If we may take it as certain that modern investigation is correct in a.s.serting that Thomas Campion was a native of Dublin, a notable addition will have been made to the ranks of Irish-born writers of English at this period. Thomas Campion (1567-1620), wherever born, spent most of his life in London. He was a versatile genius, for, after studying law, he took up medicine, and, although practising as a physician, he yet found time to write four masques and many lyrics and to compose a goodly quant.i.ty of music. Some of his songs appeared as early as 1591. Among his works is a treatise ent.i.tled _Observations in the Art of English Poesie_ (1602), in which, strange to say, he, a born lyrist, advocated unrhymed verse and quant.i.tative measures, but fortunately his practice did not usually square with his theory. His masques were written for occasions, such as the marriage of Lord Hayes (1607), the nuptials of the Princess Elizabeth and the Elector Palatine (1613), and the ill-starred wedding of Somerset and the quondam Countess of Ess.e.x in the same year. In these masques are embedded some of his best songs; others of his lyrics appeared in several _Bookes of Ayres_ between 1601 and 1617. Many of them were written to music, sometimes music of his composing. Such dainty things as "Now hath Flora robb"d her bowers" and "Harke, all you ladies that do sleep" possess the charms of freshness and spontaneity, and his devotional poetry, especially "Awake, awake, thou heavy Spright" and "Never weather-beaten Saile more willing bent to sh.o.r.e", makes almost as wide an appeal.
II. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
Pa.s.sing by with regret the ill.u.s.trious seventeenth century names of Philip O"Sullivan Beare, Sir James Ware, Luke Wadding, Hugh Ward, John Colgan, and John Lynch, because their bearers wrote in Latin, and those of "The Four Masters" and Geoffrey Keating, because they wrote in Irish, we are first brought to a pause in the seventeenth century by the imposing figure of him, whom, in a later day, Johnson justly called the "great luminary of the Irish [Protestant] church", none other than the archbishop of Armagh and primate of Ireland, James Ussher himself. James Ussher (1581-1656), born in Dublin and among the earliest students of the newly-founded Trinity College, was in intellect and scholarship one of the greatest men that Ireland has ever produced. Selden describes him as "learned to a miracle" (_ad miraculum doctus_), and Canon D"Alton in his _History of Ireland_ says of him that "he was not unworthy to rank even with Duns Scotus, and when he died he left in his own Church neither an equal nor a second." Declining the high office of provost of Trinity, Ussher was made bishop of Meath and was afterwards promoted to the primatial see. His fine intellect was unfortunately marred by narrow religious views, and in many ways he displayed his animus against those of his countrymen who did not see eye to eye with him in matters of faith and doctrine. For example, it was he who in 1626 drew up the Irish Protestant bishops" protest against toleration for Catholics, therein showing a bigotry which consorted badly with his reputation as a scholar. On account of his well-known att.i.tude towards Catholicism, he was naturally unpopular with those who professed the ancient creed, and hence, when the rebellion of 1641 broke out, much of his property was destroyed by the enraged insurgents. His person escaped violence, for he happened to be in England at the time engaged in the vain task of trying to effect an accommodation between Charles I. and the English parliament. He never returned to his see and died in London.
Ussher"s collected works fill seventeen stately volumes. His _magnum opus_ is undoubtedly the _Annales Veteris et Novi Testamenti_. It is written in Latin, and is a chronological compendium of the history of the world from the Creation to the dispersion of the Jews under Vespasian. Published at Leyden, London, Paris, and Oxford, it gained for its author a European fame. His books written in English deal mostly with theological or controversial subjects, and while they display wide reading, great ac.u.men, and keen powers of argumentation, they yet do not do full justice to his genius. Those which he published in Dublin are _A Discourse of the Religion anciently professed by the Irish and British_ (1622), in which he tried to show that the ritual and discipline of the Church as originally established in the British Isles were in agreement with the Church of England and opposed to the Catholic Church on the matters in dispute between them; _An Answer to a Challenge made by a Jesuite in Ireland_ (1624), in which his aim was to disprove the contention set forth earlier in the same year by a Jesuit that uniformity of doctrine had always been maintained by the Catholic Church; and _Immanuel, or the Mysterie of the Incarnation_. He published in England _The Originall of Bishops, A Body of Divinitie, The Principles of Christian Religion_, and other works. So great was Ussher"s reputation that when he died Cromwell relaxed in his favor one of the strictest laws of the Puritans and allowed him to be buried with the full service of the Church of England, and with great pomp, in Westminster Abbey.
