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COLLECTION Identifier: MS Hyde 83

Richard Brinsley Sheridan papers

Overview

Letters by playwright and politician Richard Brinsley Sheridan, along with financial documents, a theater lease, and a manuscript dedication for his Pizarro.

Dates

  • Creation: 1776-1815

Language of Materials

Collection materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.

Extent

.5 linear feet (1 box)

Series I, Letters, consists of ten letters and two postal covers by Sheridan. Most of the letters relate to Sheridan's theatrical career. All but one of the letters were published and annotated in Price's The Letters of Richard Brinsley Sheridan.

Series II, Documents and Manuscripts, consists of four routine financial documents; Sheridan's manuscript dedication of his Pizarro; and a lease from Sheridan to Samuel Hayes for the King's Theatre.

Biographical / Historical

Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816) was born in Dublin, Ireland and raised in London. He became the manager and part-owner of the Drury Lane Theatre in 1776. He wrote several plays, including the comedies The Rivals (1775) and The School for Scandal (1780). He also served as a Minister of Parliament from 1780 to 1812.

Arrangement

Arranged into the following series:

  1. I. Correspondence
  2. II. Documents and Manuscripts

Physical Location

b (shelved with MS Hyde 84)

Immediate Source of Acquisition

2003JM-58 (part). Bequest of Mary Hyde Eccles, Four Oaks Farm, Somerville, New Jersey; received: 2004.

Related Materials

Several related items are also part of the Hyde Collection, including several verses by Sheridan transcribed in MS Hyde 35, item (5); one item in MS Hyde 75; one item in MS Hyde 76; and four letters in MS Hyde 77.

Bibliography

Cecil Price, ed., The Letters of Richard Brinsley Sheridan (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966)

Processing Information

Processed by: Rick Stattler

Title
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 1751-1816. Richard Brinsley Sheridan papers, 1776-1815: Guide.
Author
Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hou01740

Repository Details

Part of the Houghton Library Repository

Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.

Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.

Contact:
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