rust my honest lay)
A most bewitching fellow.

* * * * *

"'Tis now full time my ode should end
And now I tell thee like a friend,
Howe'er the world may scout thee
Thy ways are all so wondrous winning
And folks so very fond of sinning
They cannot do without thee."

Sheridan was one of those writers to whose pecuniary distresses we owe
the rich treasure he has bequeathed. His brother and his best friend
confided to him that they were both in love with Miss Linley, a public
singer, and his romantic or comic nature suggested to him that while
they were competing for the prize, he might clandestinely carry it off.
Succeeding in his attempt, he withdrew his wife from her profession, and
was ever afterwards in difficulties. He seems in his comedies to have a
love of sudden strokes and surprises, approaching almost to practical
jokes, and very successful when upon the stage. A screen is thrown down
and Lady Teazle discovered behind it--a sword instead of a trinket drops
out of Captain Absolute's coat--the old duenna puts on her mistress'
dress--all these produce an excellent effect without showing any very
great power of humour. But he was celebrated as a wit in society--was
full of repartee and pleasantry, and we are surprised to find that his
plays only contain a few brilliant passages, and that their tissue is
not more generally shot through with threads of gold.

In comparison with the other dramatists of whom we have spoken, we
observe in Sheridan the work of a more modern age. We have here no
indelicacy or profanity, excepting the occasional oath, then
fashionable; but we meet that satirical play on the manners and
sentiments of men, which distinguishes later humour. In Mrs. Malaprop,
we have some of that confusion of words, which seems to have been
traditional upon the stage. Thus, she says that Captain Absolute is the
very "pine-apple of perfection," and that to think of her daughter's
marrying a penniless man, gives her the "hydrostatics." She does not
wish her to be a "progeny of learning," but she should have a
"supercilious knowledge" of accounts, and be acquainted with the
"contagious countries." There is a satire, which will come home to most
of us in Malaprop, notwithstanding her ignorance and stupidity, giving
her opinion authoritatively on education. She says that Lydia Languish
has been spoiled by reading novels, in which Sir Anthony agrees. "Madam,