Among Ussher"s other claims to distinction, it should be noted that it was he who in 1621 discovered the celebrated Book of Kells, which had long been lost. This marvel of the illuminator"s art pa.s.sed with the remainder of his collection of books and ma.n.u.scripts to Trinity College, Dublin, in 1661, and to this day it remains one of the most treasured possessions of the n.o.ble library of that inst.i.tution.
Sir John Denham (1615-1669), a Dublin man by birth, took an active part on the side of Charles I. against the parliament during the Civil War, and subsequently was conspicuous in the intrigues that led to the restoration of Charles II. In his own day he had a great reputation as a poet. His tragedy, _The Sophy_, and his translation of the Psalms are now forgotten, but he is still remembered for one piece, _Cooper"s Hill_, in which occur the well-known lines addressed to the River Thames:
O could I flow like thee, and make thy stream My great example, as it is my theme!
Though deep, yet clear; though gentle, yet not dull; Strong, without rage; without o"erflowing, full.
Another Dublin-born man was Wentworth Dillon, Earl of Roscommon (1633-1684). He had the good fortune to win encomiums both from Dryden and from Pope. One of his merits, as pointed out by the latter, is that
In all Charles"s days Roscommon only boasts unspotted bays.
He translated from Virgil, Lucan, Horace, and Guarini; wrote prologues, epilogues, and other occasional verses; but is now princ.i.p.ally remembered for his poetical _Essay on Translated Verse_ (1681), in which he develops principles previously laid down by Cowley and Denham. To his credit be it said, he condemns indecency, both as want of sense and bad taste. He was honored with a funeral in Westminster Abbey. Johnson records that, at the moment of his death, Roscommon uttered with great energy and devotion the following two lines from his own translation of the _Dies Irae_:
My G.o.d, my Father, and my Friend, Do not forsake me in my end!
Robert Boyle (1627-1691), one of the founders of the Royal Society (1662), was son of the "great" Earl of Cork and was born at Lismore, Co. Waterford. He takes rank among the princ.i.p.al experimental philosophers of his age, and he certainly rendered valuable services to the advancement of science. Most of his writings, which are very voluminous, are naturally of a technical character and therefore do not properly belong to literature; but his _Occasional Reflections on Several Subjects_ (1665), a strange mixture of triviality and seriousness, was germinal in this sense that it led to two celebrated _jeux d"esprit_, namely, Butler"s _Occasional Reflection on Dr.
Charlton"s feeling a Dog"s Pulse at Gresham College_ and Swift"s _Pious Meditation upon a Broomstick, in the Style of the Honourable Mr. Boyle_. Indeed, one of Boyle"s _Reflections_, that "Upon the Eating of Oysters", is reputed to have rendered a still more signal service to literature, for in its two concluding paragraphs is contained the idea which, under the transforming hand of the master satirist, eventually took the world by storm when it appeared, fully developed, as _Gulliver"s Travels_.
His brother, Roger Boyle (1621-1679), who figures largely as a soldier and a statesman in Irish and English history under his t.i.tle of Lord Broghill, was an alumnus of Trinity College, Dublin. During the Civil War he was a royalist until the death of Charles I., when he changed sides and aided Cromwell materially in his Irish campaign.
When the Lord Protector died, Broghill made another right-about-face, and crossing to his native country worked so energetically and successfully that he made Ireland solid for the restoration of Charles II. For this service he was rewarded by being created Earl of Orrery. He was the author of six tragedies and two comedies, some of which when produced proved gratifyingly popular. He is noted for having been the first to write tragedy in rhyme, thereby setting an example that was followed with avidity for a time by Dryden and others. He also wrote poems, a romance called _Parthenissa_ (1654), and a _Treatise on the Art of War_ (1677). From whatever point of view considered, Lord Orrery was a remarkable member of a remarkable family. His son, John Boyle, Earl of Cork and Orrery (1707-1762), in virtue of his translation of Pliny"s _Letters_, his _Remarks on the Life and Writings of Swift_, and his _Letters from Italy_, has some claims to recognition in the field of literature.
Charles Leslie (1650-1722), a Dubliner by birth, was son of that John Leslie, bishop of Raphoe and Clogher, who lived through a whole century, from 1571 to 1671, and who was 79 years of age when Charles, his sixth son, was born. Educated first at Enniskillen and afterwards at Trinity College, Dublin, Charles Leslie studied law in London, but eventually abandoned that profession and entered the ministry. He was of a disputatious character and in particular went to great lengths in opposing the pro-Catholic activities of James II. Nevertheless, when the Revolution of 1688 came, he took the side of the deposed monarch, and loyally adhered to his Jacobite principles for the remainder of his life. He even joined the Old Pretender on the continent, and endeavored to convert him to Protestantism, but, failing therein, he returned to Ireland, where he died at Gla.s.slough in county Monaghan. Many years of Leslie"s life were devoted to disputes with Catholics, Quakers, Socinians, and Deists, and the seven volumes which his writings fill prove that he was an extremely able controversialist. His best known work is the famous treatise, _A Short and Easy Method with the Deists_, published in 1698.
