For God's sake let me see you!" (Moore's _Life of Sheridan_, 1825,
ii. 455).

The extent and duration of Sheridan's destitution at the time of his
last illness and death have been the subject of controversy. The
statements in Moore's _Life_ (1825) moved George IV. to send for Croker
and dictate a long and circumstantial harangue, to the effect that
Sheridan and his wife were starving, and that their immediate
necessities were relieved by the (then) Prince Regent's agent, Taylor
Vaughan (Croker's _Correspondence and Diaries_, 1884, i. 288-312). Mr.
Fraser Rae, in his _Life of Sheridan_ (1896, ii. 284), traverses the
king's apology in almost every particular, and quotes a letter from
Charles Sheridan to his half-brother Tom, dated July 16, 1816, in which
he says that his father "almost slumbered into death, and that the
reports ... in the newspapers (_vide_, e.g., _Morning Chronicle_, July,
1816) of the privations and want of comforts were unfounded."

Moore's sentiments were also expressed in "some verses" (_Lines on the
Death of SH--R--D--N_), which were published in the newspapers, and are
reprinted in the _Life_, 1825, ii. 462, and _Poetical Works_, 1850, p.
400--

"How proud they can press to the funeral array
Of one whom they shunned in his sickness and sorrow!
How bailiffs may seize his last blanket to-day,
Whose pall shall be held up by nobles to-morrow.

* * * * *

Was _this_, then, the fate of that high-gifted man,
The pride of the palace, the bower, and the hall,
The orator--dramatist--minstrel, who ran
Through each mode of the lyre, and was master of all?"]

[ao] {74}

_Abandoned by the skies, whose teams have nurst_
_Their very thunders, lighten--scorch, and burst_.--[MS.]

[102] {75}Fox--Pitt--Burke. ["I heard Sheridan only once, and that
briefly; but I liked his voice, his manner, and his wit: he is the only
one of them I ever wished to hear at greater length."--_Detached
Thoughts_, 1821, _Letters_, 1901, v. 413.]

[103] ["In society I have met Sheridan frequently: he was superb!... I
have seen him cut up Whitbread, quiz Madame de Stael, annihilate Colman,
and do little less by some others ... of good fame and abilities.... I
have met him in all places and parties, ... and always found him very
convivial and delightful."--_Ibid_., pp. 413, 414.]

[104] ["The other night we were all delivering our respective and