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Death of William Congreve, Playwright & Poet

William Congreve, English playwright, satirist and poet, dies at his home in Surrey Street, London, on January 19, 1729.

Congreve is born on January 24, 1670, at Bardsley, West Yorkshire, England, the son of William Congreve, an army officer, and Mary Browning of Doncaster. In 1674, his father gains a commission as lieutenant in the army in Ireland, and moves with his family to the garrison port of Youghal, County Cork, where they remain until 1678. After a brief period at Carrickfergus, they move in 1681 to Kilkenny, where his father is assigned to the Duke of Ormond‘s regiment. This service entitles Congreve to a free education at the renowned Kilkenny College, where Jonathan Swift is also a student, and where he receives an excellent schooling in classics. He forms a lasting friendship with another pupil, Joseph Kelly, a lawyer and MP for Doneraile (1705–13), with whom he later maintains a lengthy correspondence. In April 1686, he enters Trinity College Dublin (TCD) as a classical scholar and, again like Swift, is taught by St. George Ashe. It seems likely that his degree is disrupted by the political upheaval of 1688 as the college is forced to close in 1689 and his BA is not recorded.

At this point, Congreve leaves Ireland and spends the spring and summer of 1689 with relatives in Staffordshire. He subsequently moves to London, and in March 1691 enters the Middle Temple. He is not assiduous in his legal studies, preferring to socialise with intellectuals and writers, notably John Dryden, to pursue literary projects. In 1692, under the pseudonym “Cleophil,” he published Incognita, or, Love and Duty Reconciled, a romantic novella reputedly written while he is a student in Dublin. He also contributes some verse to Charles Gildon‘s Miscellany (1692), as well as two translations from Homer and three odes to Dryden’s Examen poeticum (1693). Dryden evidently thinks highly of the young writer, and with his advice and approbation Congreve’s first play, The Old Batchelor, is recommended by the Irish playwright Thomas Southerne to Thomas Davenant, manager of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. A fast-paced and witty comedy, concerning amorous appetites, The Old Batchelor is accepted and opens on March 9, 1693, to popular acclaim, enjoying an unusually long run of fourteen nights. Among the cast are Thomas Doggett, still relatively unknown, as Fondlewife, and a young English actress and singer, Anne Bracegirdle as Amarinta, with whom Congreve falls in love and begins a prolonged relationship. The play is dedicated to his friend Charles Boyle, eldest son of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Burlington, whose estates Congreve’s father had begun to manage in 1690.

After this early success, Congreve is dismayed by the poor reception of his next play, a domestic comedy with dark undertones entitled The Double Dealer, which is staged in December 1693 and criticised as immoral and unflattering in its representation of women. Its popularity improves somewhat when Mary II, Queen of England, soon after its undistinguished debut, commands a performance. When the queen dies the following year, Congreve eulogises her in The Mourning Muse of Alexis, a Pastoral. Regarded by contemporaries as his finest literary work, it is rewarded by a gift of £100 from King William III. Production of his next play is delayed by the revolt of the Drury Lane actors against the management of Christopher Rich. Congreve supports the actors and their petition to the Lord Chamberlain to reopen the theatre at Lincoln’s Inn Fields. When their request is granted, the renovated theatre opens on April 30, 1695, with Congreve’s enduring romantic comedy Love for Love, and the playwright being made a shareholder in the new company. A characteristically witty and well-plotted comedy, the production of Love for Love is particularly notable for Doggett’s sparkling performance as Sailor Ben. Congreve’s dramatic success also brings political advancement, as he receives his first government appointment as commissioner for hackney coaches.

