CUMBERLAND, Richard

CUMBERLAND, Richard, a dramatic and miscellaneous writer, was born at Cambridge on the 29th February 1722. He was the great-grandson of the Bishop of Peterborough, and he first saw the light under the roof of his maternal grandfather, Dr Bentley, in the master's lodge, Trinity College. When he had completed his sixth year, he was sent to the school at Bury St Edmunds, but for some time he made little progress in his learning, and it cost the master some trouble to awaken in him a proper spirit of emulation. This, however, was at length accomplished by publicly reproofing him for his negligence; and, being thus roused to exertion, he soon found his tasks a pleasure rather than a burden. Whilst he remained at this school his grandfather Bentley died, and he was thereby deprived of the advantage which he might otherwise have reaped from the guidance and direction of the ablest scholar of the age. In his school exercises young Cumberland describes himself as aiming at something like fancy and invention; but this tendency seems to have betrayed him into grammatical inaccuracies which did him little credit with his master, and indeed exposed him to comments which he felt most acutely. He was not, however, very greatly discouraged by these strictures; for having made an excursion with his family, during the summer holidays, to visit a relation in Hampshire, he wrote a poem on the

subject, in which he introduced a description of the docks at Portsmouth, and of the races at Winchester. This being his first regular attempt in English verse, he exhibited it to his father, who received it with unreserved commendation, and persisted, with pardonable partiality, in reciting it to his friends long after the author had gained experience enough to wish it consigned to oblivion. From the school of Bury St Edmunds young Cumberland was transferred to Westminster, where he remained about a year and a half, and profited much, particularly in point of composition. He was then sent to Cambridge, where he was admitted of Trinity College when he was only in his fourteenth year. At first he had two tutors, who paid little attention to his studies; but this inconvenience being soon felt, the head master, Dr Smith, in the last year of his under-graduate condition, recommended him to lose no time in preparing for his degree, and to apply closely to his studies during the remainder of the year. He did so, and worked with such indefatigable perseverance, that, though his health suffered severely in consequence, a high station was adjudged him among the wranglers of his year, and he obtained his bachelor's degree. This was in the year 1750. With the return of health he resumed his studies, and, without neglecting those in which he had recently been engaged, recurred to the authors who had lain untouched during his course of academical preparation.

Cumberland had early accustomed himself to read upon system, and now began to form collections on the various subjects of his pursuits. With this view he got together the different tracts relative to the celebrated controversy between Boyle and Bentley respecting the epistles of Phalaris, omitting none of the authorities and passages referred to, and compressed the reasonings on both sides into a sort of digest or report upon the question in dispute. But he was perhaps more agreeably employed in reading the Greek tragedians; and when Mason published his Elfrida, he planned and wrote, in imitation of that drama, a production of which Caractacus was the hero, with a chorus consisting of bards and druids. About this time, his health being still indifferent, he accompanied his family in an excursion to York, where he passed half a year in the society and amusements of the place; hunting in the mornings, dancing in the evenings, and devoting but little time to study. Having got hold of the Faery Queen, however, he began at intervals to write stanzas in the Spenserian measure; and he also composed short elegies in the same manner; but his mother having disapproved of these occupations, he relinquished them, and prepared to devote himself to more serious pursuits.

On his return to college young Cumberland was invited to the master's lodge by Dr Smith, who informed him of a new arrangement which had been determined on for annulling as much of the existing statutes as restricted all bachelors except those of the third year's standing, from becoming candidates for fellowships; and recommended him to present himself for examination, as, at the next election, he would be in the second year of his degree. Grateful for this friendly advice, he was preparing to resume his studies with increased alacrity, when he received an invitation from Lord Halifax to become private and confidential secretary to that nobleman. He accordingly proceeded to town, where he remained some time, and afterwards

