The extent and duration of Sheridan's destitution at the time of his last illness and death have been the subject of controversy. The statements in Moore's _Life_ (1825) moved George IV. to send for Croker and dictate a long and circumstantial harangue, to the effect that Sheridan and his wife were starving, and that their immediate necessities were relieved by the (then) Prince Regent's agent, Taylor Vaughan (Croker's _Correspondence and Diaries_, 1884, i. 288-312). Mr. Fraser Rae, in his _Life of Sheridan_ (1896, ii. 284), traverses the king's apology in almost every particular, and quotes a letter from Charles Sheridan to his half-brother Tom, dated July 16, 1816, in which he says that his father "almost slumbered into death, and that the reports ... in the newspapers (_vide_, e.g., _Morning Chronicle_, July, 1816) of the privations and want of comforts were unfounded." Moore's sentiments were also expressed in "some verses" (_Lines on the Death of SH--R--D--N_), which were published in the newspapers, and are reprinted in the _Life_, 1825, ii. 462, and _Poetical Works_, 1850, p. 400-- "How proud they can press to the funeral array Of one whom they shunned in his sickness and sorrow! How bailiffs may seize his last blanket to-day, Whose pall shall be held up by nobles to-morrow. * * * * * Was _this_, then, the fate of that high-gifted man, The pride of the palace, the bower, and the hall, The orator--dramatist--minstrel, who ran Through each mode of the lyre, and was master of all?"] [ao] {74} _Abandoned by the skies, whose teams have nurst_ _Their very thunders, lighten--scorch, and burst_.--[MS.] [102] {75}Fox--Pitt--Burke. ["I heard Sheridan only once, and that briefly; but I liked his voice, his manner, and his wit: he is the only one of them I ever wished to hear at greater length."--_Detached Thoughts_, 1821, _Letters_, 1901, v. 413.] [103] ["In society I have met Sheridan frequently: he was superb!... I have seen him cut up Whitbread, quiz Madame de Staël, annihilate Colman, and do little less by some others ... of good fame and abilities.... I have met him in all places and parties, ... and always found him very convivial and delightful."--_Ibid_., pp. 413, 414.] [104] ["The other night we were all delivering our respective and various opinions on him, ... and mine was this:--'Whatever Sheridan has done or chosen to do has been, _par excellence_, always the _best_ of its kind. He has written the _best_ comedy (_School for Scandal_), the _best_ drama (in my mind, far before that St. Giles's lampoon, the _Beggars Opera_), the best farce (the _Critic_--it is only too good for a farce), and the best Address ('Monologue on Garrick'), and, to crown all, delivered the very best Oration (the famous Begum Speech) ever conceived or heard in this country.'"--_Journal_, December 17, 1813, _Letters_, 1898, ii. 377.]