Congreve returns to Ireland for most of 1696, where, with Southerne, he receives an MA from TCD, and probably visits his parents, then living at Lismore Castle, County Waterford. He also begins work on a tragedy entitled The Mourning Bride, which becomes an instant hit at Lincoln’s Inn Fields when it is first performed in February 1697 and running for thirteen nights. Despite his considerable success and popularity, he is deeply disconcerted by Jeremy Collier‘s aggressively anti-theatrical pamphlet, Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage (1698), which targets John Vanbrugh, Dryden, and Congreve. He is stung into a response, publishing Amendments of Mr. Collier’s False and Imperfect Citations (1698), which eloquently defends his dramatic methodology, but is rendered less effective by an emotional and ill-judged tone. His theatrical acumen seems to be at odds with the times, for in the dedication to his next play, The Way of the World, he observes that “little of it was prepar’d for that general taste which seems now to be predominant in the pallats of our audience.” Nevertheless, he is still bitterly disappointed by the disparaging response to its first performance on March 12, 1700. Dryden, however, realises the merit of the play, which is now recognised as Congreve’s masterpiece and a landmark in the dramatic tradition of the comedy of manners.

Disheartened, Congreve abandons play-writing, but he maintains his theatrical connections and embarks upon several collateral projects, producing a libretto for The Judgement of Paris (1701), and collaborating with Vanbrugh and the poet William Walsh on a translation of Molière‘s Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, staged as Squire Trelooby at the Lincoln’s Inn Fields theatre in 1704. Less successfully, he makes an ill-advised investment with Vanbrugh in a new theatre and opera house in the Haymarket, from which he withdraws with financial losses in 1705. His opera libretto Semele, written for the opening of the new theatre, is not performed until 1744, when it is scored by George Frideric Handel, though John Eccles writes a score in 1707 which remains unperformed until 1972. In the early 1700s his relationship with Anne Bracegirdle falters, though they remain lifelong friends.

In 1710, Congreve publishes The Works of Mr. William Congreve in three volumes. He continues throughout his life to write poetry, ballads, essays, and other miscellaneous pieces. He remains active and influential in literary and theatrical circles, often assisting young writers such as Charles Hopkins, son of Ezekiel Hopkins, Bishop of Derry, and Alexander Pope, who dedicates to him The Iliad (1715). Financially, however, he becomes increasingly dependent upon various minor government posts. He belongs for many years to the celebrated Kit-Cat Club, alongside such prominent writers, wits, and whigs as Richard Boyle, 2nd Earl of Cork, Richard Steele, Joseph Addison, Walsh, and Vanbrugh. Through the good offices of his friend Jonathan Swift, he retains his government position as Commissioner of Wines during the Tory administration of 1710–14. His party loyalty is rewarded in 1714 when he receives a lucrative government appointment as Secretary of the island of Jamaica. His personal life also improves around this time, as a friendship with Lady Henrietta Godolphin develops into a love affair that lasts for the rest of his life. They have one daughter, Mary (1723–64).

Congreve suffers for much of his life from gout and failing eyesight. These afflictions worsen with age, though friends remark that his cheerful temper survived unaffected. He is involved in a coach accident in September 1728, and dies January 19, 1729, at his home in Surrey Street, likely from a related injury. He names Francis Godolphin, 2nd Earl of Godolphin, his lover’s husband, as his executor, and bequeaths almost his entire estate to Henrietta, thereby discreetly leaving his property to his daughter. He is buried in Poet’s Corner, Westminster Abbey, on January 26.

Letters and manuscripts of Congreve are held in the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford, the British Library, London, and the National Archives of Scotland. Several likenesses are in the National Portrait Gallery, London, including the portrait in oils shown above by Sir Godfrey Kneller (1709).

(From: “Congreve, William” by Sinéad Sturgeon, Dictionary of Irish Biography, http://www.dib.ie, October 2009; Pictured: Portrait of William Congreve (1709) by Sir Godfrey Kneller)


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Death of Charles Jervas, Painter, Translator & Art Collector

Charles Jervas, Irish portrait painter, translator, and art collector of the early 18th century, dies at his home at Cleveland Court, London, on November 2, 1739.

Born in Shinrone, County Offaly, around 1675, Jervas is one of seven children (five sons and two daughters) of John Jervas of Clonlisk, Shinrone, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Captain John Baldwin, High Sheriff of County Offaly, of Shinrone. He studies in London as an assistant under Sir Godfrey Kneller between 1694 and 1695.

