Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1891-02-17
ANECDOTES OF A NOTED MAN.
Franks and Witticisms of Richard Brins-
ley Sheridan.


Franks and witGicisms of Richard Brins-
ley Sheridan.
Tell Lady Besborough that my eyes
will shine up at the coffin-lid as bright
ly as ever" said Richard Brinsley Sheri-
dan as he lay dying, the vainest, wit
test man of his own vain and witty
time.
Undoubtedly Lady Besborough sorely
missed his bright eyes, for Sheridan's
friends adored him even In those ruined
last years. He had so much fascination
and personal magnetism that they could
not help forgiving him all his iniquities,
including the dreadful one laboriously
inventing his good things" overnight.
He was once staying at the country
house of lady of a certain age" who
liked his society better than he did hers.
One day, when she proposed their talk
ing walk together, Sheridan excused
himself on account of the unpleasant
ness of the weather. A little while after
ward she caught him stealing off alone.
$50, Mr.. Sheridan said she, sit has
cleared up?" Just enough for one,
madam, ~ he blithely answered, "but not
enough for two"
He and his brother-in-law, Richard
Tisl>ell, used, when they wanted to play
like school boys once more, to go with
their wives to Crewe Hall. Once Mr..
Crewe, who was made Lord Crewe after
ward, expressed wish to meet the
fashionable poet, Richardson, of whom
he had heard Sheridan and TiSkell speak
with enthusiasm.
81 have invited him here" said Sheri-
dan. HE is coming. positively coming,
tomorrow" And on the morrow Mr..
Richardson was presented to the
Crewes, who were Mortified by his vul-
gar pronunciation and manner. 1t was
not much wonder, for Sheridan had
hired one of their own tenants to. per-
senate the author of The Fugitive"
At another visit there one day Mrs.
Crewe and Mrs. Sheridan drove out in
an open carriage, and the two Richards
went ahead of them on horseback. Sud
denly. at a turn in the road, the ladies
saw Sheridan stretched on the ground,
apparently in his last agony,
! while Tisl1ell stood over him the
picture of despair. After Sheridan
had enjoyed the general excitement
long enough, he rose and mounted his
horse. One evening during that same
heyday of youth, Sheridan, Lord John
Townsend and General Fitzpatrick came
! out of Dru1y Lane Thcater. and, chanc-
| ing to notice n smart" cab waiting at
the door, Sheridan asked the groom to
| let him take his place for a minute,
just to try the carriage" The man
consented and stepped down, when the
! three friends jumped in and drove off as
fast as they could toward Nauxhall, the
groom and n great crowd in full cry
after them. In later years Sheridan
did not like that escapade mentioned.
1t was with these two friends that
! Sheridan and Charles James Fox used
| to play cards at ''Broolle's,'' sometimes
| from ten o'clock in the evening until
| six o'clock the next afternoon, a waiter
standing by to tell them whose deal it
was after they all got too sleepy
to know. Cards and wine led Sheri-
dan into bitter straits, but not
until after he had enjoyed to the utmost
his fame or rather his three flames, as
man about town, as the writer of 1.-The
new play, The School for Scandal 80
and as the orator of that speech at the
Warren Hastings trial, which was never
properly reported, but which Burke
says was the most astonishing effort
of eloquencc, argument and wit OF
which there was any record or tradi-
ton" At the close of the "astonish-
ing effort, 'Macaulay says that ''Sher-
idan contrived. with a knowledge of the
stage effect which his father might have
envied, to sink back rs if exhausted
into the arms of Burke, who Rugged
him with the energy of generous ad.
| miration.
That speech lasted two days. West
/ I.,l1 1rl 20 e.
ton all the time. Albany Argus.