The Irish note, tone, or temper is not conspicuous in any of the writings so far named unless when it is conspicuous by its absence; but it appears plainly, for the first time, in Molyneux"s _Case of Ireland being bound by Laws [made] in England Stated_ (1698). William Molyneux (1656-1698) has always ranked as an Irish patriot. His was one of the spirits invoked by Grattan in his great speech (1782) on the occasion on which he carried his celebrated Declaration of Independence in the Irish parliament. When the English Act of 1698, which was meant to destroy, and did destroy, the Irish woolen industry, came before the Irish house of commons for ratification, Molyneux"s was the only voice raised against its adoption. His protest was followed by the publication of his _Case Stated_, which is a cla.s.sic on the general relations between Ireland and England, and contained arguments so irrefutable that it drove the English parliament to fury and was by that body ordered to be burned by the common hangman. It is a remarkable coincidence that Molyneux opens his argument by laying down in almost identical words the principles which stand at the beginning of the American Declaration of Independence.
John Toland (1669-1722) was born near Redcastle, in Co. Derry, and was at first a Catholic but subsequently became a free-thinker. His _Christianity not Mysterious_ (1696) marks an epoch in religious disputes, for it started the deistical controversy which was so distinctive a feature of the first half of the eighteenth century. It shared a similar fate to that of the _Case Stated_, though on very different grounds, and was ordered by the Irish parliament to be burned by the hangman. Toland wrote many other books, among which are _Amyntor_ (1699); _Nazarenus_ (1702); _Pantheisticon; History of the Druids_; and _Hypatia_. All his books show versatility and wide reading and are characterized by a pointed, vigorous, and aggressive style.
George Farquhar (1678-1707), a Derry man, and Thomas Southerne (1660-1746), born near Dublin, were distinguished playwrights, who began their respective careers in the seventeenth century. Farquhar left Trinity College, Dublin, as an undergraduate and became an actor, but owing to his accidental killing of another player he left the stage and secured a commission in the army. He soon turned his attention to the writing of plays, and was responsible in all for eight comedies. He has left us some characters that are very humorous and at the same time true to life, such as Scrub the servant in _The Beaux" Stratagem_ and Sergeant Kite in _The Recruiting Officer_. His Boniface, the landlord in the former of these two plays, has become the type, as well as the ordinary quasi-facetious nickname, of an innkeeper. He was advancing in his art, for his last comedy, _The Beaux" Stratagem_ (1707), is undoubtedly his best, and had he lived longer--he died before he was thirty--he might have bequeathed to posterity something even more noteworthy. As Leigh Hunt says of him: "He was becoming gayer and gayer, when death, in the shape of a sore anxiety, called him away as if from a pleasant party, and left the house ringing with his jest."
Southerne was also a student of Trinity College, Dublin. At the age of eighteen, however, he left his _alma mater_, and went to London to study law. This profession he in turn abandoned for the drama. His first play, _The Persian Prince, or the Loyal Brother_, had remarkable success when performed, and secured him an ensign"s commission in the army (1685). Here promotion came to him rapidly and by 1688 he had risen to captain"s rank. The Revolution of that year, however, cut off all further hope of advancement, and he once more turned his attention to the writing of plays. His productions number ten. His tragedies _Isabella, or the Fatal Marriage_ (1694) and _Oroonoko_ (1696), both founded on tales by Mrs. Aphra Behn, are powerful presentations of human suffering. His comedies are amusing, but gross. Southerne had business ability enough to make play-writing pay, and the amounts he received for his productions fairly staggered his friend Dryden. It is to this faculty that Pope alludes when he says that Southerne was one whom
heaven sent down to raise The price of prologues and of plays.
He was apparently of amiable and estimable character, for he secured and retained the friendship not only of Dryden--a comparatively easy matter--but also that of Pope, a much more difficult task. Known as "the poets" Nestor", Southerne spent his declining years in peaceful retirement and in the enjoyment of the fortune which he had ama.s.sed by his pen.
