July 7: Scandal That Lurked Behind Lace and Powder (Vol. 18, pp. 115-128)

English playwright and politician Richard Brinsley Sheridan was buried in Westminister Abbey on this day in 1816. With characters named Snake, Backbite, Careless and Sneerwell, there's little doubt about what Sheridan's most famous play, "The School for Scandal," is about – reckless gossip and scandal loosed upon the land, couched in the stuffiness of 18th century nobility.