Hugh Kelly
Encyclopedia
Hugh Kelly was an Irish
dramatist and poet
. During the 1760s he became a propogandist for the British government attacking members of the Opposition
. After arriving in London in 1760 to work as a staymaker, he soon turned to become a writer and made a living as a journalist
. In 1766 he published Thespis, a long poem about the acting profession, which gained him wide attention. He followed up this success with the novel Memoirs of a Magdalen
in 1767. He become known for his stage plays such as False Delicacy
and A Word to the Wise
.
, he was born at Killarney
, County Kerry
. He enjoyed a reasonable education but was forced to drop out following his father's financial difficulties. He was apprenticed to a staymaker
, and in 1760 went to London
where he worked at his trade for some time, fairly unsuccessfully, and then became an attorney
's clerk. He contributed to various newspaper
s, and wrote pamphlets for the booksellers. Much of his early life remains uncertain and relies on anecdotes told by his contemporaries.
Theatre, a poem in the heroic couplet containing violent attacks on the principal contemporary actors and actresses. The poem opens with a panegyric on David Garrick
, however, and bestows foolish praise on friends of the writer. This satire was partly inspired by Churchill's Rosciad, but its criticism is obviously dictated chiefly by personal prejudice. In 1767 he produced a second part, less scurrilous in tone, dealing with the Covent Garden
actors.
In 1767 he published Memoirs of a Magdalen
a novel which enjoyed considerable success. The William Kenrick
play The Widowed Wife
, staged the same year, was largely based on it.
, written in prose, was produced by Garrick at Drury Lane on January 23, 1768, with the intention of rivalling Oliver Goldsmith
's The Good-Natur'd Man
which it succesfulloy did. It is a moral and sentimental comedy, described by Garrick in the prologue
as a sermon
preached in act. Although Samuel Johnson
described it as totally void of character, it was very popular. It was translated into several languages and its French and Portuguese versions drew crowded houses in Paris and Lisbon.
, especially as being the editor of The Public Ledger
. His Thespis had also made him many enemies; and Mrs Clive refused to act in his pieces.
(Drury Lane, March 3, 1770), occasioned a riot in the theatre, repeated at the second performance, and the piece had to be abandoned. There was still ill-feeling regarding Kelly's defence of the government using force against Wilke's followers during a recent clash at St George's Field
.
His other plays are: Clementina
(Covent Garden, February 23, 1771), a blank verse tragedy, given out to be the work of a young American clergyman in order to escape the opposition of the Wilkites; The School for Wives
(Drury Lane, December 11, 1773), a prose comedy given out as the work of Major (afterwards Sir William) Addington; a two-act piece, The Romance of an Hour (Covent Garden, December 2, 1774), borrowed from Marmontel's tale L'amitié à l'épreuve; and an unsuccessful comedy, The Man of Reason (Covent Garden, February 9, 1776).
in 1774, and determined to give up literature. He failed in his new profession and died in poverty.
See The Works of Hugh Kelly, to which is prefixed the Life of the Author (1778); Genest, The story of the Stage (v. 163, 263, 269, 308, 399, 457, 517). Pamphlets in reply to Thespis are: Anti-Thespis (1767); The Kellyad... (1767), by Louis Stamma; and The Rescue or Thespian Scourge... (1767), by John Brown-Smith.
He is mentioned in the unfinished Samuel Beckett
play Human Wishes.
Kingdom of Ireland
The Kingdom of Ireland refers to the country of Ireland in the period between the proclamation of Henry VIII as King of Ireland by the Crown of Ireland Act 1542 and the Act of Union in 1800. It replaced the Lordship of Ireland, which had been created in 1171...
dramatist and poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
. During the 1760s he became a propogandist for the British government attacking members of the Opposition
Loyal opposition
In parliamentary systems of government, the term loyal opposition is applied to the opposition parties in the legislature to indicate that the non-governing parties may oppose the actions of the sitting cabinet typically comprising parliamentarians from the party with the most seats in the elected...
. After arriving in London in 1760 to work as a staymaker, he soon turned to become a writer and made a living as a journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
. In 1766 he published Thespis, a long poem about the acting profession, which gained him wide attention. He followed up this success with the novel Memoirs of a Magdalen
Memoirs of a Magdalen
Memoirs of a Magdalen is a 1767 British novel by the Irish writer Hugh Kelly. Its full title is Memoirs of a Magdalen, or the History of Louisa Mildmay....
in 1767. He become known for his stage plays such as False Delicacy
False Delicacy
False Delicacy is a 1768 comic play by the Irish playwright Hugh Kelly with some assistance by David Garrick. It premiered at the Drury Lane Theatre on 23 January 1768. The play was a major success for Kelly. It was acted over twenty times during its first season and within a year ten thousand...
and A Word to the Wise
A Word to the Wise
A Word to the Wise is a 1770 comedy play by the Irish writer Hugh Kelly. It was his second work after the 1767 hit False Delicacy. Kelly was known as a supporter of the government, and an opponent of the radical John Wilkes, and during the second performance of the play at a riot broke out amongst...
