The Literary-Theatrical Sheridans, and the Line That Leads to Le Fanu

travsd

Oct 30

I re-read the Dover edition above recently in preparation for the Halloween season, but it emerges that the post in question will treat not only of its author but his esteemed ancestor. I had no idea that Gothic horror author Sheridan Le Fanu and waggish playwright and politician Richard Brinsley Sheridan were related until recently, but indeed they are. October 30 is the elder Sheridan's birthday; and this year also marks the 150th anniversary of Le Fanu's death. But there's more to take note of than just the two men: they come from a long line of similarly distinguished literary and ecclesiastical figures, all of whom are worth mentioning. And so we do so.

The literary line begins with Reverend Dennis Sheridan (Donnchadh O Sioradain, 1612-?) who was from County Cavan, Ireland and converted to the Protestant Church of Ireland. He became a minister to William Bedell, the Bishop of Kilmore and assisted with his project of translating the Bible into Gaelic.

Sheridan had four sons, all of whom attended Trinity College: William (1636-1711), who became Bishop of Kilmore; Patrick (c. 1638-82), who became Bishop of Cloyne; Thomas (c. 1646-1712), a Jacobite author, who was secretary to exile James II, and whose son Thomas the Younger (1684-1746) tutored Prince Charles the Pretender. The fourth son James (c.1649-?) was the least distinguished of the quartet but for the fact that he was the father of:

Dr. Thomas Sheridan (1687-1738), who begins the whimsical line. A classical scholar, he was on track in a clerical career and had set up a school in Dublin, but was doomed by a happy-go-lucky and careless character. His future in the church was ruined one Sunday when he preached a sermon upon "Sufficient to the Day is the Evil Thereof", not realizing that it happened to be the birthday of King George I. Blackballed thereafter! A classical scholar, posterity remembers him best as the closest friend of Jonathan Swift, who wrote about him and his ill-tempered wife both extensively and humorously. His son was:

Thomas Sheridan (1719-1788), Swift's Godson. Educated like all his family at Trinity, Sheridan diverged from the family's traditional religious calling and followed the acting trade, becoming in his young adulthood the most popular actor in Ireland, and the author of the 1738 play The Brave Irishman or Captain O'Blunder. By the 1740s he had moved from being an actor-manager to mostly a manager of theatres and a teacher of elocution and grammar, in which he was vastly influential. He moved to London in 1758, lived for a time at Bath, and eventually moved back to Dublin. He wrote numerous books on the topic of education, all while still keeping a hand in the theatre. He was a friend of both Samuel Johnson and Boswell. In 1747, he married:

Frances Chamberlaine Sheridan (1724-66), the Dublin-born daughter of an Anglican clergyman. Frances was more prolific literarily than her husband. With the encouragement and influence of Samuel Richardson she wrote several novels, and two of her plays were produced at Drury Lane by David Garrick's company, the best remembered of which was The Discovery (1763), in which her husband played the lead role.

All four of their children were distinguished to one degree or another. The best known by far is Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816), whose comic plays The Rivals (1775) and The School for Scandal (1777) have never gone out of circulation. Sheridan came to prominence by a circuitous route. After fighting a couple of duels over her, in 1772 he eloped with the popular singer Elizabeth Linley, daughter of composer Thomas Linley, the Elder. Initially they lived beyond their means; fortunately Sheridan possessed talent sufficient to win him quick success. Covent Garden produced The Rivals in 1775; later he took over ownership of the Drury Lane from Garrick. His other plays were St Patrick's Day (1775), The Duenna (1775, an opera written with father-in-law Linley), A Trip to Scarborough (1777), The School for Scandal (1777), The Camp (1778), and The Critic (1779). The latter is a play I myself have adapted and presented at an East Village squat in the 1990s!

