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Author: Sharp, Charles

Biography:

SHARP, Charles (fl 1819)

Zopheir; A Tragedy: In Five Acts is the only known publication of Charles Sharp, “Student of Law, Edinburgh.” Except for his name, residence, and the careers to which he aspired—law and literature—his book provides no hint of his identity. In a complaining preface, he states that, despite his willingness to underwrite a production, Covent Garden managers refused to stage his play. It has been “unfairly judged,” he believes; parts at least “would have been received with applause.” Attempting to put the managers in their place, he had appealed to an eminent satirist and critic, William Gifford (q.v.), editor of the QR. He then indecorously published their correspondence as an appendix to Zopheir and dedicated the book to Gifford without his permission. In the preface and in his letters, he is, figuratively, a peevish adolescent scoffing at the adults who are standing in his way. Gifford in his replies is his best self, patient, solicitous, and magnanimous. He sympathizes with Sharp; theatre managers can be capricious and supercilious, but consider, they must satisfy modern taste. His criticisms are encouraging and substantive, and, inviting the young man not to take himself so seriously, also humorous: Zopheir should not rely as much as it does on narrative; his play wants incident, “a wild elephant hunt, a marriage, a massacre, a burning of three or four palaces; and above all, a dance of moors, and monkies, of peacocks, mufties and grand viziers” (sic). Unwilling to be schooled, even by Gifford, Sharp tried to argue with him, but Gifford closed the exchange. “A simple conveyance of my thoughts on the matter was all I ever thought of,” he replied. Sharp presented a copy of Zopheir to the satirist and book collector George Daniel (q.v.). (BL; Catalogue of the … Library of the Late George Daniel [1864], 165) JC

 

Books written (1):

London: G. and W. B. Whittaker, 1819