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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 October 2010
By 1747, Thomas Sheridan had been on the stage four years–for the last year he had been actor-manager of the Smock-Alley Theater in Dublin. His decision to “turn player” had been a difficult one. He had been born and bred a gentleman. As the most promising son of the Reverend Dr. Thomas Sheridan, classical scholar and Dublin schoolmaster, he had gone to London to Westminster College, and after his father's death, he had prepared himself to teach–by taking his M.A. at Trinity College Dublin.
Since the material in this article is condensed from a chapter in a projected book about Sheridan and the theater, where all information will be fully documented, I have followed the editorial suggestion that footnotes be replaced by a short paragraph here, giving some of my sources that might interest the reader.
The usual theatrical histories, memoirs, and letters have been consulted, notably Benjamin Victor's History of the Theatres and his Original Letters, George Anne Bellamy's Apology, and Edmund Burke's letter to Shackleton in Arthur Samuel's Early Life, Correspondence, and Writings of the Rt. Hon. Edmund Burke. In the account of the inciting incident I have used these sources to supplement Sheridan's own story as told in a pamphlet, A Faithful Narrative of what happen'd at the Theatre on Monday the 19th Instant …, Dublin, 1747. Many other pamphlets and broadsides inspired by the controversy have provided fresh details about events, as well as insight into contemporary attitudes: among them, three “Letters” by a Freeman, Barber and Citizen (Charles Lucas); Dublin in an Uproar (consisting of four “letters,” three pro and one contra Sheridan); An Humble Address to the Ladies of the City of Dublin. By a Plebeian; A Letter of Thanks to the Barber … By Mr. Francis Liberty; A Serious Enquiry into the Causes of the present disorders in the city… all published in Dublin in 1747. Besides A Faithful Narrative, two other pamphlets by Sheridan, A State of Mr. Sheridan's Case… and A Full Vindication of the Conduct of the Manager of the Theatre-Royal, both Dublin 1747, present his point of view. Especially useful have been items, letters, poems, affidavits, etc. in the Dublin newspapers, in particular George Faulkner's Dublin Journal, for this two-months' period.
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