Knowles

Knowles, JAMES SHERIDAN, dramatist, was born at Cork, 21st May 1784, the son of a lexicographer and teacher of elocution, who was cousin-german to Richard Brinsley Sheridan. The family removed to London in 1793, and here young Knowles became intimate with Hazlitt and Lamb. He had early shown a strong bent for an actor's life, and after serving a while in the militia, and studying medicine for a time, he made his first appearance at the Crow Street Theatre, Dublin. But he never attained much eminence in this profession, and subsequently he conducted a school for several years in Belfast and Glasgow. It was at this time he laid the foundation of his fame as a dramatist. His Brian Boroihme (1814) and Caius Gracchus (1815) were first performed at Belfast. Virginius, his most effective play, had been a success in Glasgow before Macready in 1820 produced it at Covent Garden. Besides William Tell, in which Macready achieved one of his greatest triumphs, Knowles's best plays are Love, The Hunchback, The Love Chase, and The Wife. His works attract by the strong human feeling that beats beneath their antique dress, and several of them are still among standard acting-plays. Knowles appeared with fair success in many of his own pieces; but in his later years he forsook the stage for the pulpit, became a Baptist preacher, and drew large audiences to Exeter Hall. His earnestness and enthusiasm were great, and two controversial works written to combat Roman Catholic doctrines displayed considerable acuteness. From 1849 Knowles had a civil list pension of £200 a year. He died at Torquay, 30th November 1862.