As it happens, my obscure little production was not far, as the crow flies, from the site of Sheridan's first American production, which happened to have been one of the first plays produced in America. The Rivals was produced at New York's John Street Theatre in 1778. You'll note (I hope) that that was during the American Revolution. Sheridan was sympathetic to the American cause, as it happens, and became deeply involved in Whig politics. (The Sheridans had also been painted by the American-born Benjamin West, surely another sympathetic influence as regards the colonies). In 1780 Sheridan was elected to Parliament, where he served as an outspoken, witty and popular member of Commons until 1812. Many of his speeches were quoted and published, and he wrote some later plays on historical themes. Sheridan also served as Receiver-General of the Duchy of Cornwall (1804–1807) and Treasurer of the Navy (1806–1807).

I contemplated including a little survey of major productions of Sheridans plays here but forbore because I realized the ridiculousness of it. The list would basically consist of everyone, everywhere, always. The Rivals and The School for Scandal are both revived about as often as Shakespeare. At some point, I might undertake that idea as a stand alone post.

Sheridan's son, Thomas "Tom" Sheridan (1775-1817) was also involved with theatre, and was the father of daughters who were nicknamed "The Three Graces": Helen Blackwood (1807-67), a poet, author, composer, and baroness; Lady Caroline Norton (1808-88), poet, author, social reformer and subject of multiple scandals; and Jane Georgiana Seymour, Duchess of Somerset (1809-1884)

As we mentioned, Richard's three siblings were also notable. Older brother Charles Francis Sheridan (1750-1806) was a lawyer, diplomat (serving in Sweden) and member of Irish Parliament. And there were two literary sisters who were very much influenced by the example of their mother Frances, and both of whom married members of the Le Fanu family. Alicia Sheridan (1753–1817) married Thomas Le Fanu, a Dean of the church, and wrote a play, Sons of Erin, which was produced in London in 1812. Anne Elizabeth "Betsy" Sheridan (1756–1837) married Capt. Henry Le Fanu, and was also a writer. Today she is chiefly remembered as the mother of the prolific poet Alicia Le Fanu (1791-1867), author or numerous volumes of poetry as well as an 1824 biography of her grandmother Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Mrs Frances Sheridan

Alicia le Fanu is also notable as the mother of:

Writer of Gothic tales Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, better known simply as Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873). Le Fanu was very much a man of his Victorian times, but I can't help tying him to the Sheridan family's church origins. Just Google "Irish churches" for a glimpse of the Gothic. He is best known for his five story collection In a Glass, Darkly (1892), whose title is taken from the King James Bible and surely provided the inspiration for the Rolling Stones' 1969 compilation album Through the Past Darkly. The anchor of the book is the lesbian vampire story Carmilla, which was likely influenced by Coleridge's "Christabel" and likely influenced such things as Bram Stoker's Dracula, Henry James' The Turn of the Screw, and Carl Dreyer's 1932 film Vampyr. Indeed, there are numerous screen and radio adaptation, not to mention unwitting rip-offs, it is that influential. His novel Uncle Silas (1862) is a mystery-thriller in the vein of Wilkie Collins, and has been filmed a couple of times. Several of his unpublished stories were collected by M.R. James a century ago and published as Madame Crowl's Ghost and Other Tales of Mystery (1923). I read the eponymous tale aloud to my wife recently. It's a wonderful first person account written in a regional dialect that feels both like a piece of folk culture and a true story. Le Fanu had excellent chops as a craftsman. In a Glass, Darkly purports to be from the writings of an occult detective named Dr. Hesselius, which feels like a definite precursor to Conan Doyle. A very different voice from the crone who tells "Madame Crowl's Ghost". Le Fanu wrote scores of other works, in the historical, mysterious, and ghostly veins.

This being the Halloween season, I'd love to end the post with Le Fanu, but there is at least one more literary relation, although not a blood relative. His niece by marriage Rhoda Broughton (1840-1920) was known for writing "sensational" (i.e., titillating, naughty) works of fiction. She wrote scores of novels and short stories. Unmarried, some of her works had homoerotic themes, and, she even followed in her uncle's footsteps by writing ghost stores. She was a friend of Henry James, an acquaintance of Somerset Maugham, an antagonist of both Oscar Wilde and Lewis Carroll, and has been called the most significant female British novelist between George Eliot and Virginia Woolf.