nd? In the code of speech an behavior which lay dormant in the lines, and in whose secrets player and spectator could share--but only through the right sort of performance (Styan 1).
Sheridan had a relatively short career. He was the son of an actor, wrote for the theater, and then abandoned the theater for a career in politics, serving at one time or another as Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Secretary to the Treasury, and Treasurer of the Navy. All of his important theatrical pieces were written in a period of four years--The Rivals (1775), The School for Scandal (1777), and The Critic (1779), along with some short pieces and a comic opera. He also prepared a version of Vanbrugh's The Relapse under the title A Trip to Scarborough in 1777. Sheridan included certain farcical elements in his first play that were missing in A School for Scandal, which was
...