492 Memoir of James Sheridan Knowles. [MAY, 



Our author was sent to England at eight years of age, and educated 

 there, which accounts for his betraying so little of the Irish tongue, con- 

 sidering the time he has spent among his countrymen. The dramatic 

 instinct manifested itself in him at the age of twelve, when, being con- 

 nected with a juvenile company of private actors, the idea of writing 

 a play for himself, first occurred to him. We know not what became 

 of it. This was followed by an opera, founded on the history of the 

 Chevalier de Grillon, and given to Richardson, the friend of Sheridan, 

 by whom, or betwixt whom, it was lost. At fourteen Mr. Knowles was 

 the author of a little song, of which many who know it well will be glad 

 to learn to whom they are indebted for it. It is entitled the Welsh Harper, 

 and begins, " Over the sunny hills I stray." At sixteen, he wrote a 

 tragedy in five acts, called the Spanish Story, which is still in existence j 

 at twenty-four, Hersilia, a play which never appeared, and was given to 

 Tom Sheridan -, and at twenty-six, another called the Gipsey, which was 

 acted at Waterford, Kean playing the hero. Kean told Mr. Knowles after- 

 wards that " he would have given any thing to know where he was, in 

 order that he might have used it for his first appearance in London." The 

 Gipsey was succeeded by Brien Boroighme, an alteration from a piece by 

 a Mr. Mara, which had extraordinary success in Belfast, and brought 

 hundreds to the theatre. The next play in order of composition (for 

 Virginius was not written before it, as report has given out) was Cains 

 Gracchus, performed in the same town, and subsequently in London after 

 Virginius. Beautiful Virginius came next, the subject suggested by Mr. 

 Kean., and not, as is commonly supposed, by Mr. Macready. Mr. Mac- 

 ready performed the principal character so well, and has so established his 

 reputation for excellence in domestic tenderness, that the supposition was 

 natural enough, especially as nobody knew that Mr. Kean had ever seen 

 the play. Perhaps the report partly originated in the fact, that Mr. 

 Macready did suggest the subject of the play that followed, that of Wil- 

 liam Tell. It is very honourable to those two actors, that they thought 

 of subjects so good, and on the side of liberty ; especially as this was 

 before the arrival of the Glorious Three Days, which gave such a won- 

 derful-turn to things, and made the side of liberty the sunny side of the 

 political world. William 7e// was followed by the Beggar's Daughter of 

 Bethnal Green another failure, to which, however, we owe the piece 

 which is now so triumphant. Then came Alfred, which succeeded; and 

 then the Hunchback, which is succeeding now, and for ever. 



Mr. Knowles was intended for the medical profession, and studied for 

 it -j but the instinct of genius drew him more and more towards the stage 



