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CUMBERLAND, RICHARD (1732-1811)

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 623 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CUMBERLAND, See also:RICHARD (1732-1811) , See also:English dramatist, was See also:born in the See also:master's See also:lodge of Trinity See also:College, See also:Cambridge, on the 19th of See also:February 1732. He was the See also:great-See also:grandson of the See also:bishop of See also:Peterborough; and his See also:father, Dr See also:Denison Cumber-See also:land, became successively bishop of Clonfert and of Kilmore. His See also:mother was See also:Joanna, the youngest daughter of the great See also:scholar Richard See also:Bentley, and the heroine of See also:John See also:Byrom's once popular little See also:eclogue, See also:Colin and See also:Phoebe. Of the great master of Trinity his grandson has See also:left a kindly See also:account; he afterwards collected all the See also:pamphlets bearing on the Letters of See also:Phalaris controversy, and piously defended the reputation of his ancestor in his See also:Letter to Bishop See also:Lowth, who had called Bentley See also:aut caprimulgus aut fossor." Cumberland was in his seventh See also:year sent to the See also:grammar-school at See also:Bury St See also:Edmunds, and he relates how, on the See also:head-master See also:Arthur Kinsman undertaking, in conversation with Bentley, to make the grandson as See also:good a scholar as the grandfather himself, the latter retorted: " Pshaw, Arthur, how can that be, when I have forgot more than See also:thou ever knewest?" Bentley died during his grandson's Bury school-days; and in 1744 the boy, who, while rising to the head of his school, had already begun to " try his strength in several slight attempts towards the See also:drama," was removed to See also:Westminster, then at the height of its reputation under Dr Nicholls. Among his schoolfellows here were See also:Warren See also:Hastings, See also:George See also:Colman (the See also:elder), See also:Lloyd, and (though he does not mention them as such) See also:Churchill and See also:Cowper. From Westminster Cumberland passed, in his fourteenth year, to Trinity College, Cambridge, where in 1750 he took his degree as tenth wrangler. His account of his degree examination, as well as that for a fellowship at his college, See also:part of which he underwent in the " See also:judges' chamber," where he was born, is curious; he was by virtue of an alteration in the statutes elected to his fellowship in the second year of his degree. Meanwhile his projects of See also:work as a classical scholar had been interspersed with attempts at imitating Spenser—whom, by his mother's See also:advice, he " laid upon the shelf "—and a dramatic effort (unprinted) on the See also:model of See also:Mason's Elfrida, called See also:Caractacus. He had just begun to read for his fellowship, when he was offered the See also:post of private secretary by the See also:earl of See also:Halifax, first See also:lord of See also:trade and plantations in the See also:duke of See also:Newcastle's See also:ministry. His See also:family persuaded him to accept the See also:office, to which he returned after his See also:election as See also:fellow. It left him abundant leisure for See also:literary pursuits, which included: the See also:design of a poem in See also:blank See also:verse on See also:India. He resigned his Trinity fellowship on his marriage—in 1759—to his See also:cousin See also:Elizabeth See also:Ridge, to whom he had paid his addresses on receiving through Lord Halifax " a small See also:establishment as See also:crown-See also:agent for Nova See also:Scotia." In 1761 he accompanied his See also:patron (who had been appointed lord-See also:lieutenant) to See also:Ireland as See also:Ulster secretary; and in See also:acknowledgment of his services was afterwards offered a baronetcy.

By declining this he thinks he gave offence; at all events,, when in 1762 Halifax became secretary of See also:

state, Cumber-land in vain applied for the post of under-secretary, and could only obtain the clerkship of reports at the See also:Board of Trade under Lord Hillsborough. While he takes some See also:credit to himself for his incorruptibility when in Ireland, he showed zeal for his friend and secured a bishopric for his father. On the See also:accession to office of Lord George Germaine (See also:Sackville) in 1775, Cumberland was appointed secretary to the Board of Trade and Plantations, which post he held, till the abolition of that board in 1782 by See also:Burke's economical reform. Before this event he had, in 178o, been sent on a confidential See also:mission to See also:Spain, to negotiate aseparate treaty of See also:peace with that See also:power; but though he was well received by See also:King See also:Charles III. and his See also:minister See also:Floridablanca, the question of See also:Gibraltar proved a stumbling-See also:block, and the See also:Gordon riots at See also:home a most untoward occurrence. He was recalled in 1781, and was refused repayment of the expenses he had incurred, towards which only £r000 had been advanced to him. He thus found himself 4500 out of See also:pocket: in vain, he says, " I wearied the See also:door of Lord See also:North till his very servants drove me from it "; his memorial remained unread or unnoticed either by the See also:prime minister or by secretary See also:Robinson, through whom the See also:original promise had been made. Soon after this experience he lost his office, and had to retire on a See also:compensation See also:allowance of less than See also:half-pay. He now took up his See also:residence at Tunbridge See also:Wells; but during his last years he mostly lived in See also:London, where he died on the 7th of May 1811. He was buried in Westminster See also:Abbey, a See also:short oration being pronounced on this occasion by his friend See also:Dean See also:Vincent. Cumberland's numerous literary productions are spread over the whole of his See also:long See also:life; but it is only by his contributions to the drama, and perhaps by his See also:Memoirs, that he is likely to be remembered. The collection of essays and other pieces entitled The Observer (1785), afterwards republished together with a See also:translation of The Clouds, found a See also:place among The See also:British Essayists. For the accounts given in The Observer of the See also:Greek writers, especially the comic poets, Cumberland availed himself of Bentley's See also:MSS. and annotated books in his See also:possession; his See also:translations from the Greek fragments, which are not in-elegant but lack closeness, are republished in See also:James See also:Bailey's Comicorum Graecorum (part i., 1840) and Hermesianactis, Archilochi, et Pratinae fragmenta.