returned to Cambridge, where, after a severe examination, he was elected fellow, along with Mr Orde, afterwards a master in Chancery, to the exclusion of two candidates of the year above them. On his return to town he lived as retired as if he had been still resident in his college. His first offering to the press, which appeared about this time, was a churchyard elegy in imitation of Gray's, but, as might be expected, greatly inferior in poetical merit. It seems to have made almost no impression. "The public," he observes, "were very little interested with it, and Doddsley as little profited." Whilst he was with Lord Halifax he met with Mr Charles Townshend, then one of the lords of trade, to whom he first recommended himself by the solution of some enigma or puzzle, and afterwards by revising and writing remarks on a report drawn up by Mr Townshend, which had been put into his hands for that purpose. About this time also he employed himself in collecting materials for a poem in heroic verse on the subject of India; but the design he afterwards abandoned as unsuitable; a circumstance which, judging from the specimen preserved in his Memoirs, respecting the discoveries of the Portuguese, can excite but little regret.

About this time he contracted an intimacy with Mr Bubb Dodington, and became a frequent guest at La Trappe, the residence of that eccentric personage, whom he also visited in London. This was perfectly agreeable to Lord Halifax, who not only lived upon intimate terms with Mr Dodington, but was then forming some opposition connections, having resigned his office as first lord of trade and plantations, and detached himself from the Duke of Newcastle's administration. Cumberland also accompanied Mr Dodington to his seat of Eastbury, in Dorsetshire, where he remained some time, and enjoyed ample opportunities of observing the character of his host, of which he has given a very interesting and graphic description in his Memoirs. On his return from Dorsetshire, he offered himself for a lay fellowship, then vacant, in Trinity College, Cambridge, and succeeded in attaining the object of his ambition; but he did not hold it long, owing to the condition of celibacy annexed to it. About this time he produced his first legitimate drama, The Banishment of Cicero, a performance of some merit, but wholly unfit for representation. It was accordingly rejected by Garrick, and published by the author as a dramatic poem in 1761, 4to. In the beginning of 1759, he married Elizabeth, the only daughter of George Ridge, Esq. of Kilmiston, to whom he had paid his addresses on receiving through Lord Halifax an appointment as crown agent for Nova Scotia. On the accession of George III. Cumberland addressed a poem in blank verse to the young sovereign; and when Lord Halifax was appointed lord-lieutenant of Ireland, he accompanied that nobleman as Ulster secretary, while his father was made one of the vice-regal chaplains. This brought him in contact with the celebrated William Gerard Hamilton, better known by the name of Single-speech Hamilton, who, having neither received his appointment from Lord Halifax, nor been in the first instance altogether acceptable to that nobleman, rendered Cumberland's situation exceedingly unpleasant. But the latter, notwithstanding, acquitted himself so well that, towards the close of the session, the lord-lieutenant expressed his satisfaction with Cumberland's services, and offered him a baronetcy, which, however, he judiciously declined; a circumstance which, he thinks, contributed to weaken his interest with Lord Halifax. Why such an honour should have been offered to a young man just commencing the career of public life, and wholly unprovided for, it is not easy to conjecture. It appears, however, that when his patron afterwards became secretary of state, he applied in vain for the situation of under secretary, and only obtained the clerk-

The success with which Bickerstaff had brought forward his operas of Love in a Village and The Maid of the Mill, induced Cumberland to attempt a drama of the same description, under the title of The Summer's Tale; but although the music had been composed by Bach, Arne, Arnold, and Simpson, it was performed, with little applause, only for nine or ten nights. Subsequently, however, the author cut it down to an afterpiece in two acts, under the title of Amelia, in which form it met with tolerable success. The drama was published in 1765 and the afterpiece in 1768. His next production was the comedy of The Brothers, which was brought out at Covent-Garden, well received by the audience, and published in 1769. He now began to plan and compose The West Indian, which he completed before leaving Ireland; and on his return to London he entered into an engagement with Garrick to bring it out at his theatre, but he at the same time availed himself of the manager's suggestions, by adding a new scene, and introducing other improvements. This piece, which appeared in 1771, proved eminently successful, although the moral of the plot is far from being unexceptionable. Cumberland next entered the lists of controversy, by publishing a pamphlet containing animadversions upon a character of Dr Bentley, which had been drawn by Bishop Lowth, in a letter addressed to the author of the Divine Legation of Moses demonstrated. This pamphlet passed through two editions, but elicited no reply.

