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As the charge was merely a nominal one, he amused himself occasionally on Sunday by pigeon-shooting. In 1768 he returned to England, and endeavored once more to establish himself as a physician. Failing again, he betook himself to writing, and for twenty or thirty years electrified the good, easy public by his satires and squibs.

Peter Pindar is beyond doubt a shrewd, clever writer, and had the themes of his pieces been proportionate to their execution, he would take a high rank among English satirists. As it is, he has fallen into neglect. His productions are very numerous, and upon all conceivable subjects of second or third rate order. The best known are the Apple-Dumplings and a King, Whitbread's Brewery visited by their Majesties (both directed against George III., then already half-witted), Lyric Odes on the Royal Academy Exhibition, Epistles to a Fallen Minister, Odes to Mr. Paine, The Louisiad, a Heroi-Comic Poem, and Bozzy and Piozzy, a satire upon the quarrel between Boswell and Mrs. Piozzi, who had published her Recollections of Samuel Johnson.

Peter Pindar spared no one, high or low. It was even reported that the Ministry bribed or attempted to bribe him into silence by a pension of £200. He became involved in a literary feud with Gifford, which led to a personal encounter in the street, and Peter was left in the gutter, or, as one critic has expressed it—"he returned to what was often the Castalia of his inspiration."

Mrs. Inchbald.

MRS. ELIZABETH INCHBALD, 1756-1821, was a writer of considerable celebrity at the close of the last century.

Mrs. Inchbald was a native of Suffolk, the daughter of Mr. Simpson, a farmer. At the age of sixteen, she came to London and made her début upon the stage. Soon afterwards she married Mr. Inchbald, a leading actor. Mrs. Inchbald was extremely successful as an actress until her retirement in 1789. From that time she devoted herself exclusively to dramatic literature, publishing a number of comedies and farces, and editing The British Theatre, a collection of plays, in 25 vols., with biographical and critical remarks; also The Modern Theatre, in 10 vols. In 1791 and 1796, respectively, she published the two novels, A Simple Story, and Nature and Art, by which she is best known to the general public. "If Mrs. Radcliffe touched the trembling chords of the imagination, making wild music there, Mrs. Inchbald has no less power over the spring of the heart. She not only moves the affections, but melts us into all the luxury of woe.'"-Hazlett.

MRS. HANNAH COWLEY, 1743-1809, had considerable repute as a dramatic writer at the close of the last century. Her principal pieces are the following: The Runaway, a Comedy; Who's the Dupe; The Belle's Stratagem; A Bold Stroke for a Husband. Fifteen of her plays are enumerated. Her poems are: The Siege of Acre; The Maid of Arragon; The Scottish Village.

MRS. MARY TIGHE, 1810, daughter of the Rev. Wm. Blackford, and wife of Henry Tighe, Member of Parliament from Woodstock, Ireland, wrote a poem, called Psyche, in six cantos, in the Spenserian stanza, highly commended by Sir James Mackintosh and others. She was the subject of a poem by Mrs. Hemans, "The Grave of a Poetess," and of a beautiful lyric by More, "I saw thy Form in Youthful Prime,"

and is perhaps as much known by these tributes as by her own poems, although the latter undoubtedly have considerable merit.

LADY ANNE BARNARD, 1750-1825, of a noble Scottish family, is noted for being the author of the well-known ballad of Auld Robin Gray, and for keeping the authorship a secret for more than fifty years. It was finally disclosed to the world by Sir Walter Scott.

THOMAS DERMODY, 1775–1802, a native of Ireland, gave evidence of poetical powers when very young. His first publication was a volume of poems written when he was in his thirteenth year. He published afterwards The Rights of Justice, a political pamphlet; The Battle of the Bards, a Poem: Peace, a Poem, etc. He fell into habits of intemperance, and died in poverty at the age of twenty-seven.

ARTHUR MURPHY, 1730-1805, a native of Ireland, was a playwright. He commenced life as a clerk in a banking-house, and was successively writer, actor, and barrister. His plays, chiefly comedies, are not marked by brilliant wit, but are considered good acting pieces, and are still given occasionally. Among them are Know Your Own Mind, All in the Wrong, How to Keep Him. Besides his plays, Murphy was also the author of a translation of Tacitus, which has some merit, and wrote the lives of Johnson and Garrick.

HENRY JAMES PYE, LL.D., 1745-1813, a Member of Parliament, and afterwards police magistrate in the city of London, was educated at Oxford, and was a man of literary culture. He published Elegies, 4to; The Art of War, a Poem; Alfred, an Epic Poem; Verses on Social Subjects; Six Olympic Odes of Pindar, translated into English verse; The War Elegies of Tyrtaeus, translation of the Epigrams and Hymns of Homer; Comments on the Commentators of Shakespeare; The Democrat, 2 vols.; Summary of the Duties of a Justice of the Peace out of Sessions.