After selling a series of small copies of the Raphael Cartoons around 1698 to Dr. George Clarke of All Souls College, Oxford, the following year, he travels to Paris and Rome (while financially supported by Clarke and others) remaining there for most of the decade before returning to London in 1709 where he finds success as a portrait painter.

Painting portraits of the city’s intellectuals, among them such personal friends as Jonathan Swift and the poet Alexander Pope, both of which are now in the National Portrait Gallery, London, Jervas becomes a popular artist often referred to in the works of literary figures of the period.

Jervas gives painting lessons to Pope at his house in Cleveland Court, St. James’s, which Pope mentions in his poem, To Belinda on the Rape of the Lock, written in 1713 and published in 1717 in Poems on Several Occasions.

Pope’s verse Epistle to Mr. Jervas, written around 1715, is published in the 1716 edition of John Dryden‘s 1695 translation of Fresnoy’s Art of Painting (Charles Alphonse du Fresnoy‘s De arte graphica, 1668). In it, Pope refers to Jervas’s skill as an artist:

O, lasting as those colours may they shine,
Free as they stroke, yet faultless as thy line;
New graces yearly like thy works display,
Soft without weakness, without glaring gay!

With his growing reputation, Jervas succeeds Kneller as Principal Painter in Ordinary to King George I in 1723, and subsequently King George II. In 1727 he marries Penelope Hume, a wealthy widow with a supposed fortune of £20,000, and moves to Hampton, London. He continues to live in London until his death on November 2, 1739.

Jervas’s translation of Miguel de Cervantes‘s novel Don Quixote, published posthumously in 1742 as being made by Charles “Jarvis” due to a printer’s error, has since come to be known as “the Jarvis translation.” He is first to provide an introduction to the novel including a critical analysis of previous translations of Don Quixote. It has been highly praised as the most accurate translation of the novel up to that time, but also strongly criticised for being stiff and humourless, although it goes through many printings during the 19th century.

As principal portraitist to the King of England, Jervas is known for his vanity and luck, as mentioned in the Imperial Biographical Dictionary, “He married a widow with $20,000; and his natural self-conceit was greatly encouraged by his intimate friend [Alexander] Pope, who has written an epistle full of silly flattery.”

According to one account, after comparing a painting he had copied from Titian, Jervas is said to have stated, “Poor little Tit, how he would starve!”

Upon being told that Jervas had set up a carriage with four horses, Godfrey Kneller replies, “Ach, mein Gott, if his horses do not draw better than he does, he will never get to his journey’s end.”


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Death of Irish Dramatist George Farquhar

George Farquhar, Irish dramatist, dies in London on April 29, 1707. He is noted for his contributions to late Restoration comedy, particularly for his plays The Constant Couple (1699), The Recruiting Officer (1706) and The Beaux’ Stratagem (1707).

Born in Derry in 1677, Farquhar is one of seven children born to William Farquhar, a clergyman of modest means. The author of “Memoirs of Mr. George Farquhar,” a biographical sketch prefixed to certain 18th-century editions of his works, claims that he “discovered a Genius early devoted to the Muses. When he was very young, he gave Specimens of his Poetry; and discovered a Force of Thinking, and Turn of Expression, much beyond his years.”

Farquhar is educated at Foyle College and later enters Trinity College Dublin at age seventeen as a sizar under the patronage of the Bishop of Dromore, who may have been related to Farquhar’s mother. He may have initially intended to follow his father’s profession and become a clergyman but is “unhappy and rebellious as a student” and leaves college after two years to become an actor. His 18th-century biographer claims that the departure is because “his gay and volatile Disposition could not long relish the Gravity and Retirement of a College-life,” but another story of uncertain veracity has him being expelled from Trinity College due to a “profane jest.” The two accounts are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

Farquhar joins a company performing on the Dublin stage, probably through his acquaintance with the well-known actor Robert Wilks. However, he is reportedly not that impressive as an actor. It is said that “his voice was somewhat weak” and that “his movements [were] stiff and ungraceful.” But he is well received by audiences and thought to continue in this career “till something better should offer.” Some of the roles reportedly played by Farquhar are Lennox in William Shakespeare‘s Macbeth, Young Bellair in The Man of Mode by George Etherege, Lord Dion in Philaster by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, and Guyomar in The Indian Emperour by John Dryden.

