Memoirs of the Life of the Rt. Hon. Richard Brinsley Sheridan Volume I Part 8

The reader, however, has to arrive at the practical part of the plan, through long and flowery windings of panegyric, on the beauty, genius, and virtue of women, and their transcendent superiority, in every respect, over men.

The following sentence will give some idea of the sort of eloquence with which he prefaces this grave proposal to Her Majesty:--"The dispute about the proper sphere of women is idle. That men should have attempted to draw a line for their orbit, shows that G.o.d meant them for comets, and above our jurisdiction. With them the enthusiasm of poetry and the idolatry of love is the simple voice of nature." There are, indeed, many pa.s.sages of this boyish composition, a good deal resembling in their style those ambitious apostrophes with which he afterwards ornamented his speeches on the trial of Hastings.

He next proceeds to remark to Her Majesty, that in those countries where "man is scarce better than a brute, he shows his degeneracy by his treatment of women," and again falls into metaphor, not very clearly made out:--"The influence that women have over us is as the medium through which the finer Arts act upon us. The incense of our love and respect for them creates the atmosphere of our souls, which corrects and meliorates the beams of knowledge."

The following is in a better style:--"However, in savage countries, where the pride of man has not fixed the first dictates of ignorance into law, we see the real effects of nature. The wild Huron shall, to the object of his love, become gently as his weary rein-deer;--he shall present to her the spoil of his bow on his knee;-he shall watch without reward the cave where she sleeps;--he shall rob the birds for feathers for her hair, and dive for pearls for her neck;--her look shall be his law, and her beauties his worship!" He then endeavors to prove that, as it is the destiny of man to be ruled by woman, he ought, for his own sake, to render her as fit for that task as possible:--" How can we be better employed than in perfecting that which governs us? The brighter they are, the more we shall be illumined. Were the minds of all women cultivated by inspiration, men would become wise of course. They are a sort of pentagraphs with which nature writes on the heart of man;--what _she_ delineates on the original map will appear on the copy."

In showing how much less women are able to struggle against adversity than men, he says,--"As for us, we are born in a state of warfare with poverty and distress. The sea of adversity is our natural element, and he that will not buffet with the billows deserves to sink. But you, oh you, by nature formed of gentler kind, can _you_ endure the biting storm? shall you be turned to the nipping blast, and not a door be open to give you shelter?"

After describing, with evident seriousness, the nature of the inst.i.tution of Madame de Maintenon, at St. Cyr, he adds the following strange romantic allusion: "Had such a charity as I have been speaking of existed here, the mild _Parthenia_ and my poor _Laura_ would not have fallen into untimely graves."

The practical details of his plan, in which it is equally evident that he means to be serious, exhibit the same flightiness of language and notions. The King, he supposes, would have no objection to "grant Hampton-Court, or some other palace, for the purpose;" and "as it is (he continues, still addressing the Queen) to be immediately under your majesty's patronage, so should your majesty be the first member of it.

Let the const.i.tution of it be like that of a university, Your Majesty, Chancellor; some of the first ladies in the kingdom sub-chancellors; whose care it shall be to provide instructors of real merit. The cla.s.ses are to be distinguished by age--none by degree. For, as their qualification shall be gentility, they are all on a level. The instructors shall be women, except for the languages. Latin and Greek should not be learned;--the frown of pedantry destroys the blush of humility. The practical part of the sciences, as of astronomy, &c., should be taught. In history they would find that there are other pa.s.sions in man than love. As for novels, there are some I would strongly recommend; but romances infinitely more. The one is a representation of the effects of the pa.s.sions as they should be, though extravagant; the other, as they are. The latter is falsely called nature, and is a picture of depraved and corrupted society; the other is the glow of nature. I would therefore exclude all novels that show human nature depraved:--however well executed, the design will disgust."

He concludes by enumerating the various good effects which the examples of female virtue, sent forth from such an inst.i.tution, would produce upon the manners and morals of the other s.e.x; and in describing, among other kinds of c.o.xcombs, the cold, courtly man of the world, uses the following strong figure: "They are so clipped, and rubbed, and polished, that G.o.d's image and inscription is worn from them, and when He calls in his coin, He will no longer know them for his own."

There is still another Essay, or rather a small fragment of an Essay, on the letters of Lord Chesterfield, which, I am inclined to think, may have formed a part of the rough copy of the book, announced by him to Mr. Linley as ready in the November of this year. Lord Chesterfield's Letters appeared for the first time in 1774, and the sensation they produced was exactly such as would tempt a writer in quest of popular subjects to avail himself of it. As the few pages which I have found, and which contain merely scattered hints of thoughts, are numbered as high as 232, it is possible that the preceding part of the work may have been sufficiently complete to go into the printer's hands, and that there,--like so many more of his "unsh.e.l.led brood,"--it died without ever taking wing. A few of these memorandums will, I have no doubt, be acceptable to the reader.

"Lord C.'s whole system in no one article calculated to make a great man.--A n.o.ble youth should be ignorant of the things he wishes him to know;--such a one as he wants would be _too soon_ a man.