THOMAS HOLCROFT, 1744-1809, the son of a shoemaker in London, was at first a groom, then an actor, and then an author. He wrote a number of plays, poems, novels and translations from the French and German. The best known of his plays are Duplicity, The School for Arrogance, the Road to Ruin, the Deserted Daughter; of his novels, Alwyn, Hugh Trevor, Bryan Perdue; of his translations, Caroline of Lichfield, Life of Frederic, Baron Trenck, Posthumous Works of Frederic II., of Prussia, Lavater's Essay on Physiognomy, Goethe's Hermann and Dorothea. He also published an account of his travels through Holland and Westphalia, and 3 vols. of his autobiography. His plays are successful stage-pieces, well arranged for action and scenic effect, although the style is that of the eighteenth century, with its slang phrases, romantic damsels, and philosophic waiting maids.

RICHARD GALL, 1776-1801, an Edinburgh printer, who died early, had considerable reputation as a poet, especially as a writer of songs. A longer poem, Arthur's Seat, is highly commended. A volume of his Poems and Songs was published after his death. "Gall must henceforth stand on the list next to Burns, and by the side of Ramsay, Fergusson, Bruce, and Macneill. It is by his songs and short effusions that Gall's name is destined to live. There is nothing better or sweeter in the Scottish language than some of these; and wherever Gall's songs are set to appropriate airs, it is easy, without the spirit of prophecy, to foretell their popularity. My only Joe and Dearie 0, and the Farewell to Ayrshire, are known to every lover of modern Scottish song.". The Scotsman.

JOHN HOOLE, 1727-1803, a native of London, and for nearly forty years clerk in the East India House, is chiefly known as a translator from the Italian. He rendered Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered, the dramas of Metastasio, Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, and produced one or two weak original dramas. "Mr. Hoole, the translator of Tasso and Ariosto, and in that capacity a noble transmuter of gold into lead."-Sir W. Scott.

WILLIAM BOSCAWEN, 1752-1811, a lawyer and a writer on law, is known to literature by a Translation of Horace into English Verse; The Progress of Satire; and a volume of Original Poems.

CHARLES DIBDIN, 1745-1814, a song-writer, dramatist, and actor, wrote nearly twelve hundred sea-songs, which were very popular with British tars.

"These Songs have been the solace of sailors in long voyages, in storms, in battles; they have been quoted in mutinies, to the restoration of order and discipline." One of these songs, Poor Tom Bowling, is particularly commended. He wrote 47 dramatic pieces; also, A Complete History of the English Stage, 5 vols., 8vo.-CHARLES DIBDIN, JR., d. 1833, a sou of the preceding, wrote also a number of songs and dramas.-THOMAS DIBDIN, 1771-1841, also a son of Charles, was, like his father and his brother, a songwriter and dramatist. He composed more than 1000 songs, and 39 dramatic pieces; also, The Metrical History of England, 2 vols.; and Reminiscences, 2 vols.

JOHN PHILIP KEMBLE, 1757-1823, brother of Charles and uncle of Mrs. Fanny Kemble, was the most celebrated actor of his times. He wrote several plays, which, however, were never printed, altered many of Shakespeare's plays to adapt them to the stage, and published an Essay on Macbeth and Richard III. In 1780 he published a volume of Fugitive Pieces, which he soon endeavored to suppress.-MRS. MARIE THEKESE KEMBLE, 1774-1838, wife of Charles and mother of Fanny and Charles Mitchell Kemble, was the author of several comedies and interludes.

II. THE DRAMATISTS.

Sheridan.

Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan, 1751-1816, was a brilliant Parliamentary orator. His chief distinction, however, was as a dramatist. In this respect, he is inferior to Shakespeare only. As mere acting plays, those of Sheridan are considered the best in the language.

Early Career.-Sheridan was the son of Thomas Sheridan the lexicographer and actor. He was born in Dublin, and educated at Harrow. There young Sheridan was so backward as to be pronounced by some of his masters "an impenetrable dunce." Dr. Parr, however, then at Harrow, formed a different opinion. In 1772, Sheridan married the beautiful Miss Linley, then celebrated not only for her beauty, but for her singing. He began the study of law about this time, but was never

admitted to the bar. To support himself and his wife, he took to writing plays.

Authorship. In 1775 appeared The Rivals, the first of a series of comedies that have made their author famous wherever the English language is spoken. The Duenna was produced before the close of 1775; and in 1777 appeared The School for Scandal, his masterpiece. In 1779 Sheridan produced The Critic. The Stranger, and Pizarro, which followed, are adaptations from the German of Kotzebue.

In Parliament. - Sheridan's fame as an author was now at its height. But he was destined to win other laurels, equally great. Having attracted the attention of the Whig party, he gained a seat in Parliament, and was an active supporter of Fox. In 1788, during the impeachment of Warren Hastings, Sheridan delivered his two socalled Begum speeches, the first of which was pronounced by acclamation the most wonderful single speech ever made in Parliament. When the orator, until then comparatively unknown, had finished, the House was a scene of utter commotion and applause, cheering, and clapping of hands. So great was the confusion that no one else could be heard, and the House adjourned. It is greatly to be regretted that we have only a meagre and incorrect report of this wonderful performance. His other numer ous speeches, able as they are, do not justify any such extraordinary fame.