Cumberland further produced Anecdotes of Eminent Painters i"n Spain (1782 and 1787); a See also:

Catalogue of the King of Spain's Paintings (1787); two novels—Arundel (1789), a See also:story in letters, and See also:Henry (1795), a " diluted See also:comedy" on the construction and polishing of which he seems to have expended great care; a religious epic, See also:Calvary, or the See also:Death of See also:Christ (1792); his last publication was a poem entitled Retrospection. He is also supposed to have joined See also:Sir James Bland See also:Burges in an epic, the Exodiad (1807), and in John de See also:Lancaster, a novel. Besides these he wrote the Letter to the Bishop of O[xfor]d in vindication of Bentley (1767); another to the Bishop of See also:Llandaff (Richard See also:Watson) on his proposal for equalizing the revenues of the Established See also:Church (1783); a See also:Character of the See also:late Lord Sackville (1785), whom in his Memoirs he vindicates from the stigma of cowardice; and an See also:anonymous pamphlet, See also:Curtius rescued from the Gulf, against the redoubtable Dr See also:Parr. He was also the author of a version of fifty of the See also:Psalms of See also:David; of a See also:tract on the evidences of See also:Christianity; and of other religious exercises in See also:prose and verse, the former including " as many sermons as would make a large See also:volume, some of which have been delivered from the pulpits." Lastly, he edited, in 1809, a short-lived See also:critical See also:journal called The London See also:Review, intended to be a See also:rival to the Quarterly, with signed articles. Cumberland's Memoirs, which he began at the See also:close of 1804, and concluded in See also:September 18o5, were published in 18o6, and a supplement was added in 1807. This narrative, which includes a long account of his See also:Spanish mission, contains some interesting reminiscences of several persons of note—more especially Bubb Dodington, Single-Speech See also:Hamilton, and Lord George Sackville among politicians, and of See also:Garrick, See also:Foote and See also:Goldsmith; but the accuracy of some of the anecdotes concerning the last-named is not beyond suspicion. The See also:book exhibits its author as an amiable egotist, careful of his own reputation, given to prolixity and undistinguished by wit, but a good observer of men and See also:manners. The uneasy self-absorption which See also:Sheridan immortalized in the character of Sir Fretful Plagiary in The Critic is apparent enough in this autobiography, but presents itself there in no offensive See also:form. The incidental criticisms of actors have been justly praised. Cumberland was hardly warranted in the conjecture that no English author had yet equalled his See also:list of dramas in point of number; but his plays, published and unpublished, have been computed to amount to fifty-four. About 35 of these are See also:regular plays, to which have been added 4 operas and a See also:farce; and about half of the whole list are comedies. ' The best known of them belong to what he was pleased to See also:term " legitimate comedy," and to that See also:species of it known as sentimental." The essential characteristic of these plays is the See also:combination of plots of domestic See also:interest with the rhetorical enforcement of moral precepts, and with such small comic See also:humour as the author possesses.

These comedies are primarily, to See also:

borrow Cumber-land's own phraseology, designed as " attempts upon the See also:heart." He takes great credit to himself for See also:weaving his plays out of homely stuff, right British drugget,'' and for eschewing " the vile refuse4f the Gallic See also:stage "; on the other See also:hand, he borrowed from the sentimental fiction of his own See also:country, including See also:Richardson, See also:Fielding and See also:Sterne. The favourite theme of his plays is virtue in See also:distress or danger, but safe of its See also:reward in the fifth See also:act; their most See also:constant characters are men of feeling and See also:young ladies who are either prudes or coquettes. Cumber-land's comic power—such as it was—lay in the invention of comic characters taken from the " outskirts of the See also:empire," and professedly intended to vindicate from English See also:prejudice the good elements in the Scotch, the Irish and the colonial character. For the See also:rest, patriotic sentiment liberally asserts itself by the See also:side of See also:general morality. If Cumberland's See also:dialogue lacks brilliance and his characters reality, the construction of the plots is as a See also:rule, skilful, and the situations are contrived with what Cumberland indisputably possessed—a thorough insight into the secrets of theatrical effect. It should be added that, though Cumberland's sentimentality is often wearisome, his morality is generally See also:sound; that if he was without the See also:genius requisite for elevating the See also:national drama, he did his best to keep it pure and sweet; and that if he borrowed much, as he undoubtedly did, it was not the vicious attractions of other dramatists of which he was the plagiary. His debut as a dramatic author was made with a tragedy, The Banishment of See also:Cicero, published in 1761 after its rejection by Garrick; this was followed in 1765 by a musical drama, The Summer's See also:Tale, subsequently compressed into an afterpiece Amelia (1768). Cumberland first essayed sentimental comedy in The See also:Brothers (1769). The theme of this comedy is inspired by Fielding's Tom See also:Jones; its comic characters are the See also:jolly old See also:tar See also:Captain See also:Ironsides, and the henpecked See also:husband Sir See also:Benjamin See also:Dove, whose progress to self-assertion is genuinely comic, though not altogether original. See also:Horace See also:Walpole said that it acted well, but read See also:ill, though he could distinguish in it " strokes of Mr Bentley." The See also:epilogue paid a compliment to Garrick, who helped the See also:production of Cumberland's second comedy The See also:West-See also:Indian (1771). The See also:hero of this comedy, which probably owes much to the See also:suggestion of Garrick, is a young scapegrace fresh from the tropics, " with See also:rum and See also:sugar enough belonging to him to make all the See also:water in the See also:Thames into See also:punch,"—a libertine with generous instincts, which in the end prevail. This See also:early example of the See also:modern drame was received with the utmost favour; it was afterwards translated into See also:German by Boden, and See also:Goethe acted in it at the See also:Weimar See also:court.

The Fashionable See also:

Lover (1772) is a sentimental comedy of the most pronounced type. The Choleric See also:Man (1774), founded on the Adelphi of See also:Terence, is of a similar type, the comic See also:element rather predominating, but philanthropy being duly represented by a virtuous lawyer called Manlove. Among his later comedies may be mentioned The Natural Son (1785), in which See also:Major O'Flaherty who had already figured in The West-Indian, makes his reappearance; The Impostors (1789), a comedy of intrigue; The See also:Box See also:Lobby See also:Challenge (1794), a protracted farce; The See also:Jew (1794), a serious See also:play, highly effective when the character of Sheva was played by the great German actor Theodor D8ring; The See also:Wheel of See also:Fortune (1795), in which John See also:Kemble found a celebrated part in the misanthropist Penruddock, who cannot forget but learns to forgive (a character declared by See also:Kotzebue to have been stolen from his Menschenhass and Reue), while the lawyer See also:Timothy See also:Weasel was made comic by Richard Suett; First Love (1795); The Last of the Family (1795); False Impressions (1797) ; The Sailor's Daughter (1804); and -a Hint to Husbands (1806), which, unlike the, rest, is in blank verse. The other See also:works printed during his lifetime include The See also:Note of Hand (1774), a farce; the songs of his musical comedy, The Widow of See also:Delphi (1780); his tragedies of The See also:Battle of Hastings (1778); and The Carmelite (1784), a romantic domestic drama in blank verse, in the See also:style of Home's See also:Douglas, furnishing some effective scenes for Mrs See also:Siddons and John Kemble as mother and son; and the domestic drama (in prose) of The Mysterious Husband (1783). His posthumously printed plays (published in 2 vols. in 1813) include the comedies of The See also:Walloons (acted in 1782); The Passive Husband (acted as A Word for Nature, 1798); The See also:Eccentric Lover (acted 1798); and Lovers' Resolutions (once acted in 1802); the serious quasi-historic drama See also:Confession; the drama See also:Don Pedro (acted 1796); and the tragedies of Alcanor (acted as The Arab, 1785); Torrendal; The Sibyl, or The Elder See also:Brutus (afterwards amalgamated with other plays on the subject into a very successful tragedy for See also:Edmund See also:Kean by See also:Payne); Tiberius in Capreae; and The False See also:Demetrius (on a theme which attracted See also:Schiller). Cumberland translated the Clouds of See also:Aristophanes (1797), and altered for the stage See also:Shakespeare's See also:Timon of See also:Athens (1771), See also:Massinger's The Bondman and The Duke of See also:Milan (both 1779). In 1806–1807 appeared Memoirs of R. Cumberland, written by himself. Cumberland's novel, Henry, was printed in Ballantyne's Novelists' Library (1821), with a prefatory See also:notice of the author by Sir See also:Walter See also:Scott. A so-called Critical Examination of Cumberland's works and a memoir of the author based on his autobiography, with the addition of some more or less feeble criticisms, by See also:William Madford, appeared in 1812, An excellent account of Cumberland is included in " George Paston's " Little Memoirs of the Eighteenth See also:Century (1901). ' See also:Hettner well characterizes Cumberland's position in the See also:history of the English drama in Litteraturgesch. d. 18.

Jahr hunderts (2nded., 1865), i. 52o. Cumberland's portrait by See also:

Romney (whose See also:talent he was one of the first to encourage) is in the Nationale. Portrait See also:Gallery. (A. W.

End of Article: CUMBERLAND, RICHARD (1732-1811)

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