Full red calf with gold tooling and leather spine labels. Marbled end papers and edges. Boards and spine faded. Some foxing on endpapers otherwise clean internally. Dimensions are for one volume.

F.B.A. provides an in-depth photographic presentation of this item to stimulate your feel and touch. More traditional book descriptions are immediately available.

These two volumes are professionally renovated by Mr. Brian Cole, a gentleman well famed for his expertise.

Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan (30 October 1751 – 7 July 1816) was an Irish satirist, a politician, a playwright, 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, The Duenna and A Trip to Scarborough. He was also a Whig MP for 32 years in the British House of Commons for Stafford (1780–1806), Westminster (1806–1807), and Ilchester (1807–1812). He is buried at Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey. His plays remain a central part of the canon and are regularly performed worldwide.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan was an satirist, playwright and poet, and long time owner of the London Theatre Royal. He is known for plays such as The Rivals and The School for Scandal, and his plays remain a central part of the canon.

Though best remembered as the author of brilliant comedies of manners, Sheridan was also a significant politician and orator. His genius both as dramatist and politician lay in humorous criticism and the ability to size up situations and relate them effectively. These gifts were often exercised in the House of Commons on other men’s speeches and at Drury Lane Theatre in the revision of other men’s plays. They are seen at their best in The School for Scandal, in which he shaped a plot and dialogue of unusual brilliance from two mediocre draft plays of his own

Because F.B.A. is based in Scarborough one will make a quick detour to one of Sheridan’s better known plays: A Trip to Scarborough is an 18th-century play by Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816), first performed on 24 February 1777. Sheridan based his work on John Vanbrugh’s The Relapse (1696), removing much of the bawdy content.

The play was reworked as one of three plot strands in a 1982 revival by Alan Ayckbourn, with the action taking place in the Royal Hotel, Scarborough. The first performance was on 8 December that year. It is a technically demanding piece as the actors are required to take on several roles, with quick changes between scenes as the play switches from the 18th century to World War II to the present day.  Ayckbourn updated the production when it returned to the Stephen Joseph Theatre in the town during 2007–2008.

The Plot: The hero of the play, Tom Fashion, arrives penniless in Scarborough, attended by but one faithful servant, Lory, who privately informs the audience that he will never desert his master until he pays him his wages. Fashion has come to visit his rich elder brother, Lord Foppington, whom he hopes to be able to beg money from.

When he arrives, he finds his friend, Colonel Townley, also in town. Townley tells him that Lord Foppington is about to be married to a rich young lady, the daughter of Sir Tunbelly Clumsey, a gentleman of the region. However, he also learns that the two have never met, and are communicating through a go-between, who was an old ally of Fashion’s, one Dame Coupler. He determines if possible to outwit his brother, and by marrying the girl, obtain her fortune. The colonel promises to help him, and they soon also are able to enlist the support to another acquaintance of theirs, Loveless. He was the more inclined to help them as Lord Foppington had recently had the audacity to make love to his wife, Amanda.

The plot thickens as Colonel Townley’s beloved Berinthia comes on the scene; he sees her as a frustratingly capricious woman, but she mainly acts this way because she wants to severely test her admirer’s fidelity before accepting his proposals, not satisfied with his previous loose way of life. In anger, to make her jealous he pretends to make love to Amanda himself, who rigidly repulses him, and not comprehending his game, Loveless in turn begins to persecute Berinthia. Eventually their complicated diversion comes to light, and with it settled, the more serious game of stealing Lord Foppington’s intended can proceed.

Tom Fashion goes to Dame Coupler, and obtains letters of introduction from her at Sir Tunbelly’s house. Quickly ingratiating himself there, the father agrees for them to be wedded the next week, but Tom bribes Miss Hoyden’s nurse to marry at once, before Lord Foppington’s imminent arrival. When he comes, they manage to keep up the pretence of his being an impostor for a little, but eventually some friends of his appear, and Tom is forced to own to the deception. However, the couple is already safely married and thus Tom gains his desired end – a bride, a fortune, and the utter discomfiture of his brother.

Poets’ Corner is the name traditionally given to a section of the South Transept of Westminster Abbey because of the high number of poets, playwrights, and writers buried and commemorated there.

The first poet interred in Poets’ Corner was Geoffrey Chaucer.  Over the centuries, a tradition has grown up of interring or memorialising people there in recognition of their contribution to British culture. In the overwhelming majority of cases, the honour is awarded to writers.

In 2009, the founders of the Royal Ballet were commemorated in a memorial floor stone and on 25 September 2010, the writer Elizabeth Gaskell was celebrated with the dedication of a panel in the memorial window. On 6 December 2011, former Poet Laureate Ted Hughes was commemorated with a floor stone.  On 22 November 2013, the fiftieth anniversary of his death, writer C. S. Lewis was commemorated with a memorial floor stone. The poet Philip Larkin was commemorated with a floor stone dedicated on 2 December 2016.