scenes and manners which he rendered very amusing in description, and stories told with some vivacity and effect, made him acceptable to such as wanted merely a companion; a kind of ambition in which few who indulge are ever likely to ascend to any thing great or useful. Some account of him at this time appears in a letter of Mr. (afterwards the Rev.) William Dennis, who has already been introduced to the reader as the college friend and companion of Edmund Burke; the notices of Hiffernan, though new, are of inferior moment to the particulars we incidentally glean of the juvenile pursuits and studies of Burke, who when little more than seventeen years old, was with a few companions, more zealous than informed or discreet, endeavouring to correct or control the management of the Dublin stage under the elder Sheridan. No apology will be necessary for the introduction of this curious memorial. It should be observed that among other frequenters of the theatre, several students of Trinity College took upon themselves to be dissatisfied with the taste or conduct of the manager; and in trying to amend what they considered wrong young Burke, and Heffernan who was much his senior although personally unknown to each other, agreed; the former as it would seem with the design of forcing the play of one of his young friends forward for representation. The result of their juvenile plots was a riot well known in theatrical history, which had the effect of driving Sheridan from Dublin. The letter, like that in the preceding page, and communicated by the same friend, is addressed to Shackleton, the son of their schoolmaster at Ballitore, with whom they were in constant correspondence. "Dublin, Jan. 14th, 1747.-8 o'clock. "Arma virumque cano-bella horrida bella. Nothing else to do, we the triumvirate* talk of nothing but the subversion of the present theatrical tyranny; lend us your pen; you have often drawn it for your own and friends' entertainment; now do it for their assistance and the establishing taste in spite of Sheridan's arrogance or his tasteless adherents. Don't think this gasconade, for we love liberty and consequently hate French customs. No, we tread on firm ground with Irish resolution and perseverance, resolving to pull down Baal from the high places, and that by (what is esteemed uncommon) the force of Irish genius, and establish Irish productions in the place of the English trash comedies and French frippery of dances and harlequins, which have been the public entertainments this winter. "Doubtless you wonder what gave rise to this resolution, and suspect Brennan's comedy rejected; but it is not so; they promise to play it next March, but for fear it should be then neglected, or that the lateness of the season should prevent its taking, we resolve to bring it on immediately, vi et armis, against Sheridan's will; which is to be thus effected. "There is one Dr. Hiffernan, a poet, a philosopher, and play-wright in this town, who stirred up by hatred to Sheridan as manager, and * Burke, Brennan, and the writer of the letter, Dennis. as we suspect by the rejection of a play he offered to the stage, is purposed to oppose and pull down that tyrant's pride. By his acquaintance with Victor* this Hiffernan got the reading of the Lawsuitt, and was told Burke was the author, which is implicitly believed by Sally Cotter to whom he told it, and by those means we came to know him. "Ned (Edmund) Burke some time since wrote a paper called Punch's Petition to Mr. Sheridan for admission into the theatre, which coming into Cotter's hands he showed it to Hiffernan who persuaded him to publish it telling him he thought it a humorous, sharp piece. The notion of its going to the press alarmed us for fear it might hurt Brennan if there were any suspicion of Burke's being the author. This sent us to Cotter's to delay its publication, where I met Hiffernan. After some chat Sally Cotter attacks me about the Lawsuit,' which I deny any knowledge of. Then Hiffernan began his opinion of it, which was most extravagant. He said it was one of the best pieces he ever read, and had the true vis comica, with other particulars too tedious to recite, and that with such warmth, as made me confess in the gladness of my heart, that I had read it. Then we talked of bringing it on the stage (without mention of the author) and he fancied it was practicable, and warrants the effecting it first by making a party of friends which he has secured already, which he calls an association in defence of Irish wit; then charging the town with a heap of papers on Sheridan, proving him an arrogant ass, and displaying his faults in the management of the theatre till having weakened his party so as not to fear opposition. Those friends in the mean time may spread a favourable report of the play to prepare the town for its reception when they call for it in the play-house, which desire of the audience to see it we hope to make general, so that Sheridan can't refuse bringing it on. "Will not this scheme do? 