Nahum Tate (1652-1715), a Dubliner by birth, and Nicholas Brady (1659-1726), a Bandon man, have secured a certain sort of twin immortality by their authorized metrical version of the Psalms (1696), which gradually took the place of the older rendering by Sternhold and Hopkins. Tate became poet-laureate in 1690 in succession to Shadwell and was appointed historiographer-royal in 1702. He wrote the bulk of the second part of _Absalom and Achitophel_ with a wonderfully close imitation of Dryden"s manner, besides several dramatic pieces and poems. Between Tate, Shadwell, Eusden, and Pye lies the unenviable distinction of being the worst of the laureates of England. Brady was a clergyman who, after the pleasant fashion of that day, was a pluralist on a small scale, for he had the living of Richmond for thirty years from 1696, and while holding that held also in succession the livings of Stratford-on-Avon and Clapham. He added further to his income, and doubtless to his anxieties, by keeping a school at Richmond. He wrote a tragedy ent.i.tled _The Rape_, a _History of the Goths and Vandals_, a translation of the _Aeneid_ into blank verse, and an _Ode for St.
Cecilia"s Day_; but, unless for his share in the version of the Psalms, his literary reputation is well nigh as dead as the dodo.
Ireland somewhat doubtfully claims to have given birth to Mrs.
Susannah Centlivre (c. 1667-1723), who, after a rather wild youth, settled down to literary pursuits and domestic contentment when, in 1706, she married Queen Anne"s head-cook, Joseph Centlivre, with whom she lived happily ever after. Her first play, _The Provoked Husband_, a tragedy, was produced in 1700, and then she went on the stage as an actress. She wrote in all nineteen dramatic pieces, some of which had the honor of being translated into French and German. Her most original play was _A Bold Stroke for a Wife_ (1717).
III. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
We have now fairly crossed the border of the eighteenth century, and, as we met Ussher early in the seventeenth, so we are here confronted with the colossal intellect and impressive personality of Swift, one of the greatest, most peculiar, and most original geniuses to be found in the whole domain of English literature. Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), born in Dublin, was educated at Trinity College, where he succeeded in graduating only by special favor. After some years spent in the household of Sir William Temple in England, he entered the ministry of the Irish Church. During the early years of the century he spent much time in London, and took an active part in bringing about that political revolution which seated the Tories firmly in power during the last four years of the reign of Queen Anne. His services in that connection on the _Examiner_ newspaper were so great that it would be difficult to dispute the a.s.sertion, which has been made, that he was one of the mightiest journalists that ever wielded a pen. He also stood loyally by his party in his great pamphlets, _The Conduct of the Allies_ (1711), _The Barrier Treaty_ (1712), and _The Public Spirit of the Whigs_ (1714). When the time came for his reward, he received not, as he had hoped, an English bishopric, but the deanery of St. Patrick"s in Dublin. On resuming his residence in Ireland he was at first very unpopular, but his patriotic spirit as shown in the _Drapier Letters_ (1723-1724), written in connection with a coinage scheme known as "Wood"s halfpence", not only caused the withdrawal of the obnoxious project but also made Swift the idol of all cla.s.ses of his countrymen. In many others of his writings he showed that pro-Irish leaning which caused Grattan to invoke his spirit along with that of Molyneux on the occasion already referred to. Nothing more mordant than the irony contained in his _Modest Proposal_ has ever been penned. In his plea for native manufactures he struck a keynote that has vibrated down the ages when he advised Irishmen to burn everything English except coal!
Swift"s greater works are _The Battle of the Books_, his contribution to the controversy concerning the relative merits of the ancients and the moderns; the _Tale of a Tub_, in which he attacked the three leading forms of Christianity; and, above all, _Gulliver"s Travels_.
In this last work he let loose the full flood of his merciless satire and lashed the folly and vices of mankind in the most unsparing way.
He also wrote verses which are highly characteristic and some of them not without considerable merit. His life was unhappy and for the last five years of it he was to all intents and purposes insane. His relations with Stella (Hester Johnson) and Vanessa (Esther Vanhomrigh) have never been quite satisfactorily explained. The weight of evidence would seem to show that he was secretly married to Stella, but that they never lived together as husband and wife. Many novels and plays have been written round those entanglements. He lies buried in his own cathedral, St. Patrick"s, Dublin, and beside him lies Stella. Over his tomb there is an epitaph in Latin, written by himself, in which, after speaking of the _saeva indignatio_ which tore his heart, he bids the wayfarer go and imitate, if he can, the energetic defender of his native land.
Contemporary with the Dean there was another Anglo-Irishman, who fills a large s.p.a.ce in the history of English literature, and of whom his countrymen are justly proud. Sir Richard Steele (1672-1729), who was born in Dublin and educated at the Charterhouse in London and afterwards at Oxford, started the _Tatler_ in 1709, and thereby popularized, though he did not exactly originate, the periodical essay. Aided by his friend, Addison, he carried the work to perfection in the _Spectator_ (1711-1712) and the _Guardian_ (1713).
