1794 - Theater, Film

Theater, Film

London hails the opening of a new Theatre Royal (Drury Lane Theatre) that has been commissioned by playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan and built to neoclassical designs by architect Henry Holland, but the house will be destroyed by fire in 1809.

Playwright-aphorist Sebastien Chamfort dies in agony at Paris April 13 at age 53 from wounds self-inflicted late last year in a suicide attempt as he was about to be arrested for his outspoken opinions during the Reign of Terror. Chamfort's Tableaux de la révolution française will be published posthumously, as will his Maximas et pensées, Caractères, and Anecdotes.