. 1788?]	190
120. J. W. Payne	[9 Nov. 1788?]	191
121. J. W. Payne	[10 Nov.?]	192
122. J. W. Payne	[14-15 Nov.?]	193
123. [Lord Loughborough]	[19 Nov. 1788?]	193
124. J. W. Payne	[1788?]	194
125. J. W. Payne	[20 Nov.]	195

                                    

126. The Prince of Wales	[23 Nov.]	195
127. J. W. Payne	[23 Nov.?]	197
128. J. W. Payne	[23 Nov.?]	197
129. J. W. Payne	[24 Nov.]	199
130. The Prince of Wales	[24 Nov.]	200
131. [Lord Loughborough?]	[26-27 Nov. 1788?]	201
132. The Prince of Wales	[Nov.-Dec.1788?]	201
133. Lord Palmerston	[1 Dec.?]	202
134. The Prince of Wales	[2 Dec. 1788?]	203
135. J. W. Payne	[18 Nov.3 Dec.]	204
136. Lord Lonsdale	[Dec. 1788?]	205
137. J. W. Payne	[28 Dec.]	206
1788-9
138. [C. J. Fox]	[1788-9?]	206
139. Lady Duncannon		207
1789
140. J. W. Payne	[Jan.]	209
141. The Duke of Bedford	29 Mar.	209
142. His Brother	[2 Apr.]	209
143. Edmund Burke	[13 Apr. 1789?]	211
144. His Sister Elizabeth	[Before July]	212
145. James Ford	17 Nov.	213
146. Francis Hargrave	10 Dec.	213
1789-90
147. ----		214
148. The Duke of Bedford		215
1790
149. The Duchess of Devonshire	[c. Oct.]	219
150. John Harrington	17 Nov.	221
151. William Adam	20 Nov.	221
152. The Duchess of Devonshire		222
and Lady E. Foster	[1790?]	222
1791
153. The Duke of Bedford	[Early 1791]	222
154. Henry Holland	23 Mar.	222
155. [Lady Duncannon]	[12 Apr.]	223

                                   

156. ----	[Apr.-May 1791?]	224
157. The Duchess of Devonshire	20 July 1791?]	225
158. The Prince of Wales	[31 July]	227
159. [To Parties concerned	Oct.	229
about the Dormant Patent?]
1791-2
160. Henry Holland		233
1792
161. [Willoughby Lacy]	28 Jan. [1792?]	233
162. [William Taylor]	[Jan.-Feb. 1792?]	234
163. ----	[Early 1792]	235
164. His Wife	[Feb.]	236
165. Mehitabel Canning	[Jan.-Apr. 1792?]	236
166. [Lady Duncannon]	2-4 Mar.	237
167. ----	Apr.	240
168. Samuel Parr	1 May	240
169. [Lady Duncannon]	3 May	241
170. Samuel Parr	[7 May]	243
171. The Duchess of Devonshire	[7 May]	244
172. Henry Holland	10 May	245
173. [Lady Duncannon?]	10-14 May	245
174. George White	15 May	247
175. [Lady Duncannon]	[16-22 May 1792?]	248
176. [Lord Thurlow]	22 May	250
177. [Albany Wallis?]	26 May	251
178. ----	27 May	254
179. [Thomas Westley]	[May]	255
180. Henry Holland	28 May	255
181. Samuel Parr	[May-June]	257
182. Joseph Richardson	[June]	257
183. Andrew Bain		260
184. Henry Holland	18 Aug.	260
185. [Lady Duncannon]	27 Aug.	261
186. Henry Holland	4 Sept.	262
187. The Prince of Wales	[1792?]	262
188. Henry Holland	27 Oct.