Since then these essays have enlightened and amused each succeeding generation. Of the two, Addison"s is the greater name, but Steele was the more innovating spirit, for it is to him, and not to Addison, that the conception and initiation of the plan of the celebrated papers is due. Steele had had a predecessor in Defoe, whose _Review_ had been in existence since 1704, but the more airy graces which characterized the _Tatler_ and the _Spectator_ gave the "lucubrations" of "Isaac Bickerstaffe" and of "Mr. Spectator" a greater hold on the public than Defoe"s paper was ever able to establish. Steele was responsible for many more periodicals, such as the _Englishman_, the _Lover_, the _Reader_, _Town Talk_, the _Tea-Table, Chit-Chat_, the _Plebeian_, and the _Theatre_, most of which had a rather ephemeral existence. Among his other services to literature he helped to purify the stage of some of its grossness, and he became the founder of that sentimental comedy which in the days of the early Georges took the place of the immoral comedy of the Restoration period, when, in Johnson"s famous phrase,
Intrigue was plot, obscenity was wit.
Steele"s four comedies are _The Funeral; or Grief a la mode_ (1701); _The Lying Lover_ (1703); _The Tender Husband_ (1705); and _The Conscious Lovers_ (1722). Although he held various lucrative offices, Steele was never really prosperous and was frequently in debt; like most of the contemporary Englishmen with whom his lot was thrown, he was rather addicted to the bottle; but, on the whole, it may fairly be advanced that unnecessary stress has been laid on these aspects of his life by Macaulay, Thackeray, and others. After a chequered career, he died near Carmarthen, in Wales, on September 1, 1729.
Member of a family and bearer of a name destined to secure immense fame in later Irish history, Thomas Parnell (1679-1718) was born in Dublin and educated at Trinity College. Entering the ministry in 1700, he was rapidly promoted to be archdeacon of Clogher and some years later was made rector of Finglas. An accomplished scholar and a delightful companion, he was one of the original members of the famous Scriblerus Club and wrote or helped to write several of its papers, he contributed to the _Spectator_ and the _Guardian_, and he rendered sterling a.s.sistance to Pope in the translation of Homer. As will be inferred, he spent much of his time in England, and on one of his journeys to Ireland he died in his thirty-ninth year at Chester, where he was buried. He wrote a great deal of verse--songs, hymns, epistles, eclogues, translations, tales, and occasional trifles; but three poems, _A Hymn to Contentment_, which is fanciful and melodious, _A Night-piece on Death_, in which inquisitorial research seems to have found the first faint dawn of Romanticism, and _The Hermit_, which has been not inaptly styled "the apex and _chef d"oeuvre_ of Augustan poetry in England", const.i.tute his chief claim to present remembrance.
Francis Hutcheson (1694-1746), the son of a Presbyterian minister, was born at Armagh, and studied at Glasgow University. He opened in Dublin a private academy, which succeeded beyond expectation. The publication of his _Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue_ (1720) and his _Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Pa.s.sions_ (1728) brought him great fame, and in 1729 he was elected to the professorship of moral philosophy in the University of Glasgow. Others of his works are a treatise on _Logic_ and _A System of Moral Philosophy_, the latter not published till 1755, nine years after his death. Hutcheson fills a large s.p.a.ce in the history of philosophy, both as a metaphysician and as a moralist. He is in some respects a pioneer of the "Scotch school" and of "common sense"
philosophy. He greatly developed the doctrine of "moral sense", a term first used by the third Earl of Shaftesbury; indeed, much of his whole moral system may be traced to Shaftesbury. Hutcheson"s influence was widely felt: it is plainly perceptible in Hume, Adam Smith, and Reid. He was greater as a speaker even than as a writer, and his lectures evoked much enthusiasm.
George Berkeley (1685-1753), bishop of Cloyne, was born at Dysert Castle, near Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny, and was educated first at Kilkenny school and afterwards at Trinity College, Dublin. Having taken Anglican orders, he visited London, where he wrote nine papers for the _Guardian_ and was admitted to the companionship and friendship of the leading literary men of the age--Swift, Pope, Addison, Steele, and Arbuthnot. This connection proved of great a.s.sistance to him, for Pope not only celebrated him as possessing "every virtue under heaven", but also recommended him to the Duke of Grafton, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, who appointed him his chaplain and subsequently obtained for him the deanery of Derry. In furtherance of a great scheme for "converting the savage Americans to Christianity", Berkeley and some friends, armed with a royal charter, came to this country, landing at Newport in Rhode Island in January, 1729. All went well for a while: Berkeley bought a farm and built a house; but when the hard-hearted prime minister refused to forward the 20,000 which had been promised, the project came to an end, and Berkeley returned to London in February, 1732. In 1734 he was appointed bishop of Cloyne, and later refused the see of Clogher, though its income was fully double that of his own diocese. In 1752 he resigned his bishopric and settled at Oxford, where he died in 1753.
