"Now, from personal experience, I can vouch that my attorney is by no
means the tenderest of men, or particularly accessible to any kind of
impression out of the statute or record; and yet Sheridan, in half an
hour, had found the way to soften and seduce him in such a manner,
that I almost think he would have thrown his client (an honest man,
with all the laws, and some justice, on his side) out of the window,
had he come in at the moment.
"Such was Sheridan! he could soften an attorney! There has been
nothing like it since the days of Orpheus.
"One day I saw him take up his own ''Monody on Garrick'.' He lighted
upon the Dedication to the Dowager Lady Spencer. On seeing it, he flew
into a rage, and exclaimed 'that it must be a forgery, that he had
never dedicated any thing of his to such a damned canting bitch,'
etc., etc.--and so went on for half an hour abusing his own
dedication, or at least the object of it. If all writers were equally
sincere, it would be ludicrous.
"He told me that, on the night of the grand success of his 'School for
Scandal' he was knocked down and put into the watch-house for making a
row in the street, and being found intoxicated by the watchmen.
Latterly, when found drunk one night in the kennel, and asked his name
by the watchmen, he answered, 'Wilberforce.'
"When dying he was requested to undergo 'an operation.' He replied
that he had already submitted to two, which were enough for one man's
lifetime.
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