During one of the performances in the Dryden play, an accident on stage puts an end to Farquhar’s acting career. As Guyomar, he is supposed to “kill” Vasquez, one of the Spanish generals in the drama. Forgetting to exchange his sword for a foil before enacting this scene, he severely wounds Price, the actor playing Vasquez. Although Price recovers, Farquhar resolves after this mishap to give up acting for good.

Farquhar then leaves for London, “possibly with a draft of his first play in his portmanteau.” Some writers tie his move to that of his friend Wilks, who had received an offer from the manager of Drury Lane to come to London and join that theatre. Wilks is also credited with encouraging Farquhar’s efforts at writing plays.

Farquhar’s first comedy, Love and a Bottle, premieres in 1698 and is well received by the audience. Called a “licentious piece” by one scholar and cited as proof that Farquhar had “absorbed the stock topics, character-types, and situations of Restoration comedy” by another, the play deals with Roebuck, “An Irish Gentleman of a wild roving Temper” who is “newly come to London.” The general character of the play can be evaluated by considering that in the opening scene, Roebuck tells his friend Lovewell that he has left Ireland due to getting a woman pregnant with twins and to Roebuck’s father trying to force Roebuck to marry the woman; however, Roebuck remarks, “Heav’n was pleas’d to lessen my Affliction, by taking away the She-brat.”

After the favourable reception of Love and a Bottle, Farquhar decides to devote himself to playwriting. He also at this point receives a commission in the regiment of the Earl of Orrery, so his time for the next few years is divided between the vocations of soldier and dramatist. It is also at about this time that he discovers Anne Oldfield, who is reading aloud a scene from The Scornful Lady at her aunt’s tavern. Impressed, he brings her to the notice of Sir John Vanbrugh, and this leads to her theatrical career, during which she is the first performer of major female roles in Farquhar’s last comedies.

In 1700, Farquhar’s The Constant Couple is acted at Drury Lane and proves a great success, helped considerably by his friend Wilks’ portrayal of the character of Sir Henry Wildair. The playwright follows up with a sequel, Sir Harry Wildair, the following year, and in 1702 writes the comedies The Inconstant and The Twin Rivals. Also in 1702, he publishes Love and Business, a collection that includes letters, verse, and A Discourse Upon Comedy.

The next year, Farquhar marries Margaret Pemell, “a widow with three children, ten years his senior,” who reportedly tricks him into the marriage by pretending to have a great fortune. His 18th century biographer records that “though he found himself deceived, his Circumstances embarrassed, and his Family increasing, he never upbraided her for the Cheat but behaved to her with all the Delicacy and Tenderness of an indulgent Husband.” He is engaged in recruiting for the army, due to the War of the Spanish Succession, for the next three years, writing little except The Stage Coach in collaboration with Peter Motteux, an adaptation of a French play. He draws on his recruiting experience for his next comedy, The Recruiting Officer (1706). However, he has to sell his army commission to pay debts, reportedly after the Duke of Ormonde advises him to do so, promising him another but failing to keep his promise.

Early in 1707, Farquhar’s friend Wilks visits him. Farquhar is ill and in distress, and Wilks is said to have “cheered him with a substantial present and urged him to write another comedy.” This comedy, The Beaux’ Stratagem, is given its première on March 8, 1707. It is known from Farquhar’s own statement prefacing the published version of the play that he wrote it during his sickness:

“The reader may find some faults in this play, which my illness prevented the amending of; but there is great amends made in the representation, which cannot be match’d, no more than the friendly and indefatigable care of Mr. Wilks, to whom I chiefly owe the success of the play.”

Farquhar dies in London on April 29, 1707, not quite two months after the opening of this last play. He is buried on May 3 in St. Martin-in-the-Fields, a Church of England parish church in the City of Westminster, London.