'Tis partly our contrivance and partly Hiffernan's and mine, for (he) knows not either Burke or Brennan. Burke's paper has paved the way; three hundred were sold yesterday. On Monday Hiffernan in an expostulation from Punch displays Mr. Sheridan in a ridiculous but true light, which will take three papers. Next comes Brennan with a grave inquiry into the behaviour of the manager, which will be backed by Ned and I; and thus will we persecute him daily from different printers till the plot is ripe, and we have established liberty on the stage, and taste among the people. "You must throw some hints together likewise immediately for the press and send them up. Talk how trivial it is to keep a stage well swept and painted, and the candles well snuffed, when teaching the actors and choosing good plays should be his employment, and hint at his indifferent performance. • Afterwards author of the History of the Theatres of London and Dublin; and then, it is believed, prompter of the Dublin Theatre. †The play no doubt of Brennan's, previously alluded to. + See page 55. And prove with us that you sincerely hate "Feb. 4th, 1747. "I send you enclosed the second number of the Reformer,† with this comfort that the generality of the town likes it I believe, by the sale which was about 500 to-day. The first number the town bought near 1000 of; we have set out bonis omnibus, and I hope shall continue the same. Hiffernan who was heretofore a friend of Victor's, has lost his acquaintance on the suspicion of being the author. Sheridan is much piqued, and his friends among whom is Sappho who admires him as a player, vigorously oppose it, and damn it as earnestly as they do taste every night at the playhouse in the applause they bestow upon dulness. "Ned (Edmund Burke) is writing for his degree!" In the celebrated contest of Dr. Lucas the Irish patriot as he was called, with the authorities of Dublin, and afterwards even with the Irish House of Commons, by which he was compelled to seek a retreat in England, Hiffernan took part in a periodical paper called the Tickler, which being in support of authority, found admirers among the opponents of the popular idol. He required however the means to live, which being found difficult in Dublin, he removed to London where a wider sphere offered for the indulgence of his dramatic tastes. All classes of society then evinced a degree of interest in stage affairs which few in the present day think it necessary to display, or indeed feel; men of all professions and pursuits conceived themselves to be critics, and many frequenters of the theatre appeared to think they had a right to become its directors; authors of all descriptions, unoccupied physicians, lawyers, and even merchants, prescribed rules to dramatists, actors, and managers; and those who could, and many who could not, write on other subjects, felt fully qualified to decide upon all that was necessary for the stage. Among these was Hiffernan. He began a paper connected with this topic called the "Tuner," in 1754, assumed in time the character of arbiter in histrionic excellence, became acquainted with actors who were laid under contribution either to secure his praise or silence his censure in the newspapers, and was constantly found in the lower taverns near the theatres delivering his decisions on such matters with an air of authority. Here likewise he was seen exacting fees from such candidates for the stage as believed he had the skill to instruct, or influence to recommend them for an engagement. His attachment to the drama made him known to Garrick, who ever careful of guarding against attacks upon his professional reputation, thought it prudent to conciliate many whom he despised; also to Foote, Murphy, Bickerstaffe, and others, from whom and a few physicians, booksellers, and casual acquaintance he drew oc • Thomas Sheridan-the Manager. † A periodical paper, carried on chiefly by Burke, in order to correct what he and his young friends considered irregular or improper in the management of the Dublin Theatre. casional assistance in the shape of subscriptions for books, some of which were never written, and some that were written probably never read. These consisted of translations from the Latin and French; "Miscellanies in Prose and Verse;" "The Ladies' Choice," a dramatic petite piece; "The Wishes of a free People;" "The New Hippocrates," a farce; "The Earl of Warwick," a tragedy taken from the French; "Dramatic Genius;" "Philosophic Whim;" "Heroine of the Cave," finished from the "Cave of Idra," a tragedy left by Henry Jones, author of the Earl of Essex, and probably others that are unknown. None it appears had sufficient merit to survive the occasion. He was not without learning