About the same time he was admitted into a literary society, the members of which used to dine together upon stated days at the British coffee-house; and at one of these meetings it was suggested to him to delineate the character of a North Briton, as he had already done those of an Irishman and of a West Indian. He availed himself of the hint, and in consequence drew the character of Colin Macleod in his comedy of The Fashionable Lover; but the attempt, as might have been expected, proved a total failure, owing, no doubt, to the author's entire ignorance of the distinctive peculiarities of the people of whom Colin Macleod was intended to be the representative. This comedy, though in point of composition superior to the West Indian, did not meet with equal success; and the author resented the criticisms made upon it with that sensitive jealousy which latterly induced Garrick to call him "the man without a skin." Throughout his whole life, indeed, he evinced a soreness to criticism, which necessarily exposed him to the very infliction which he dreaded so much and felt so acutely. His comedy of The Choleric Man proved more successful, but exposed him to the charge of venting illiberal and contemptuous sarcasms against his contemporaries; a charge which he endeavoured to rebut by prefixing to the play, when he published it, a "dedication to Detraction, directed chiefly against an Essay on the Theatre," in which a comparison was drawn between laughing and sentimental comedy, and under the latter description some severe observations were pointed against The Fashionable Lover. Cumberland's next dramatic production was Timon of Athens, altered from Shakespeare, in which the parts of Evanthus and Alcibiades were, the former nearly, and the latter altogether, new, and which, although it has now fallen into neglect, was favourably received at the time. The entertainment called The Note of Hand, or Trip to Newmarket, was the last of his pieces produced by Garrick, before disposing of his property in Drury-Lane. It is only remarkable as containing another sketch of Hibernian character, though on a smaller scale than the former one. The tragedy entitled The Battle of Hastings was brought out under the direction of Mr Sheridan, and published in 1778.

Cumber- Cumberland's prospects now began to brighten. On land. Lord George Germaine's accession to office, he was appointed secretary to the board of trade, with an income which could not but be acceptable to the father of six children; and he was particularly noticed by his lordship, who continued his friend and patron till death. He afterwards resided at Tetworth, in Bedfordshire, in the vicinity of Lady Frances Burgoine, sister of Lord Halifax, and during one of the summer recesses he passed there he wrote his opera of Calypso, which was brought out at Covent-Garden with indifferent success. The Widow of Delphi, which he wrote the following season, has never been printed, although the author considered it as one of his very best productions. The Bondsman, a tragi-comedy, and The Duke of Milan, altered, also remain in manuscript, probably without any great detriment to literature.

In 1780, Cumberland was sent on a confidential mission to the courts of Madrid and Lisbon; but this appointment, however honourable in itself, seems to have been the source of all his future troubles, and to have embittered the remainder of his long life. The direct object of his mission was to induce the court of Spain to enter into a separate treaty with this country; but, although his conduct gave satisfaction to the Spanish court, and procured him the confidence and favour of the Spanish king, yet, owing to the disturbances which at this time broke out in London, and other untoward circumstances, he failed in accomplishing the object of his mission, and was recalled, in 1781, after having contracted, in the public service, a debt of nearly £5000, which Lord North's ministry meanly refused, or at least neglected to pay, and which ultimately absorbed the whole of his hereditary property. It has been asserted indeed that he exceeded his powers, and compromised the ministry which had employed him; but of this no evidence whatever has been produced, and the losses to which he was subjected certainly amounted to a punishment much too severe for a mere error in judgment. It appears, in fact, that on his journey homewards his bills were stopped, and his credit rendered so utterly bankrupt, that he would have been thrown into prison at Bayonne, had not a fellow traveller advanced him a sum sufficient to enable him to pursue his journey through France. Nor did his misfortunes end even here. Mr Burke's economical bill having annihilated the board of trade, Mr Cumberland lost his situation, and was forced to retire with a compensation allowance, which, as is usual in such cases, was far from being adequate to the emoluments of the office of which he had been deprived. Resolved, however, to accommodate himself to circumstances which he could not control, he now fixed his residence at Tunbridge Wells, and made reductions in his establishment proportioned to his diminished income.