.
Early life
Son of a Dublin publicanPublican
In antiquity, publicans were public contractors, in which role they often supplied the Roman legions and military, managed the collection of port duties, and oversaw public building projects...
, he was born at Killarney
Killarney
Killarney is a town in County Kerry, southwestern Ireland. The town is located north of the MacGillicuddy Reeks, on the northeastern shore of the Lough Lein/Leane which are part of Killarney National Park. The town and its surrounding region are home to St...
, County Kerry
County Kerry
Kerry means the "people of Ciar" which was the name of the pre-Gaelic tribe who lived in part of the present county. The legendary founder of the tribe was Ciar, son of Fergus mac Róich. In Old Irish "Ciar" meant black or dark brown, and the word continues in use in modern Irish as an adjective...
. He enjoyed a reasonable education but was forced to drop out following his father's financial difficulties. He was apprenticed to a staymaker
Bone (corsetry)
In corsetry, a bone is one of the rigid parts of a corset that forms its frame and gives it rigidity.-Purpose, history and materials:The purpose of the boning in a corset varies slightly from era to era....
, and in 1760 went to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
where he worked at his trade for some time, fairly unsuccessfully, and then became an attorney
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
's clerk. He contributed to various newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
s, and wrote pamphlets for the booksellers. Much of his early life remains uncertain and relies on anecdotes told by his contemporaries.
First success
In 1766 he published anonymously Thespis; or, A Critical Examination into the Merits of All the Principal Performers belonging to Drury LaneDrury Lane
Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster....
Theatre, a poem in the heroic couplet containing violent attacks on the principal contemporary actors and actresses. The poem opens with a panegyric on David Garrick
David Garrick
David Garrick was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of theatrical practice throughout the 18th century and was a pupil and friend of Dr Samuel Johnson...
, however, and bestows foolish praise on friends of the writer. This satire was partly inspired by Churchill's Rosciad, but its criticism is obviously dictated chiefly by personal prejudice. In 1767 he produced a second part, less scurrilous in tone, dealing with the Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
actors.
In 1767 he published Memoirs of a Magdalen
Memoirs of a Magdalen
Memoirs of a Magdalen is a 1767 British novel by the Irish writer Hugh Kelly. Its full title is Memoirs of a Magdalen, or the History of Louisa Mildmay....
a novel which enjoyed considerable success. The William Kenrick
William Kenrick (writer)
William Kenrick was an English novelist, playwright, translator and satirist, who spent much of his career libelling and lampooning his fellow writers.- Life and career :Kenrick was born at Watford, Hertfordshire, son of a stay-maker...
play The Widowed Wife
The Widowed Wife
The Widowed Wife is a 1767 comic play by William Kenrick. It premiered at Drury Lane Theatre on 5 December 1767. It closely resembled the plot of Memoirs of a Magdalen a novel by Hugh Kelly. The play enjoyed a fairly successful run.-Bibliography:...
, staged the same year, was largely based on it.
False Delicacy
His first play, the comedy False DelicacyFalse Delicacy
False Delicacy is a 1768 comic play by the Irish playwright Hugh Kelly with some assistance by David Garrick. It premiered at the Drury Lane Theatre on 23 January 1768. The play was a major success for Kelly. It was acted over twenty times during its first season and within a year ten thousand...
, written in prose, was produced by Garrick at Drury Lane on January 23, 1768, with the intention of rivalling Oliver Goldsmith
Oliver Goldsmith
Oliver Goldsmith was an Irish writer, poet and physician known for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield , his pastoral poem The Deserted Village , and his plays The Good-Natur'd Man and She Stoops to Conquer...
's The Good-Natur'd Man
The Good-Natur'd Man
The Good-Natur'd Man is a play written by Oliver Goldsmith in 1768. The play was written in the form of a comedy and staged at the Covent Garden Theatre. It was a middling success for Goldsmith, and the printed version of the play became popular with the reading public...
which it succesfulloy did. It is a moral and sentimental comedy, described by Garrick in the prologue
Prologue
A prologue is an opening to a story that establishes the setting and gives background details, often some earlier story that ties into the main one, and other miscellaneous information. The Greek prologos included the modern meaning of prologue, but was of wider significance...
as a sermon
Sermon
A sermon is an oration by a prophet or member of the clergy. Sermons address a Biblical, theological, religious, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law or behavior within both past and present contexts...
preached in act. Although Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...
described it as totally void of character, it was very popular. It was translated into several languages and its French and Portuguese versions drew crowded houses in Paris and Lisbon.