had it been properly applied, though with few or no pretensions to genius. He lived in wretchedness, and seems never to have aimed at escaping from it by the exertion of active industry; yet he had pride enough to conceal his lodgings so effectually from all his acquaintance, that no ingenuity could discover them, although one gentleman is said to have walked with him with this view as far as Whitechapel, when he gave up the pursuit, as Hiffernan intended he should, in despair. It appeared afterward that he occupied wretched apartments in St. Martin's Lane. To Goldsmith he presented no point of rivalry, and was frequently an object of his bounty; and besides the allusion in the poem, we may readily believe that from him and such as him, the pictures of distressed authors found in his Essays were drawn. CHAPTER XXI. History of England.-Lodgings at Hyde.-Prologue to Zobeide.-Threnodia Augustalis. Dr. M'Veagh Macdonnell.-Masquerades.-Letter from Judge Day. EARLY in August 1771 the History of England, agreed for two years before, and the contract for which notwithstanding complaints of his dilatoriness seems to have been pretty punctually fulfilled, appeared in four volumes.* Like the Roman History it was meant as a succinct and elegant abstract of our known annals; a medium for the statement of facts, rather than an opportunity sought of reasoning upon them. He claims the merit of having read much upon the subject, but does not desire to be considered "a reader of forgotten books" and is indisposed to display erudition upon minute or controverted points, or even to repeat new anecdotes, when all his space was required for matters which were material. As Hume formed his chief guide, the facts differ little from what we find in that writer. Without wholly discarding reflection, or • Public Advertiser, Aug. 6, 1771. those pointed observations which give history much of its value, he has contrived to fulfil Dr. Johnson's idea of history, by "putting into his book as much as his book would contain ;" and the ease and perspicuity with which this is done, add much to the interest of the narrative. Numerous passages, it has been observed, are transcribed verbatim from the "Letters of a Nobleman to his Son," many of which were marked for transcription by their writer, but their number precludes insertion here; while others are varied merely by the introduction of a few words. This saved him labour, and passed at the moment without observation. The critic failed to discover what he doubtless would have thought redounded to the credit of his research, and proved a fruitful theme for censure had he been so disposed; while the author probably willing enough to profit by this oversight of the enemy, was not reduced to the necessity of making public the avowal that such materials though seemingly borrowed were really his own. Carelessness in slight circumstances, arising evidently from trusting to memory, is obvious in some of the details. Thus in treating of the civil war between Charles and his Parliament, Naseby in Northamptonshire, the scene of the battle, is mentioned as being in Yorkshire, confounding it no doubt with Knaresborough. Another instance occurs in which, speaking of the siege of Londonderry in Ireland, so nobly defended by the inhabitants and a few soldiers against a large army of James II. in 1689, he mentions one of the chief heroes on that occasion as "one Walker, a dissenting minister," whereas he was a clergyman and afterwards a dignitary of the established church. A private letter from a correspondent in Ireland* apprised him of the error which was corrected in the second edition. The person alluded to, occupies too prominent a station in the history of Ireland at that period to be so cursorily noticed. He was an extraordinary man drawn forth by the pressure of unusual circumstances, who having passed the usual term of human life as a minister of peace, became in old age a leader in war, and who displayed in that situation energics unexpected from his age and habits, and of the possession of which he was not perhaps previously conscious. To him the safety of the north of Ireland, and of the Protestant party, from the army of James, is "SIR, *To Dr. Goldsmith. "I beg leave to acquaint you, there is a mistake in your Abridgment of the History of England, respecting Dr. Walker, viz.-one Walker, a dissenting minister. "I venture to assure you, Mr. Walker was a clergyman of the Established Church of Ireland, that was appointed Bishop of Dromore by King William for his services at Derry; but was unfortunately killed at the battle of the Boyne. Which I hope you will please to insert in future editions of your late book. "The Duke of Schomberg was certainly killed in passing the river Boyne. "I am, Sir, with great respect "Your most obedient humble servant, "THOMAS WOOLSEY. "Dundalk, April 10th, 1772." |