George Monck Berkeley

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George Monck Berkeley
Born(1763-02-08)8 February 1763
Bray, Berkshire, England
Died26 January 1793(1793-01-26) (aged 29)
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England
Occupation
  • Playwright
  • author
NationalityEnglish
ParentsGeorge Berkeley
Eliza Frinsham
RelativesGeorge Berkeley (grandfather)

George Monck Berkeley (8 February 1763 – 26 January 1793) was an English playwright and author, now remembered as a biographer of Jonathan Swift. He is usually called Monck Berkeley.

Life

Berkeley was born on 8 February 1763 at

Magdalen Hall, Oxford in 1786.[1][2]

In October 1787, Berkeley delivered his own prologue at the opening of the playhouse at

Trinity College, Dublin. While in Dublin, Berkeley found Richard Brenan, the servant who attended Jonathan Swift in his last days. Berkeley gave Brenan a small pension.[1]

In poor health, Berkeley moved to Dover. He finally moved on to Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, where he died on 26 January 1793.[1]

Works

In 1787, Berkeley published Nina, a comedy in two acts, translated from the French in six hours. His next drama was Love and Nature,' a musical piece in one act written in blank verse, performed 1789 in Dublin, and published in 1797. It was based on Matthew Prior's Emma and Henry, itself a modernisation of the ballad The Nut-Brown Maid.

Berkeley in 1789 published Literary Relics, a book of research and edited correspondence. The contents are:[1]

  1. An Inquiry into the Life of Dean Swift;
  2. Letters of
    Elizabeth of Bohemia
    ;
  3. Correspondence of Swift;
  4. Eighty-six letters of Bishop George Berkeley, mainly addressed to Thomas Prior;
  5. Letters of William Congreve, Joseph Addison, and Richard Steele.

The biography of Swift contains the story of his marriage by St George Ashe to Esther Johnson, his "Stella".[4] Whether this marriage took place is still unsettled, as a matter of scholarship.[5]

Berkeley wrote anonymously Maria, or the generous rustic, and Heloise; or the siege of Rhodes (1788).[6] As a poet he was classed as one of the Della Cruscans.[7] Eliza Berkeley edited a collection Poems (1797) of her late son's work. Its preface is revealing of her own life.[8]

Moving in

Abernethy Drummond, publishing an anonymous pamphlet to Episcopalian Scots.[11][12]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1885). "Berkeley, George Monck" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 4. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  2. ^ s:Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715-1886/Berkeley, George Monck
  3. ^ The European Magazine: and London Review. Philological Society of London. 1787. p. 390.
  4. ISBN 978-1-909496-36-1
    .
  5. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/26833. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  6. ^ Samuel Halkett (1926). Dictionary of Anonymous and Pseudonymous English Literature. Ardent Media. p. 25. GGKEY:XNNP1DZ3NZG.
  7. ^ "George Monck Berkeley (1763–1793), spenserians.cath.vt.edu". Retrieved 23 January 2017.
  8. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/2206. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  9. ^ George Berkeley; Alexander Cambpbell Fraser (1871). Life and letters of George Berkeley. Clarendon Press. p. 361.
  10. ISBN 978-0-19-154313-5
    .
  11. JSTOR 566074
    .
  12. ^ Skinner, John (1818). "Annals of Scottish episcopacy, from the year 1788 to the year 1816, inclusive;". Internet Archive. Edinburgh: Printed for A. Brown; Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown. pp. 122–5. Retrieved 23 January 2017.

External links

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1885). "Berkeley, George Monck". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 4. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

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