Journalism and politics
Kelly was a journalist in the pay of Lord North, and therefore hated by the supporters of the radical journalist and politician John WilkesJohn Wilkes
John Wilkes was an English radical, journalist and politician.He was first elected Member of Parliament in 1757. In the Middlesex election dispute, he fought for the right of voters—rather than the House of Commons—to determine their representatives...
, especially as being the editor of The Public Ledger
The Public Ledger
The Public Ledger is one of the world's longest continuously-running magazines. Today it provides agricultural commodity news and prices. When established in 1760, however, it not only contained prices of commodities in London, but a wide variety of political, commercial and society news and...
. His Thespis had also made him many enemies; and Mrs Clive refused to act in his pieces.
Further plays
The production of his second comedy, A Word to the WiseA Word to the Wise
A Word to the Wise is a 1770 comedy play by the Irish writer Hugh Kelly. It was his second work after the 1767 hit False Delicacy. Kelly was known as a supporter of the government, and an opponent of the radical John Wilkes, and during the second performance of the play at a riot broke out amongst...
(Drury Lane, March 3, 1770), occasioned a riot in the theatre, repeated at the second performance, and the piece had to be abandoned. There was still ill-feeling regarding Kelly's defence of the government using force against Wilke's followers during a recent clash at St George's Field
Massacre of St George's Fields
On 10 May 1768, the imprisonment in King's Bench Prison of the radical John Wilkes prompted a riot at St George's Fields. After the reading of the Riot Act, six or seven people were killed by troops, starting with a young man named William Allen...
.
His other plays are: Clementina
Clementina (play)
Clementina is a tragic play by the Irish writer Hugh Kelly. It was first staged at Covent Garden Theatre in February 1771. The plot follows a young Italian woman Clementina's marriage to Rinaldo despite her father's opposition to the wedding as he had wished her to marry Palermo...
(Covent Garden, February 23, 1771), a blank verse tragedy, given out to be the work of a young American clergyman in order to escape the opposition of the Wilkites; The School for Wives
The School for Wives
The School for Wives is a theatrical comedy written by the seventeenth century French playwright Molière and considered by some critics to be one of his finest achievements. It was first staged at the Palais Royal theatre on 26 December 1662 for the brother of the King...
(Drury Lane, December 11, 1773), a prose comedy given out as the work of Major (afterwards Sir William) Addington; a two-act piece, The Romance of an Hour (Covent Garden, December 2, 1774), borrowed from Marmontel's tale L'amitié à l'épreuve; and an unsuccessful comedy, The Man of Reason (Covent Garden, February 9, 1776).
Lawyer
He was called to the bar at the Middle TempleMiddle Temple
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers; the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn...
in 1774, and determined to give up literature. He failed in his new profession and died in poverty.
See The Works of Hugh Kelly, to which is prefixed the Life of the Author (1778); Genest, The story of the Stage (v. 163, 263, 269, 308, 399, 457, 517). Pamphlets in reply to Thespis are: Anti-Thespis (1767); The Kellyad... (1767), by Louis Stamma; and The Rescue or Thespian Scourge... (1767), by John Brown-Smith.
He is mentioned in the unfinished Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
play Human Wishes.
Plays
- False DelicacyFalse DelicacyFalse Delicacy is a 1768 comic play by the Irish playwright Hugh Kelly with some assistance by David Garrick. It premiered at the Drury Lane Theatre on 23 January 1768. The play was a major success for Kelly. It was acted over twenty times during its first season and within a year ten thousand...
(1767) - A Word to the WiseA Word to the WiseA Word to the Wise is a 1770 comedy play by the Irish writer Hugh Kelly. It was his second work after the 1767 hit False Delicacy. Kelly was known as a supporter of the government, and an opponent of the radical John Wilkes, and during the second performance of the play at a riot broke out amongst...
(1770) - ClementinaClementina (play)Clementina is a tragic play by the Irish writer Hugh Kelly. It was first staged at Covent Garden Theatre in February 1771. The plot follows a young Italian woman Clementina's marriage to Rinaldo despite her father's opposition to the wedding as he had wished her to marry Palermo...
(1771) - The School for Wives (1773)
- The Romance of an Hour (1774)
- The Man of Reason (1776)