Berkeley"s works are very numerous. His _Essay towards a New Theory of Vision_ (1709), which was long regarded in the light of a philosophical romance, in reality contains speculations which have been incorporated in modern scientific optics. In his _Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous_ (1713) he sets forth his famous demonstration of the immateriality of the external world, of the spiritual nature of the soul, and of the all-ruling and direct providence of G.o.d. His tenets on immateriality have always been rejected by "common-sense" philosophers; but it should be remembered that the whole work was written at a time when the English-speaking world was disturbed by the theories of sceptics and deists, whose doctrines the pious divine sought as best he could to confute. In 1732 appeared his _Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher_, in which, dialogue-wise, he presents nature from a religious point of view and in particular gives many pleasing pictures of American scenery and life. These dialogues have frequently been compared to the dialogues of Plato. To Berkeley"s credit be it said that while he ruled in Cloyne he devoted much thought to the amelioration of conditions in his native land. Many acute suggestions in that direction are found in the _Querist_ (1735-1737). By some extraordinary ratiocinative process he convinced himself that tar-water was a panacea for human ills, and in 1744 he set forth his views on that subject in the tract called _Siris_, and returned to the charge in 1752 in his _Further Thoughts on Tar-Water_. Whatever may be thought of the value of Berkeley"s philosophical or practical speculations, there is only one opinion of his style. It is distinguished by lucidity, ease, and charm; it has the saving grace of humor; and it is shot through with imagination. Taken all in all, this eighteenth century bishop is a notable figure in literary annals.
Charles Macklin (c. 1697-1797), whose real name was MacLaughlin, was a Westmeath man, who took to the stage in early life and remained on the boards with considerable and undiminished reputation for some seventy years, not retiring until 1789 when he was at least 92 years old. To him we are indebted for what is now the accepted presentation of the character of Shylock in _The Merchant of Venice_. He wrote a tragedy and many comedies and farces: those by which he is now best remembered are the farce, _Love-a-la-Mode_ (1760), and his masterpiece, the farcical comedy, _The Man of the World_ (1764). In Sir Pertinax MacSycophant, Macklin has given us one of the traditional burlesque characters of the English stage.
Thomas Amory (1691?-1788), if not born in Ireland, was at least of Irish descent and was educated in Dublin. He is known in literature for two books. The first, with the very mixed t.i.tle of _Memoirs containing the Lives of several Ladies of Great Britain; A History of Antiquities; Observations on the Christian Religion_, was published in 1755, and the second, _The Life of John Buncle, Esq._, came out in two volumes in 1756-1766. It appears to have been the author"s aim in both works to give us a hotch-potch in which he discourses _de omnibus rebus et quibusdam aliis_. We have dissertations on the cause of earthquakes and of muscular motion, on the Athanasian Creed, on fluxions, on phlogiston, on the physical cause of the Deluge, on Irish literature, on the origin of language, on the evidences for Christianity, and on all other sorts of unrelated topics. Hazlitt thought that the soul of Rabelais had pa.s.sed into Amory, while a more recent critic can see in his long-winded discussions naught but the "light-headed ramblings of delirium." If we try to read _John Buncle_ consecutively, the result is boredom; but if we open the book at random, we are pretty sure to be interested and even sometimes agreeably entertained.
The bizarre figure of Laurence Sterne (1713-1768) next claims our attention. The son of a captain in the British army, he was born at Clonmel, Co. Tipperary. Of him almost more than of any of the writers so far dealt with, it may be said that he was Irish only by the accident of birth. His parents were English on both sides, and practically the whole life of their son was spent out of Ireland. He was sent to school at Halifax, in Yorkshire, and thence went to Cambridge University, where he graduated in due season. Taking Anglican orders in 1738, he was immediately appointed to the benefice of Sutton-in-the-Forest, near York, and on his marriage in 1741 with Elizabeth Lumley he received the additional living of Stillington. He was also given sundry prebendal and other appointments in connection with the chapter of the archdiocese of York. He spent nearly twenty years in the discharge of his not very onerous duties and in reading, painting, shooting, and fiddling, without showing the least sign of any literary leanings. Then suddenly, in 1760, he took the world by storm with the first two volumes of _Tristram Shandy_. He at once became the lion of the hour, was feted and dined to his heart"s content, and had his nostrils tickled with the daily incense of praise from his numerous worshippers. He repeated the experiment with equal success the following year with two more volumes of _Tristram_, and so at intervals until 1767, when he published the ninth and last volume of this most peculiar story. In 1768 he brought out _A Sentimental Journey_, and within three weeks he died in his lodgings in London. His other publications include _Sermons_ and _Letters_.
