Knowles, James Sheridan

Knowles, James Sheridan (1784–1862), Irish-born playwright, a cousin of R. B. Sheridan and a close friend of Coleridge, Hazlitt, and Charles Lamb. In 1808 he was a member of the Crow Street Theatre in Dublin, where he proved himself a passable actor and also wrote a melodrama, Leo; or, The Gypsy (1810), for Edmund Kean, who was a member of the company. He later offered Kean Virginius; or, The Liberation of Rome (1820), but it was refused. Macready accepted it and played it with great success at Covent Garden. Knowles's most popular play was The Hunchback (1832), whose heroine Julia, first played by Fanny Kemble, was a favourite part with many young actresses. He himself appeared in the play after many years off the stage, playing Master Walter, the part in which he made his first appearance in New York in 1834. Knowles wrote his tragedies on classical subjects in the light of 19th-century domesticity, and was more concerned with the emotions of his characters than with their actions. None of his works has survived on the stage.