Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) was an Irish playwright, theater manager and politician. Born in Dublin, the son of an actor and a novelist, he eloped with the singer Elizabeth Linley and wrote The Rivals, The Duenna, A Trip to Scarborough and The School for Scandal before he was thirty, then bought Garrick's share of Drury Lane and managed it for decades, rebuilding it after the fire of 1809. Elected to Parliament in 1780, he was a leading Whig orator for thirty-two years, famous for his speeches in the impeachment of Warren Hastings. He died in debt and was buried in Westminster Abbey.