His first publication, after his return from Spain, was Anecdotes of eminent Painters in Spain, a curious and interesting work, which he afterwards rendered more complete by the publication of a Catalogue of the King of Spain's Paintings. The Anecdotes were published in 1782, in two vols. 12mo; the Catalogue appeared in 1787. His comedy of The Walloons, which he had written before settling at Tunbridge Wells, was brought out at Covent Garden Theatre, and followed by The Mysterious Husband in 1783, as well as by a tragedy entitled The Arab, which was acted once only, for the benefit of an actor. In 1783 appeared his Letter to the Bishop of Llandaff, on his lordship's proposal for equalizing the revenues of the established church; and in 1785 were brought out his tragedy of The Carmelite and his comedy of The Natural Son. The collection of essays under the title of The Observer, were also first printed experimentally in 1785, in two vols. 12mo; but a new edition, considerably

augmented, appeared in five volumes the following year; and when this was exhausted he made another arrangement of the essays, and, having incorporated therewith his translation of The Clouds of Aristophanes, published the whole in six volumes. These papers have since been included in the collection of the British Essayists. His other productions of this period are a Character of his patron Lord Sackville, and a trashy pamphlet, published anonymously, entitled Curtius rescued from the Gulf, being an attempt at defending some one against an attack made on him by Dr Parr. His comedy of The Impostor, and Arundel, a novel in two vols. 12mo, appeared in 1789; in 1792 he published Calvary, or the Death of Christ, a poem in eight books, 4to; and, in 1795, he produced another novel, in four volumes 12mo, under the title of Henry, a production on which he bestowed more care and attention than on Arundel, the hasty effusion of a few weeks of leisure at Brighton. Cumberland is also the author of some works of a serious cast, particularly a version of fifty of the Psalms of David, A few plain Reasons why we should believe in Christ, a considerable number of sermons, numerous prayers, and metrical versions of passages selected from the Old Testament.

But the drama was the field which had the greatest attraction for "the Terence of England." In 1793 he brought out a comic opera in three acts, founded on the story of Wat Tyler; but the lord chamberlain having objected to it, he was obliged to recast and produce it under the title of The Armourer. His comedy of The Country Attorney was produced in the same year, at the summer theatre, when under the direction of the elder Colman; and here also, in 1794, were brought out his Box Lobby Challenge, and Don Pedro. At the opening of the new theatre in Drury Lane was represented his comedy of The Jew, which he wrote with great rapidity, but which had for its object to disabuse the public mind of unjust prejudices against the character of a people who have so long been without a country, and who have either been persecuted or reviled in almost every country where they have sojourned. His celebrated comedy of The Wheel of Fortune came out in the preceding season, and was closely followed by another called First Love. In 1796, Days of Yore, a drama, was produced at Covent Garden; and, in 1795, The Last of the Family, a comedy, was brought out at Drury Lane. Five other comedies were also produced successively by this prolific writer, namely, False Impressions, The Word of Nature, The Dependant, The Eccentric Lover, and The Sailor's Daughter; of which the first was represented at Covent Garden, and the last at Drury-Lane. In the year 1806 he brought out Hints for Husbands, a comedy, which was performed at Covent Garden, but had a run of five nights only; and in the same year he published Memoirs of his own Life, to which he afterwards added a supplement. He was also concerned in The Exodiad, an epic poem, now forgotten; John de Lancaster, a novel, in 3 volumes; and Joanna of Montfaucon, a dramatic romance, neither of them productions of any merit. He was likewise the conductor of The London Review, a critical journal established on the French plan of affixing to each article the name of the writer; but the attempt did not succeed.