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Birth of Nicholas Brady, Clergyman & Poet

Nicholas Brady, Anglican clergyman and poet, is born in Bandon, County Cork, on October 28, 1659.

Brady is the second son of Major Nicholas Brady and his wife Martha Gernon, daughter of the English-born judge and author Luke Gernon. His great-grandfather is Hugh Brady, the first Protestant Bishop of Meath. He receives his education at Westminster School and at Christ Church, Oxford. He earns degrees from Trinity College, Dublin (BA 1685, MA 1686, BD & DD 1699).

Brady is a zealous promoter of the Glorious Revolution and suffers for his beliefs in consequence. When the Williamite War in Ireland breaks out in 1690, he, by his influence, thrice prevented the burning of the town of Bandon, after James II gives orders for its destruction following the Capture of Bandon. The same year he is employed by the people of Bandon to lay their grievances before the Parliament of England. He soon afterward settles in London, where he obtains various preferments. At the time of his death, he holds the livings of Clapham and Richmond.

Brady’s best-known work, written with his collaborator Nahum Tate, is New Version of the Psalms of David, a metrical version of the Psalms. It is licensed in 1696 and largely ousts the old Sternhold and Hopkins Psalter. His ode Hail! Bright Cecilia, based on a similar ode by John Dryden, is written in 1692 in honour of the feast day of Saint Cecilia, patron saint of musicians. It is set to music by Henry Purcell in 1697. Like Dryden, he also translates Virgil‘s Aeneid, and writes several smaller poems and dramas, as well as sermons.

Brady marries Letitia Synge and has four sons and four daughters. He dies on May 20, 1726, and is buried in the church at Richmond, London. Notable descendants of Brady include Maziere Brady, Lord Chancellor of Ireland.

(Pictured: “Portrait of Nicholas Brady (1659-1726),” oil on canvas by Hugh Howard (1675-1737), circa 1715, National Gallery of Ireland)


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Death of Poet Laureate Nahum Tate

nahum-tate

Nahum Tate, Irish poet, hymnist, and lyricist, who becomes Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom in 1692,  dies on July 30, 1715. Tate is best known for The History of King Lear, his 1681 adaptation of William Shakespeare‘s King Lear.

Tate is born in Dublin in 1652 and comes from a family of Puritan clergymen. He is the son of Faithful Teate, an Irish clergyman who was rector of Castleterra, Ballyhaise, until his house is burned and his family attacked after he passes on information to the government about plans for the Irish Rebellion of 1641. After living at the provost’s lodgings in Trinity College, Dublin, Faithful Teate moves to England. He becomes the incumbent at East Greenwich around 1650, and “preacher of the gospel” at Sudbury from 1654 to 1658 before returning to Dublin by 1660. He publishes a poem on the Trinity entitled Ter Tria, as well as some sermons, two of which he dedicates to Oliver and Henry Cromwell.

Nahum Teate follows his father to Trinity College, Dublin in 1668, and graduates BA in 1672. By 1676 he moves to London and is writing for a living. He publishes a volume of poems in London in 1677 and becomes a regular writer for the stage. He also adopts the spelling Tate, which remains until his death.

Tate then turns to make a series of adaptations from Elizabethan dramas. His version of William Shakespeare’s Richard II alters the names of the characters and changes the text so that every scene, to use his own words, is “full of respect to Majesty and the dignity of courts.” In spite of these precautions The Sicilian Usurper (1681), as his rewrite is called, is suppressed on the third performance on account of a possible political interpretation.

In 1682, Tate collaborates with John Dryden to complete the second half of his epic poem Absalom and Achitophel. Tate also writes the libretto for Henry Purcell‘s opera Dido and Aeneas, which is given its first known performance in 1689. Tate’s name is also connected with the famous New Version of the Psalms of David (1696), for which he collaborates with Nicholas Brady.

Nahum Tate dies in Southwark, London, England, on July 30, 1715, and is buried at St. George Southwark on August 1, 1715.