_Tristram Shandy_ is unique in English literature--it stands _sui generis_ for all time. There is scarcely any consecutive narrative, and what there is is used merely as a peg on which to hang endless digressions. But while there are many faults of taste and morals, there are also genuine humor and pathos, and without Walter Shandy, Dr. Slop, the Widow Wadman, Yorick, Uncle Toby, and Corporal Trim, English literature would certainly be very much the poorer.
Hugh Kelly (1739-1777), born in Dublin, was the son of a publican and himself became a staymaker, a trade from which he developed through the successive stages of attorney"s clerk, newspaper-writer, theatrical critic, and essayist, into a novelist and playwright. His novel, _Memoirs of a Magdalen_ (1767), was translated into French.
His first comedy, a sentimental one ent.i.tled _False Delicacy_ (1768), achieved a remarkable success on the stage and was even a greater success in book form, 10,000 copies being sold in a year, so that its author was raised from poverty to comparative affluence. In addition, it gave him a European reputation, for it was translated into German, French, and Portuguese. Strange to say, his later comedies, _A Word to the Wise, A School for Wives_, and _The Man of Reason_, were practically failures, and the same is true of his tragedy, _Clementina_. Kelly ultimately withdrew from stage work, and for the last three years of his life practised as a barrister without, however, achieving much distinction in his new profession.
Charles Coffey (d. 1745), an Irishman, was the author of several farces, operas, ballad operas, ballad farces, and farcical operas, the best known of which was _The Devil to Pay, or the Wives Metamorphosed_ (1731).
Henry Brooke (1703?-1783), a county Cavan man and the son of a clergyman, was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and afterwards studied law in London. Becoming guardian to his cousin, a girl of twelve, he put her to school for two years and then secretly married her. Of his large family of twenty-two children, three of whom were born before their mother was eighteen years old, but one survived him. Appointed by Lord Chesterfield barrack-master at Mullingar, Brooke afterwards settled in Co. Kildare. It was there that he wrote his celebrated work, _The Fool of Quality, or the History of the Earl of Moreland_ (5 vols., 1766-1770), which won the commendations of men so widely different as John Wesley and Charles Kingsley. It is, indeed, a remarkable book, combining, as it does, many of the characteristics of Sterne, Mackenzie, Borrow, and George Meredith. It is not very well known nowadays, but it will always bear, and will well repay, perusal. Brooke also wrote a poem on _Universal Beauty_ (1735) and the tragedies _Gustavus Vasa_ (1739), the production of which was forbidden in London but which was afterwards staged in Dublin as _The Patriot_, and _The Earl of Ess.e.x_ (1749), which was played both in London and in Dublin, and has been made famous by the parody of one line in it by Samuel Johnson. Another novel, _Juliet Grenville, or the History of the Human Heart_, published in 1774, was not nearly up to the standard of _The Fool of Quality_. Brooke was a busy literary man. He made a translation of part of Ta.s.so, drafted plans for a History of Ireland, projected a series of old Irish tales, wrote one fragment in a style very like that subsequently adopted by Macpherson in his _Ossian_, and for a while was editor of the _Freeman"s Journal_. In the beginning, Brooke was violently anti-Catholic; but, as time progressed, he became more liberal-minded, and advocated the relaxation of the penal laws and a more humane treatment of his Catholic fellow-countrymen. Like Swift and Steele, he fell into a state of mental debility for some years before his death. His daughter, Charlotte Brooke (1740-1793), deserves mention as a pioneer of the Irish literary revival, for she devoted herself to the saving of the stores of Irish literature which in her time were rapidly disappearing. One of the fruits of her labors was _The Reliques of Irish Poetry_, published in 1789. She also wrote _Emma, or the Foundling of the Wood_, a novel, and _Belisarius_, a tragedy.
Charles Johnstone (c. 1719-1800), a Co. Limerick man, was educated in Dublin and called to the English bar, but owing to deafness was more successful as a chamber counsel than as a pleader. Emigrating to India in 1782, he became joint proprietor of a newspaper in Calcutta, and there he died. He wrote several satirical romances, such as _Chrysal, or the Adventures of a Guinea; The Reverie, or a Flight to the Paradise of Fools_; and _The History of Arsaces, Prince of Betlis_. Of these the first was the best. Samuel Johnson, who read it in ma.n.u.script, advised its publication, and his opinion was vindicated, for it proved a huge success. Sir Walter Scott afterwards said that the author of _Chrysal_ deserved to rank as a prose Juvenal. Johnstone also wrote _The Pilgrim, or a Picture of Life_ and a picaresque novel, _The History of John Juniper, Esquire, alias Juniper Jack_.
