Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Who was Richard Brinsley Sheridan?

Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan was an Irish playwright and poet and long-term owner of the London Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. He is known for his plays such as The Rivals, The School for Scandal and A Trip to Scarborough. For thirty-two years he was also a Whig Member of the British House of Commons for Stafford, Westminster and Ilchester. He was buried at Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.

Famous Quotes:

• He is indebted to his memory for his jests and to his imagination for his facts.
• Modesty is a quality in a lover more praised by the women than liked.
• For if there is anything to one's praise, it is foolish vanity to be gratified at it, and if it is abuse -- why one is always sure to hear of it from one damned good-natured friend or another!
• Take care; you know I am compliance itself, when I am not thwarted! No one more easily led, when I have my own way; but don't put me in a frenzy.
• When of a gossiping circle it was asked, What are they doing? The answer was, Swapping lies.
• He is the very pineapple of politeness!
• There's no possibility of being witty without a little ill-nature -- the malice of a good thing is the barb that makes it stick.
• My valor is certainly going, it is sneaking off! I feel it oozing out as it were, at the palms of my hands!
• There is nothing on earth so easy as to forget, if a person chooses to set about it. I'm sure I have as much forgot your poor, dear uncle, as if he had never existed; and I thought it my duty to do so.
• The Right Honourable Gentleman is indebted to his memory for his jests, and to his imagination for his facts.