The sun., 1910-01-30
sheridan and Hls Times


sheridan and His Times.
We read a quota ton telling US that
Mercury governs this hour and as we
reflect We understand how entirely ap-
propriate it was to set this as a motto
upon the title pa &c Of Mr.. WALTER SIGH
ELS remarkable and brilliant work,
Sheridan, published in two large and
Handsomely printed volumes by the
Houghton Miffiin Company. This Is in
deed an overhowing and a glittering per-
Torrance and picture, which leaves for
the reviewer neither need nor choice but to
present as he may under his limita tons
and by modest paraphrase some suEgss-
ton OF its instruction, its interest and its
charm.
Sheridan, as Mr.. Sichel reminds US.
was not q character easily and carelessly
to be summed up. He is not TO be dis
missed with Taine's light and compact
phrase. "A brilliant scamp He is far
from being many things that he was
charged with being. Particularly. says
Mr.. Sichel, he was not "the rose water
liberal and high souled enthusiast OF his
last bioGrapher, Mr.. Rae. e.who has scrubbed
him with Sunday soap till he shines like
one OF wilkes peasants To say that
he was an eccentric Bohemian and a witty
and eloquent Irishman is not enough, and
il does not signify to point out apologeti-
cally, as has been done, that Steele, who
as we'll was these things, has been gra-
ciously pardoned by posterity. Sheridan
ranks far higher than Steele, both as
author and parliamentarian.
Ii could not have been an easy task to in
dicate what Sheridan was. as is here indi-
Gated through many brilliant pages. Par
ticularly he offers himself as a study in
sentiment. He was first Of all a senti-
mentalist, and an Anglo Irish sentimental
int OF the eighteenth century. He was
indeed a free lance and q fantastic rebel
Wilberforce has recorded an observation
that he made in 1907 Consider said
Sheridan. Il have not made one rebellious
speech the whole session. l must make
one" But he was also what Heine has
termed another. -the knight Of the laugh
ing tear" Byron said Of himself that II
he laughed at any mortal thing il was that
he might not weep; this would have ap-
piled perfectly 70 Sheridan. Says MIR.
Sichel: "A constitutional melancholy.
neiRhbored his mirth. the irony Of things
underlay his gayest outbursts. and his
mind. like that OF his froliosome forerun-
ner the comic Farquhar. was frequently
dressed in black One OF Sheridans
characters explained a need and a habit
that pertained 90 Sheridan himself: il was
observed by Charles Surface that his dis
treeses were 90 many that he could not
afford to part with his spirits.
Burke once described somebody as
"a candidate for contradictory honors.'
He might so have described Sheridan. In
compact passage Mr.. Sichel says Of
Sheridan: The Rntitheses Of his char
acter are as pointed as those in his come
dies; indeed, perhaps antithesis alone
can express them. He was a continual
paradox, a tissue Of second natures,
parantheses and surprises. Pieces OF his
essence belong to his heredity and hts
century. but the whole and the combi-
nation were peculiar to himself. He
proved by turns a sweetsner Of life and
impossible to live with; the pink OF pune
tilio, yet a prey to shifts which gener-
osity endeared at q time when debt was
almost a national habit; in a topping age
one Of the few who deplored a degrade
ton signally baneful to the highly strung,
a craving which could not subdue his
mind, which at times he nearly overcame
but which gained on him by fatal degrees
till at the close his visage appeared. al
Byron describes it, the upper part that
OF a god, while below he showed the
satyr.' A partisan, he grew to rise above
faction; an adventurer, he was no oppor-
tunist: a courtier, he remained unpliant
and went rewardless; often at the beck
Of things, he was never at the beck Of
persons; unheroic, he died the lifelong
friend OF losing causes He was ex-
quisitely urbane. His Judgment was
sound and sagacious for everybody
but himself. The nice polish OF his
style, his boyishness, his sheer love Of
fun compose q foreground at Variance
with the rude chaos behind It," His very
virtues were disastrous. His Incidence
was interrupted by exertions that were
greatest when he was CROSSED. Time and
again he did tremendous work When
he was q he recorded that he thought Il
not unwise to sit and think.
Sheridan was no plagiarist. The world
Ia so old and people have been 30 long
thinking things that there is indeed repe-
tition of thought. Nobody can be sure
of not saying what has been said before
Mrs. Thrale was unduly exercised in this
matter. She was forever pointing out
to DR.. johnson that nothing in literature
was original. IL made trouble when she
said Of Sheridan; 'He il growing fat
like Heliogabalus on the tongues Of night
inRales" The observation was poignant,
but it was not fatal. This account again
sets the idea OF Sheridan oompactly be-
fore US whore il says: -On the three
stages Of parliament. theatre and society.
and in an age Of their prominence, he
was one Of the greatest performers that
England has ever seen" Byron ex-
pressed his admiration for Sheridan as an
orator. He had heard Fox. Windham
and Canning, but he said that Sheridan
was the one orator whom he wished to
hear at greater length. Sheridan had
plenty OF triumphs and glories. He was
an object Of worship as q champion Of
the downtrodden and darling OF the
Grsces. All Europe acclaimed him at
one tins. and time and again hs was ac-
claimed by different parts OF that area
~ Il .