Arthur Murphy (1727-1805), born at Cloonquin, Co. Roscommon, was educated at St. Omer. At first an actor, he afterwards studied law and was called to the English bar in 1762. He made a translation of Tacitus, and wrote several farces and comedies, among which may be mentioned _The Apprentice; The Spouter; The Upholsterer; The Way to Keep Him_; and _All in the Wrong_. He also wrote three tragedies, namely, _The Orphan of China; The Grecian Daughter_; and _Arminius_.
For the last-named, which was produced in 1798, and which had a strongly political cast, he received a pension of 200 a year. His plays long held the stage.
Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774), essayist, poet, novelist, playwright, historian, biographer, and editor, was a many-sided genius, who, as Johnson said in his epitaph, left scarcely any kind of writing untouched, and touched none that he did not adorn. Born, probably, in Co. Longford, the son of a poor clergyman, he was educated at various country schools until, in 1744, he secured a sizarship in Trinity College, Dublin. There he had a somewhat stormy career, but eventually took his degree in 1749. He then lounged at home for a while in his widowed mother"s cottage at Ballymahon, until he was persuaded to take orders, but spoiled his already sufficiently poor chances of ordination by appearing before the bishop of Elphin in scarlet breeches. After other adventures in search of a profession, he went to Edinburgh in 1752 to study medicine, and two years later transferred himself to Leyden for the same purpose. It was from Leyden that, with one guinea in his pocket, one shirt on his person, and a flute in his hand, he started on his celebrated walking tour of Europe, during which he gained those impressions which he was afterwards to embody in some of his greater works. In 1756 he arrived in England, where for three years he had very varied experiences--as a strolling player, an apothecary"s journeyman, a practising physician, a reader for the press, an usher in an academy, and a hack-writer. In 1759 he published anonymously his _Enquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning in Europe_, which was well received and helped him to other literary work. _The Bee_, a volume of essays and verses, appeared in the same year. He was made editor of the _Lady"s Magazine_; he published _Memoirs of Voltaire_ (1761), a _History of Mecklenburgh_ (1762), and a _Life of Richard Nash_ (1762). In 1762 also he brought out his _Citizen of the World_, a collection of essays, which takes an extremely high rank. In 1764 his poem, _The Traveller, or a Prospect of Society_, made its appearance; and in 1766 he gave to the world his famous novel, _The Vicar of Wakefield_. His reputation as a writer was now established; he was received into Johnson"s circle and was a member of the Literary Club; Reynolds and Burke were proud to call him friend. In 1768 he had his comedy, _The Good Natured Man_, produced at Covent Garden Theatre, where it achieved a fair measure of success and brought him in 400.
In 1770 he repeated his triumph as a poet with _The Deserted Village_. He wrote a _History of Animated Nature_, a _History of England_, and a _History of Rome_, all compilations couched in that easy style of which he was master. He also wrote a _Life of Parnell_ and a _Life of Bolingbroke_. Finally, in 1773, his great comedy, _She Stoops to Conquer_, was staged at Covent Garden, and met with wonderful success. A little more than a year later Goldsmith died of a nervous fever, the result of overwork and anxiety, and was buried in the burial ground of the Temple Church. His unfinished poem, _Retaliation_, a series of epigrams in epitaph form on some of his distinguished literary and artistic friends, was issued a few days after his death, and added greatly to his reputation as a wit and humorist, a reputation which was still further enhanced when, in 1776, _The Haunch of Venison_ made its appearance. In the latter year a monument, with a medallion and Johnson"s celebrated Latin epitaph attached, was erected to his memory in Westminster Abbey.
Goldsmith"s renown, great in his own day, has never since diminished.
His essays, his novel, and his poems are still read with avidity and pleasure; his comedy is still acted. It is his statue that stands along with Burke"s at the entrance gate to Trinity College, Dublin, the _alma mater_ seeking to commemorate in a striking manner two of her most distinguished sons by placing their effigies thus in the forefront of her possessions and in full view of all the world.
Personally, Goldsmith was a very amiable and good-hearted man, dear to his own circle and dear to that "Mr. Posterity" to whom he once addressed a humorous dedication. He had his faults, it is true, but they are hidden amid his many perfections. Everyone will be disposed to agree with what Johnson wrote of him: "Let not his frailties be remembered; he was a very great man."