"Emulation is a dangerous pa.s.sion to encourage, in some points, in young men; it is so linked with envy: if you reproach your son for not surpa.s.sing his school-fellows, he will hate those who are before him.

Emulation not to be encouraged even in virtue. True virtue will, like the Athenian, rejoice in being surpa.s.sed; a friendly emulation cannot exist in two minds; one must hate the perfections in which he is eclipsed by the other;--thus, from hating the quality in his compet.i.tor, he loses the respect for it in himself:--a young man by himself better educated than two.--A Roman's emulation was not to excel his countrymen, but to make his country excel: this is the true, the other selfish.--Epaminondas, who reflected on the pleasure his success would give his father, most glorious;--an emulation for that purpose, true.

"The selfish vanity of the father appears in all these letters--his sending the copy of a letter for his sister.--His object was the praise of his own mode of education.--How much more n.o.ble the affection of Morni in Ossian; 'Oh, that the name of Morni,' &c. &c. [Footnote: "Oh, that the name of Morni were forgot among the people; that the heroes would only say, 'Behold the father of Gaul!'" Sheridan applied this, more than thirty years after, in talking of his own son, on the hustings of Westminster, and said that, in like manner, he would ask no greater distinction than for men to point at him and say, "There goes the father of Tom Sheridan."]

"His frequent directions for constant employment entirely ill founded: --a wise man is formed more by the action of his own thoughts than by continually feeding it. 'Hurry,' he says, 'from play to study; never be doing nothing'--I say, 'Frequently be unemployed; sit and think.'

_There are on every subject but a few leading and fixed ideas; their tracks may be traced by your own genius as well as by reading_:--a man of deep thought, who shall have accustomed himself to support or attack all he has read, will soon find nothing new: thought is exercise, and the mind, like the body, must not be wearied."

These last two sentences contain the secret of Sheridan's confidence in his own powers. His subsequent success bore him out in the opinions he thus early expressed, and might even have persuaded him that it was in consequence, not in spite, of his want of cultivation that he succeeded.

On the 17th of January, 1775, the comedy of The Rivals was brought out at Covent-Garden, and the following was the cast of the characters on the first night:--

Sir Anthony Absolute _Mr. Shuter_.

Captain Absolute _Mr. Woodward_.

Falkland _Mr. Lewis_.

Acres _Mr. Quick_.

Sir Lucius O'Trigger _Mr. Lee_.

f.a.g _Mr. Lee Lewes_.

David _Mr. Dunstal_.

Coachman _Mr. Fearon_.

Mrs. Malaprop _Mrs. Green_.

Lydia Languish _Miss Barsanti_.

Julia _Mrs. Bulkley_.

Lucy _Mrs. Lessingham_.

This comedy, as is well known, failed on its first representation,-- chiefly from the bad acting of Mr. Lee in Sir Lucius O'Trigger. Another actor, however, Mr. Clinch, was subst.i.tuted in his place, and the play being lightened of this and some other inc.u.mbrances, rose at once into that high region of public favor, where it has continued to float so buoyantly and gracefully ever since.

The following extracts from letters written at that time by Miss Linley (afterwards Mrs. Tickell) to her sister, Mrs. Sheridan, though containing nothing remarkable, yet, as warm with the feelings of a moment so interesting in Sheridan's literary life, will be read, perhaps, with some degree of pleasure. The slightest outline of a celebrated place, taken on the spot, has often a charm beyond the most elaborate picture finished at a distance.

"Bath.

"MY DEAREST ELIZA,

"We are all in the greatest anxiety about Sheridan's play,--though I do not think there is the least doubt of its succeeding. I was told last night that it was his own story, and therefore called "The Rivals;"

but I do not give any credit to this intelligence....

"I am told he will get at least 700_l_. for his play."

"Bath, January, 1775.

"It is impossible to tell you what pleasure we felt at the receipt of Sheridan's last letter, which confirmed what we had seen in the newspapers of the success of his play. The _knowing ones_ were very much disappointed, as they had so very bad an opinion of its success.

After the first night we were indeed all very fearful that the audience would go very much prejudiced against it. But now, there can be no doubt of its success, as it has certainly got through more difficulties than any comedy which has not met its doom the first night. I know you have been very busy in writing for Sheridan,--I don't mean _copying_, but _composing_;--it's true, indeed;--you must not contradict me when I say you wrote the much admired epilogue to the Rivals. How I long to read it! What makes it more certain is, that my _father_ guessed it was _yours_ the first time he saw it praised in the paper."

This statement respecting the epilogue would, if true, deprive Sheridan of one of the fairest leaves of his poetic crown. It appears, however, to be but a conjecture hazarded at the moment, and proves only the high idea entertained of Mrs. Sheridan's talents by her own family. The cast of the play at Bath, and its success there and elsewhere, are thus mentioned in these letters of Miss Linley:

"Bath, February 18, 1775.

