| 276 | RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. |
Before proceeding to give a description of the three dramas
above referred to, and specimens of their several styles and characters respectively, it
may be well for me to say a few words as to the question of what is called “internal
evidence,” as applying to their authenticity. Not, I imagine, that it will for a
moment be contended that, in the present case, any such evidence is
needed; or, even that, where existing, it strengthens the proofs—the almost self-evident
proofs—that are forthcoming in the present instance. The identity of the handwriting on
which the authenticity rests being beyond the reach of question or cavil, there would,
evidently, be something absurd upon the face of it, in supposing that a manuscript drama,
entirely the autograph of a man in Sheridan’s
position as regards the dramatic
| AND THOMAS SHERIDAN. | 277 |
Again; to suppose (as is the case of another of these manuscripts), that
Sheridan should take up a MS. of great length
(one hundred and twenty closely-written foolscap pages), in the handwriting of an ignorant
copyist, but with many hundreds of blank spaces left in it, of all
lengths, from the space of a single word to that of several lines, and should fill in every
one of these blanks with his own hand, together with many hundreds of corrections,
additions, &c., and that he should find time and inclination to do all this at a period
of his life (as indicated by several features of the MS.), when he was manager of a great
theatre, a member of the House of Commons, in almost daily intercourse with the heir
| 278 | RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. |
Lastly; in regard to the third and most remarkable of all these remarkable works. Though the handwriting of the first rough copy belongs evidently to an early period of Sheridan’s life, in this case, as in all the others, numerous and elaborate corrections, alterations, interlineations, &c., are in the ordinary and unmistakable hand of Sheridan; and to one of the songs which form so remarkable a feature of this drama (that song itself being in the earlier hand), is appended a foot-note in the later hand of Sheridan, written in the first person, and sportively addressed to some friend, in whose hands he was, probably, about to place the drama for business purposes, after this his latest revision of it.* The following is a copy of that note:—
“We will now show them that we can
* That person, I have no doubt, was his favourite son “Tom,” who was, at the period in question, the “reader” and literary manager of Drury Lane Theatre. |
| AND THOMAS SHERIDAN. | 279 |
The allusion is evidently to the famous song in Midas, beginning “Round about the Maypole,” &c., of which many of the lines consist of single words,—as they do in the case of the song above referred to.
Byron said of Sheridan, with little, if any exaggeration, that whatever he
(Sheridan) had set himself seriously to do, he had done better
than it was ever done before or since; that he had produced the best existing comedy, The School for
Scandal; the best comic opera, The Duenna; the best melodrama, Pizarro; the best farce, The Critic; and the
best parliamentary oration, The Begum
Speech. It maybe safely added, that nothing so good in their way as any one
of these things has been done since the above was said of them; and I confidently believe
that, to complete the triumph of Sheridan’s dramatic genius, it
will hereafter be admitted, by all persons competent to decide the point, that the same may
be said of the three dramas now to be introduced to public notice, that no other English
writer has produced
| 280 | RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. |
Having (so at least, I trust) set the question of authenticity beyond the reach of doubt or cavil, I proceed to give a brief descriptive notice of each of these remarkable Curiosities of Dramatic Literature; illustrating my descriptions by specimens of the execution of each drama; but avoiding, so far as I conveniently can, all comments or opinions of my own.
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