From the time when Mr Cumberland retired from public life and fixed his residence at Tunbridge Wells, he devoted himself entirely to literary pursuits, and produced the various works we have enumerated. Here also he lost his wife, who had so long been the partner of his joys and sorrows; but he bore the bereavement with the resignation of a man of sense, convinced that patience is no mark of insensibility, nor the parade of lamentation any evidence of the sincerity or permanence of grief. During the alarm

of invasion he caught the patriotic infection of the time, and having headed two companies of volunteer infantry, received the commission of major-commandant. His latter days were spent chiefly in London, where, on the 7th of May 1811, he expired after a short illness, at the house of a friend in Bedford Place, being then in the eighty-ninth year of his age. The last act of his life was the publication of a poem entitled Retrospection, embracing opinions of men and things which are much more fully and satisfactorily treated in his Memoirs.

Of the personal character of Cumberland a pretty accurate judgment may be formed from his Memoirs. His self-esteem was great, and his vanity overweening, but, although extremely sensitive to criticism, and intolerant of censure, he had no real malignity in his composition, and, like most excitable persons, seems to have been as placable as he was irritable. His temperament was of a kind which, if easily disturbed, as quickly recovered its balance; and there is every reason to believe that the predominant tone of his feelings was alike generous and liberal. On the only occasion of his life where his moral principles were put to the test they appeared to the very greatest advantage. His conduct respecting the bequest of Mr Reynolds, who had devised to Mr Cumberland his estate, to the exclusion of the natural heir, evinced the greatest disinterestedness, and the highest sense of honour and probity. It was his misfortune to have been bred a courtier, and never to have taken his degrees in that school. He evidently wanted the suppleness and versatility necessary to ensure success in such a career. In a subordinate station, which merely required attention to formal and technical duties, he acquitted himself indifferently well; but, in venturing to act as minister, he found himself wofully deficient in those qualities without the possession of which genius and talents are of little avail. At the same time, having associated with most of the eminent men of his time, the sketches and anecdotes which he has introduced into his Memoirs are in the highest degree interesting; whilst his habits of observing and discriminating character give to his delineations an authority, and consequently a value, which it is difficult to over-estimate. In society his chief aim was to please; and, by the admission of his contemporaries, few men appeared to more advantage in conversation, or evinced a more perfect mastery, when he chose to exercise it, of the art of pleasing. The great faults of his character were a tendency to lavish hollow compliments on those who were present, and a propensity, without provocation or necessity, to indulge in bitter sarcasms against individuals after they had taken their departure. That this was the result of mere recklessness, or of a desire to provoke or minister to mirth, may be readily believed; but, by giving way to so unfortunate a bias, he lost more than he gained; and, although his address was studied, polite, and courtly, his character for sincerity became depreciated beyond all recovery. As a writer, he is more remarkable for the number than for the excellence of his works; but many of them, it should be remembered, were hastily produced in order to better his income, and some of them are marked by no ordinary degree of intellectual power. In every variety of fortune the drama was his favourite pursuit; and if he has produced much that is perishable or forgotten, he has also evolved creations which have been enregistered as among the finest efforts of genius. The character of Penruddock in The Wheel of Fortune, for example, is a masterpiece, which received a double consecration from the histrionic talents of John Kemble, by whom it was so often and so nobly personated. As a poet he cannot by any means rank high; for, while he had a play of imagination, which unfitted him for the concerns of actual life and business, his warmest admirers can only

claim for him the praise of correct versification and elegant sentiment, which, however, has secured for some of his poetical works a considerable share of popularity. With regard to his Observer, now that he has acknowledged how much he borrowed from the manuscripts of his grandfather Bentley, we need scarcely say that it no longer supports his pretensions as a Greek critic. His learning was shallow, and, like his wit, it was often taken at second hand. (J. B.—E.)