"What shall I say of The Rivals!--a compliment must naturally be expected; but really it goes so far beyond any thing I can say in its praise, that I am afraid my modesty must keep me silent. When you and I meet I shall be better able to explain myself, and tell you how much I am delighted with it. We expect to have it _here_ very soon:--it is now in rehearsal. You pretty well know the merits of our princ.i.p.al performers:--I'll show you how it is cast.

Sir Anthony _Mr. Edwin_.

Captain Absolute _Mr. Didier_.

Falkland _Mr. Dimond_.

(A new actor of great merit, and a sweet figure.) Sir Lucius _Mr. Jackson_.

Acres _Mr. Keasberry_.

f.a.g _Mr. Brunsdon_.

Mrs. Malaprop _Mrs. Wheeler_.

Miss Lydia _Miss Wheeler_.

(Literally, a very pretty romantic girl, of seventeen.) Julia _Mrs. Didier_ Lucy _Mrs. Brett_.

There, Madam, do not you think we shall do your Rivals some justice? I'm convinced it won't be done better any where out of London. I don't think Mrs. Mattocks can do Julia very well."

"Bath, March 9, 1775.

"You will know by what you see enclosed in this frank my reason for not answering your letter sooner was, that I waited the success of Sheridan's play in Bath; for, let me tell you, I look upon our theatrical tribunal, though not in _quant.i.ty_, in _quality_ as good as yours, and I do not believe there was a critic in the whole city that was not there. But, in my life, I never saw any thing go off with such uncommon applause. I must first of all inform you that there was a very full house:--the play was performed inimitably well; nor did I hear, for the honor of our Bath actors, one single prompt the whole night; but I suppose the poor creatures never acted with such shouts of applause in their lives, so that they were incited by that to do their best. They lost many of Malaprop's good sayings by the applause: in short, I never saw or heard any thing like it;--before the actors spoke, they began their clapping. There was a new scene of the N. Parade, painted by Mr. Davis, and a most delightful one it is, I a.s.sure you.

Every body says,--Bowers in particular,--that yours in town is not so good. Most of the dresses were entirely new, and very handsome. On the whole, I think Sheridan is vastly obliged to poor dear Keasberry for getting it up so well. We only wanted a good Julia to have made it quite complete. You must know that it was entirely out of Mrs. Didier's style of playing: but I never saw better acting than Keasberry's,--so all the critics agreed."

"Bath, August 22d, 1775.

"Tell Sheridan his play has been acted at Southampton:--above a hundred people were turned away the first night. They say there never was any thing so universally liked. They have very good success at Bristol, and have played The Rivals several times:--Miss Barsanti, Lydia, and Mrs.

Canning, Julia."

To enter into a regular a.n.a.lysis of this lively play, the best comment on which is to be found in the many smiling faces that are lighted up around wherever it appears, is a task of criticism that will hardly be thought necessary. With much less wit, it exhibits perhaps more humor than The School for Scandal, and the dialogue, though by no means so pointed or sparkling, is, in this respect, more natural, as coming nearer the current coin of ordinary conversation; whereas, the circulating medium of The School for Scandal is diamonds. The characters of The Rivals, on the contrary, are _not_ such as occur very commonly in the world; and, instead of producing striking effects with natural and obvious materials, which is the great art and difficulty of a painter of human life, he has here overcharged most of his persons with whims and absurdities, for which the circ.u.mstances they are engaged in afford but a very disproportionate vent. Accordingly, for our insight into their characters, we are indebted rather to their confessions than their actions. Lydia Languish, in proclaiming the extravagance of her own romantic notions, prepares us for events much more ludicrous and eccentric, than those in which the plot allows her to be concerned; and the young lady herself is scarcely more disappointed than we are, at the tameness with which her amour concludes. Among the various ingredients supposed to be mixed up in the composition of Sir Lucius O'Trigger, his love of fighting is the only one whose flavor is very strongly brought out; and the wayward, captious jealousy of Falkland, though so highly colored in his own representation of it, is productive of no incident answerable to such an announcement:--the imposture which he practises upon Julia being perhaps weakened in its effect, by our recollection of the same device in the Nut-brown Maid and Peregrine Pickle.

The character of Sir Anthony Absolute is, perhaps, the best sustained and most natural of any, and the scenes between him and Captain Absolute are richly, genuinely dramatic. His surprise at the apathy with which his son receives the glowing picture which he draws of the charms of his destined bride, and the effect of the question, "And which is to be mine, Sir,--the niece or the aunt?" are in the truest style of humor.

Mrs. Malaprop's mistakes, in what she herself calls "orthodoxy," have been often objected to as improbable from a woman in her rank of life; but, though some of them, it must be owned, are extravagant and farcical, they are almost all amusing,--and the luckiness of her simile, "as headstrong as an _allegory_ on the banks of the Nile," will be acknowledged as long as there are writers to be run away with, by the wilfulness of this truly "headstrong" species of composition.

Of the faults of Sheridan both in his witty and serious styles--the occasional effort of the one, and the too frequent false finery of the other--some examples may be cited from the dialogue of this play. Among the former kind is the following elaborate conceit:--