James Sheridan Knowles

James Sheridan Knowles , 1784-1862, Anglo-Irish dramatist; cousin of Richard Brinsley Sheridan . Although he was one of the leading playwrights of his time, his works are seldom produced today. His chief plays, which are noted for their professional, workmanlike construction, include the tragedies Virginius (1820) and William Tell (1825) and the comedies The Hunchback (1832) and The Beggar of Bethnal Green (1834). In 1845, Knowles became a Baptist minister.

Knowles, James Sheridan (1784–1862), dramatist. His Virginius was produced at Covent Garden with C. Kemble and Macready in 1820; Caius Gracchus in 1823 (1815, Belfast); William Tell in 1825. His greatest success was The Hunchback, produced in 1832. The Wife, with Prologue and Epilogue by Lamb, followed in 1833, and in 1837 The Love Chase. His friend Hazlitt described Knowles as ‘the first tragic writer of his time’, and he was the recipient of many of the letters in Hazlitt's Liber Amoris.

Knowles,[james] Sheridan (1784–1862), actor and playwright. The Irish performer failed to impress Americans when he arrived in 1834, but that in no way diminished the opinion of many of his contemporaries that he was the greatest dramatist of his day. Such plays as William Tell and The Wife were in the American repertory for many years, but it was another pair of dramas that capped his reputation: Virginius (1820) and The Hunchback (1832), both of which held the stage for the rest of the century and served as vehicles for many of the greatest American actors and actresses.