As a dramatist, Sheridan is among the very best that have written for the English stage. The great fault of them all is that they are too uniformly clever. Even the subordinate characters jest and banter, and there are no dull ones to relieve the leading characters. For all that, no plays have been more steadily successful, and have made the reputation of more young actors, than The Rivals, The School for Scandal, and The Critic. The names of Sir Anthony Absolute, Bob Acres, Lydia Languish, Mrs. Malaprop, Joseph Surface, Mrs. Candor, and Lady Sneerwell, have become household words. Sheridan's pieces are all good acting plays; sparkling with wit, they never allow impatience to attack the audience. The Rivals is written decidedly under the inspiration of Smollett, and The School for Scandal under that of Fielding. Byron's opinion was that Sheridan had produced the best in every department upon which he had ventured the best comedy (School for Scandal), the best drama (Beggar's Opera), the best farce (The Critic), the best address (the monologue on Garrick), and the best oration (the Begum speech).

Sheridan was improvident and careless in his way of living, and died in great pecuniary embarrassment.

THOMAS SHERIDAN, JR., 1721-1788, father of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, a native of Ireland, and educated at Trinity College, Dublin, was noted as an actor, a teacher of elocution, and a lexicographer.

Thomas Sheridan frequently played in company with Garrick, at Drury Lane, and was manager of that theatre for three years. His published works on elocution and reading are numerous. The best known work, however, is his General Dictionary of the English Language. Its chief value consists in the careful attention which it gives to pronunciation. He was, in fact, like Walker, an orthoepist, rather than a lexicographer.

THOMAS SHERIDAN, SR., 1684-1738, the grandfather of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, a native of Ireland, educated at Trinity College, Dublin, published only two works, a

metrical translation of the Philoctetes of Sophocles, and a prose version of the Satires of Perseus. He appears to have been a great wit, punster, and merriment-maker of his day, and an intimate friend of Swift. On the anniversary of the King's birthday, Sheridan, being chaplain to the Lord Lieutenant, chose for his text, "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof,”—a practical joke which cost him his chaplaincy. "Illstarred, good-natured, and improvident, a punster, a quibbler, a fiddler, and a wit. Not a day passed without a rebus, an anagram, or a madrigal. His pen and his fiddle-stick were in continual motion, and yet to little or no purpose."- Lord Cork.

MRS. FRANCES SHERIDAN, 1724-1766, the mother of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, daughter of Dr. Philip Chamberlain, was the author of several novels and plays. She appears to have been a very attractive woman, as both Parr and Dr. Johnson are emphatic in her praises. Her Memoirs have been written by her grand-daughter, Alicia Lefanur. Her works are Memoirs of Miss Sidney Buddulph, a novel in three volumes; The Discovery, a comedy in which Garrick acted with success; The Dupe, a Comedy; and The History of Nourjahad, a Novel, afterwards dramatized by Sophie Lee. The Memoirs of Miss Sidney Buddulph were very popular in their day, and received great commendation from Johnson and others. The plot of Richard Brinsley Sheridan s School for Scandal is taken from it, and it was also translated into French.

Garrick.

DAVID GARRICK, 1716-1779, the greatest of English actors, was also a man of letters, and was the intimate friend and associate of nearly all the great writers of England who were contemporary with him.

In his youth Garrick went to school to Samuel Johnson, in Lichfield, and in 1736 master and pupil went to London together to seek their fortunes. Johnson became the autocrat among authors, Garrick the prince without a peer among actors. As author, Garrick wrote several dramatic pieces, The Lying Valet, The Miss in her Teens, and the Clandestine Marriage; and he altered a large number of others, besides writing numerous Epigrams, Odes, Songs, Prologues, Epilogues, etc. His Poetical Works have been published in 2 vols., 12mo; and his Private Correspondence, in 2 vols., 4to.

Foote.

SAMUEL FOOTE, 1722-1777, is sometimes called the "English Aristophanes." He wrote a large number of comedies for his own acting, in a playhouse belonging to himself, The Little Theatre in the Haymarket.

Foote's Dramatic Works have been published in 4 vols., 8vo. There is nothing specially notable in them, except their good-natured fun. In this respect, Foote was as irresistible in private as he was on the stage. "The first time I was in company with Foote was at Fitzherbert's. Having no good opinion of the fellow, I was resolved not to be pleased; and it is very difficult to please a man against his will. I went on eating my dinner pretty sullenly, affecting not to mind him; but the dog was so very comical that I was obliged to lay down my knife and fork, throw myself back in my chair, and fairly laugh it out. He was irresistible."— Dr. Johnson,

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