A Covent Garden Gilflurt’s Guide to Life: “The very pineapple of politeness!”: Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Originally posted on A Covent Garden Gilflurt’s Guide to Life.

“…the very pineapple of politeness!”
Sheridan by Sir Joshua Reynolds

As a lady who likes nothing more than a night at the theatre, I love a little Sheridan. The man behind such works as The School for Scandal, The Rivals and The Critic was as colourful as his plays, a wit and raconteur whose plays are still enjoyed nearly two centuries after his death.

The son of parents who were steeped in both the arts and academia, Sheridan was not a man who shied away from scandal and when I was a young Gilflurt in 1772 I recall him fighting a fearsome duel right here on Henrietta Street. At the Castle Tavern, not three doors from where I host my weekly salons, Sheridan and Captain Thomas Mathews fought over the honour of Elizabeth Linley, Sheridan’s intended bride and daughter of Richard Linley. The duel went onto a second round in Bath and Sheridan was almost killed but the lady’s name was defended and our playwright made a miracle recovery! He and Elizabeth were wed, returning to London to live the high life on her dowry until, in 1775, Sheridan’s play, The Rivals, made him an overnight star. By 1778 he owned the controlling stake in…

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