Sheridan, Goldsmith, and Hugo

Question 1

Richard Brinslely Sheridan (bio)

Answer 1

• b. in Dublin
• education: attended Harrow, no formal univ. education, taught oratory and elocution by his father
• family settled in Bath, he met Elizabeth Linley there (married her)
• 1776: became manager and part owner of the Dury Lane Theatre
• 1777: high point of career “The School for Scandal”
• 1780: elected to the House of commons, noted for eloquent speeches made in opposition to Brit war against Amer. colonies
• 1792/5: Elizabeth dies, marries Jane Ogle
• 1816: dies, buried in Wesminister Abbey

Question 2

Characteristics of Sheridan’s Comedy (particularly “The School For Scandal”)

Answer 2

1. avoided pronounced sentimentalism
2. created an atmosphere of general goodwill and well being
3. observed the function of comedy, to show human nature and society as sometimes ridiculous
4. posessed a great sense of theatre, established the occasion of time, place and social ambiance effortlessly
5. created characters that had the illusion of life (verasimilitude)

Question 3

Oliver Goldsmith (bio)

Answer 3

• son of protestant clergyman in Ireland
• B.A. at Trinity College (also studied med. at Univ. of Edinsburg)
• 1756: arrived in London, started as hack writer and journalist
• 1764: Johnson’s literary club
• theatre career came after novelist career; “The Good Natured Man” and “She Stoops to Conquer”
• “She Stoops to Conquer” success of play at Covent Garden due to Samuel Johnson
• play was dedicated wrote “An Essay on the Theatre or a Comparison between Laughing and Sentimental Comedy”
• David Garrick wrote the prologue which is a condemnation of Sentimental Comedy

Question 4

Victor Hugo (bio)

Answer 4

• poet,playwright, and novelist
• leader of French Romanticism
• Five Periods of His Life
  1. 1819-27: poet and novelist
  2. 1827-43: period of greatest contribution to the drama
  a) “Preface”
  b) Hernani
  3. 1843-51: political phase, disillusionment
  4. 1851-43: exiled to Channel Islands (period when he wrote Les Mis)
  5. returns to Paris where he continues to write

Question 5

What were some of the main ideas of Hugo’s “Preface”?

Answer 5

a. preChristianity - tragedy (Classic)
b. Christian Era - new form, Romanticism
c. New form is anti-new Classicism
d. Moderns produce a new form which is a combo of the grotesque and the sublime
e. Shakespeare is the apotheosis of the new drama

Question 6

What was the progression of Literature at the time?

Answer 6

Neo-Classicism –> Romanticism (revolt against Neo-classicism) –> Realism (revolt against Romanticism) –> “-isms” (revolt against realism)