we come to the point," he says to his father-in-law; "I'll answer for it we shall see many golden campaigns."

The stir and quickening of new energy is apparent in all he writes. The circumstances were such as might well quicken the steadiest pulse, for not only was he likely to lay a foundation of fortune for himself (and his first child had lately been born-" a very magnificent fellow "), but his nearest connexions on both sides were involved, and likely to owe additional comfort and importance to the young prodigal whose own father had disowned him, and his wife's received him with the greatest reluctance—a reflection which could not but be sweet. With such hopes in his mind, the sobriety and composure with which he writes are astonishing:

"Leasy is utterly unequal to any department in the theatre. He has an opinion of me, and is very willing to let the whole burden and ostensibility be taken off his shoulders. But I certainly should not give up my time and labour (for his superior advantage, having so much greater a share) without some conclusive advantage. Yet I should by no means make the demand till I had shown myself equal to the task. My father purposes to be with us but one year: and that only to give us what advantage he can from his experience. He certainly must be paid for his trouble, and so certainly must you. You have experience and character equal to the line you would undertake, and it never can enter into anybody's head that you were to give your time, or any part of your attention, gratis because you had a share in the theatre. I have spoken on the subject both to Garrick and Leasy, and you will find no demur on any side to your gaining a certain income from the theatre, greater, I think, than you could make out of it, and in this the theatre would be acting only for its own advantage."

The other shareholder, who held the half of the property-while Sheridan, Linley, and Ford divided the other half between them-was a Mr. Lacy; and there seems a

charming possibility of some reminiscence of the brogue, though Sheridan probably had never been touched by it in his own person, having left Ireland as a child—in the misspelling of the name. It is impossible not to sympathise with him in the delightful consciousness of having proved the futility of all objections, and become the aid and hope, instead of the detriment and burden, of both families, which must have sweetened his own brilliant prospects. His father evidently was now fully reconciled and sympathetic, proud of his son, and disposed (though not without a consideration) to give him the benefit of his experience and advice; and Linley was to have the chance of an income from the theatre "greater than he could make out of it." With what sweet moisture the eyes of the silenced Diva at home, the St. Cecilia whose mouth her young husband's adoring pride had stopped, must have glistened to think that her father, who had done all he could to keep her Sheridan at arm's length, was now to have his fortune made by that injured and unappreciated hero! She had other causes for happiness and glory. "Your grandson," Sheridan adds, in the same letter to Linley, "astonishes everybody by his vivacity, his talents for music and poetry, and the most perfect integrity of mind." Everything was now brilliant and hopeful about the young pair. The only drawback was the uneasiness of Sheridan's position, until the business should be finally settled, between the two theatres. "My confidential connexion with the other house," he says, "is peculiarly distressing till I can with prudence reveal my situation, and such a treaty, however prudently managed, cannot long be kept secret."

The matter was settled early in the year 1776, Sheridan being then twenty-five. Before the end of the year

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troubles arose with Lacy, and it would seem that Sheridan took the strong step of retiring from the managership and carrying the actors along with him, leaving the other perplexed and feeble proprietor to do the best he could with such materials as he could pick up. All quarrels, however, were soon made up, and affairs proceeded amicably for some time; but Sheridan eventually bought Lacy out at a further expenditure of £45,000, partly obtained, it would appear, from Garrick, partly by other means. The narrative is not very clear, nor is it very important to know what squabbles might convulse the theatre, or how the friends of Lacy might characterise the conceited young man," who showed no inclination to consult a colleague of so different a calibre from himself. But it seems to be agreed on all sides that the beginning of Sheridan's reign at Drury was not very prosperous. Though he had shown so much energy in his financial arrangements at the beginning, it was not easy to get over the habits of all his previous life, and work with the steadiness and regularity of a man of business, as was needful. There was an interval of dulness which did not carry out the hopes very naturally formed when the young dramatist who had twice filled the rival theatre with eager crowds and applause came to the head of affairs. Garrick, who had so long been its chief attraction, was gone; and it was a new group of actors, unfamiliar to him, with whom the new manager had to do. He remodelled for them a play of Vanbrugh's, which he called a Trip to Scarborough, but which, notwithstanding all he did to it, remained still the production of an earlier age, wanting in the refinement and comparative purity which Sheridan himself had already done so much to make popular. The Miss Hoyden, the rustic lady whom Lord Foppington is destined to

marry, but does not, is a creature of the species of Tony Lumpkin, though infinitely less clever and shrewd than that delightful lout, and has no sort of kindred with the pretty gentlewoman of Sheridan's natural period. And the public were not specially attracted by this réchauffé. In fact, after all the excitement and wonderful novelty of this astonishing launch into life, the reaction was great and discouraging. Old stock pieces of a repertory of which Garrick had been the soul new contrivances of pantomime "expected to draw all the human race to Drury," and which were rendered absolutely necessary, on account of a marvellous preparation of the kind which is making at Covent Garden"— must have fallen rather flat both upon the mind of the manager, still new and inexperienced in his office, and of the public, which no doubt at the hands of the author of the Rivals, and with the songs of the Duenna still tingling in its ears, expected great things. But this pause was only the reculer pour mieux sauter which precedes a great effort; for early in the next year Sheridan rose to the full height of his genius, and the School for Scandal blazed forth, a great Jupiter among the minor starlights of the drama, throwing the rival house and all its preparations altogether into

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the shade.

Ir was clear that a great effort was required for the advantage of Drury Lane, to make up for the blow of Garrick's withdrawal, and to justify the hopes founded upon the new management; and Mr. Lacy and the public had both reason to wonder that the head which had filled Covent Garden from pit to gallery should do nothing for the house in which all his hopes of fortune were involved. No doubt the cares of management and administration were heavy, and the previous training of Sheridan had not been such as to qualify him for continuous labour of any kind; but at the same time it was not unnatural that his partners in the undertaking should have grumbled at the long interval which elapsed before he entered the lists in his own person. It was May, 1777, more than a year after his entry upon the proprietorship of Drury Lane, when the School for Scandal was produced, and then it was hurried into the hands of the performers piecemeal before it was finished, the last act finding its way to the theatre five days before the final production. The manuscript, Moore informs us, was issued forth in shreds and patches, there being but "one rough draft of the last five scenes, scribbled upon detached pieces of paper; while of all the preceding acts there are numerous transcripts, scat