Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan was an Irish playwright and poet and long-term owner of the London Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. He is known for his plays such as The Rivals, The School for Scandal and A Trip to Scarborough. For thirty-two years he was also a Whig Member of the British House of Commons for Stafford, Westminster and Ilchester. He was buried at Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.
He is indebted to his memory for his jests and to his imagination for his facts.
To smile at the jest which plants a thorn in another's breast is to become a principal in the mischief.
Conscience has no more to do with gallantry than it has with politics.