Editing Richard Brinsley Sheridan (section)

==Early life==
[[File:John Hoppner - Portrait of a Gentleman, traditionally been identified as Richard Brinsley Sheridan.jpg|thumb| ''Portrait of a Gentleman'', traditionally identified as Richard Brinsley Sheridan, by [[John Hoppner]]]]
Sheridan was born in 1751 in [[Dublin]], Ireland, where his family had a house on the then fashionable [[Dorset Street (Dublin)|Dorset Street]]. His mother, [[Frances Sheridan]], was an Anglo-Irish playwright and novelist. She had two plays produced in London in the early 1760s, though she is best known for her novel ''The Memoirs of Miss Sidney Biddulph'' (1761).{{r|Ross}} His [[Irish people|Irish]] father, [[Thomas Sheridan (actor)|Thomas Sheridan]], was for a while an actor-manager at the [[Theatre Royal, Dublin|Smock Alley Theatre]] in Dublin, but following his move to England in 1758, he gave up acting and wrote several books on the subject of education, especially the standardisation of the English language in education.{{sfn|Rae|1897a|pp=87–88}} His elder brother was [[Charles Francis Sheridan]].<ref name=DNB>{{cite DNB |wstitle=Sheridan, Charles Francis|last=Rae|first=William Fraser|author-link=William Fraser Rae|volume=52}}</ref> His paternal grandfather was [[The Reverend|The Rev.]] [[Thomas Sheridan (divine)|Thomas Sheridan]] from [[County Cavan]], who was a close friend of [[Jonathan Swift]].<ref>''[[Dictionary of Irish Biography]]'' (''D.I.B.''): Sheridan, Thomas. https://www.dib.ie/biography/sheridan-thomas-a8046</ref>

While his family was in Dublin, Richard attended the English Grammar School in [[Grafton Street]]. In 1758, when he was seven years old, the Sheridans moved permanently to England.<ref>[http://www.jamesboswell.info/biography/thomas-sheridan-actor-and-teacher-elocution Thomas Sheridan Biography] at James Boswell Info; retrieved 30 June 2013.</ref>

He was a pupil at [[Harrow School]] from 1762 to 1768.{{sfn|Rae|1897|p=78}} At the end of his 1768 school year, his father employed a private tutor, Lewis Ker, to direct his studies in his father's house in London, while [[Domenico Angelo]] instructed him in fencing and horsemanship.{{sfn|Rae|1897|p=78}}

In 1772, aged 20 or 21, Sheridan fought two duels with Captain Thomas Mathews, who had written a newspaper article defaming the character of [[Elizabeth Ann Linley]], whom Sheridan intended to marry. In the first duel, they agreed to fight in [[Hyde Park, London|Hyde Park]], but finding it too crowded they went first to the Hercules Pillars tavern (on the site where [[Apsley House]] now stands at [[Hyde Park Corner]]) and then on to the Castle Tavern in Henrietta Street, [[Covent Garden]].{{sfn|Wheatley|2011|p=19}} Far from its romantic image, the duel was short and bloodless. Mathews lost his sword and, according to Sheridan, was forced to 'beg for his life' and sign a retraction of the article.{{sfn|Rae|1897|p=79}} The apology was made public and Mathews, infuriated by the publicity the duel had received, refused to accept his defeat as final and challenged Sheridan to another duel. Sheridan was not obliged to accept this challenge but could have become a social pariah if he had not.{{Citation needed|date= October 2020}} The second duel, fought in July 1772 at Kingsdown near Bath,{{r|Chronicle}} was a much more ferocious affair. This time both men broke their swords but carried on fighting in a 'desperate struggle for life and honour'.{{sfn|Steinmetz|1868|p=17}} Both were wounded, Sheridan dangerously, and he had to be 'borne from the field with a portion of his antagonist's weapon sticking through an ear, his breast-bone touched, his whole body covered with wounds and blood, and his face nearly beaten to jelly with the hilt of Mathews' sword'.<ref>Fintan O'Toole: A Traitor's Kiss</ref> Mathews escaped in a [[post chaise]]. Eight days after the bloody affair the ''[[Bath Chronicle]]'' was able to announce that Sheridan was out of danger.

[[File:Thomas Gainsborough - Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan .jpg|thumb|[[Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan (painting)|''Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan'']], aged 31, by [[Thomas Gainsborough|Gainsborough]] ([[National Gallery of Art]])]]

Later that year, Elizabeth and the 21-year-old Richard eloped and set up house in London on a lavish scale. Sheridan had little money and no immediate prospects of any, other than his wife's [[dowry]]. The young couple entered the fashionable world and apparently held up their end in entertaining. Sheridan was a patron of [[Margaret Cuyler]] and she was his presumed mistress. As his protégée she appeared at Drury Lane in January 1777, despite being a poor actress.<ref>{{cite ODNB|title=Cuyler [married name Rice], Margaret (1758–1814), actress and courtesan|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-64329|access-date=2020-11-28|year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/64329}}</ref>