£ ; 2S MUR 
His voice was lioarfe and hollow, yet To ftrong, 
As when you hear the murmuring of a throng 
In fome vait arched hall; or like as when 
A lordly lion anger’d in his den 
Grumbles within the earth. Drayton's David and Gobi ah. 
Complaint half fuppreffed.— Murmuring is a fecret dif- 
contented muttering one to another of things that we 
diflike, or perfons that we diftafte ; and the very word in 
all languages Teems as harfli unto our ears as the fin is 
hateful unto our fouls. Dp. Williams's Chariot of Truth. 
MUR'MURINGLY, adv. With a low found ; mut- 
teringly. Sherwood. 
MtJR'MUROUS, adj. Exciting murmur.—Round his 
fwoln heart the murmurous fury rolls. Pope. 
MURNAU', a town of Bavaria : ten miles fouth Weil- 
haim, and fourteen fouth-eaft of Schongau. 
MUR'NIG SEE', a lake of Carinthia : ten miles north- 
weft of Welach. 
MUR'NIVAL, f. [ marnefic , Fr. from morncr, to ftun.] 
Four cards of a fort. Skinner and Ainfworth. 
MU'RG, a town of Naples, in the province of Otranto: 
.fix miles north-north-eaft of Aleftano. 
MU'RO, a town of Naples, in Balilicata ; the fee of a 
bifliop, fuffraga.n of Conza: eleven miles fouth-eaft of 
Gonza, and fifty-nine eaft of Naples. Lat. 40. 47. N. 
Ion. 15. 32. E. 
MU'RO, a mountain of Portugal, which forms a weftern 
boundary to the province of Tra los Montes. 
MURO'L, a town of France, in the department of the 
Puy de Dome : three miles north of Belle. 
MURO^R, a town of Hindooftan, in thecircarof Mahur: 
thirty-eight miles north of Neermul. 
MU'ROS, or Muroz, a fmall fea-port town of Spain, 
in the province of Galicia, fituated between Bayona and 
Corunna, upon the north bank of a fmall gulf formed by 
the mouth of the Tambra: on the other fide is Noya and 
its fertile plain, where is one of the beautiful dock-yards 
of Galicia for the conftruCtion of Ihips. 
MUR'PHY (Arthur), a confiderable dramatic writer, 
was born, according to his own account, which he ex¬ 
tracted from his mother’s prayer-book, at Clooniquin, 
in the county of Rofcommon, in Ireland, on the 27th of 
December, 1727. Elis father, Richard Murphy, who was 
a merchant, failed, in 1729, in one of his own trading- 
vefiels for Philadelphia; but the voyage was truly dif- 
aftrous; the fhip was loft, probably in a violent ftorm, 
and neither the mafter nor one of the fillip’s company w'as 
ever afterwards heard of. From this time the care of the 
fubjeft of the prefent article devolved upon his mother. 
In 1735 flie removed, with her children, to London. 
Arthur did not remain long in the metropolis; he was fent 
for to Boulogne by his aunt, Mrs. Plunkett, his mother’s 
lifter. At ten years of age he was placed in the Englifh 
college at St. Oraer’s, where he remained fix years; and 
was in 1744 difmiffed to London, being then feventeen 
years old. In fpeaking of his college-exercifes, he lays, 
from the middle of the fecond year he obtained the firft 
place, and, excepting three times, maintained his ground 
through five fucceflive years'. In the middle of the year 
in poetry, he flood a public examination of the EEneid 
by heart. The Jefuits were arranged in order; the reCtor 
of the college examined his pupil, and never once found 
him-at fault: at the end of half an hour, the reflor took 
.a pen to write Murphy’s eulogium. The fcholars all w'ent 
by aflumed names, Murphy had changed his to French; 
in reference to this, the words of the reftor were, Gallus 
nomine, Gallus cs, qnifimul ac alas expandis, cateros Juper- 
volituus. “ This,” fays Mr. Murphy towards the clofe 
of his life, “ at the time filled me with exultation, and 
even now is remembered by me with a degree of pleafure. 
I often look back with delight to my fix years’, refidence 
in the college of St. .Omer’s. During .that time I knew 
no objeCt of attention but Greek and Latin, and I have 
thought, and ftiil think, it the happieft period of my life.” 
M U R 
On his return to England, he refuted with his mother 
til! Auguft 1747, when he was fent to Cork, to an uncle, 
in whole counting-houfe he was employed till April 1749. 
After this, his uncle, Jeffery French, would have fent him 
to Jamaica to overlook a large eftate which he poflefled in 
that ifland; but, having very little tafte for that fort of 
bufinefs, he returned to his mother in London. This 
was in the year 1751. He foon became acquainted with 
the wits of the day; and, in OCtober 1752, he publifhed 
the firft number of “The Gray’s Inn Journal,” a weekly 
paper, which he continued for two years. On the death 
of his uncle, Jeffery French, he was much -difappointed 
at not finding his name mentioned in his will, aryl the 
more fo as he had contracted debts, in faith of a good 
legacy, to the amount of 300I. He appears firft to have 
efihyed his dramatic powers in the farce of “ The Appren¬ 
tice,” aCted in 1756, and directed againft the prevailing folly 
of fpouting-clubs. It was followed by “The Upholfterer,” 
a fatire againft politicians in low life, founded on a very 
humorous delineation of character by Addifon in the 
Tatler. Both thefe were well received by the public. 
Mr. Murphy about this time made fome attempts as an 
actor, but with a failure of fuccefs that expofed him to 
the ridicule of the cauftic Churchill in his Rofciad. A 
tragedy, intitled “ The Orphan of China,” formed on 
the model of Voltaire’s play with that title, came from 
his pen in 1759, and was aCted with applaufe. Its fuc¬ 
cefs enabled him honourably to difeharge a fecurity for 
500I. which he had given for a brother who died in the 
Weft Indies. His “ Defert Ifland,” a dramatic poem, 
founded on the Ifola Difhabitata of Metaftafio, and his 
“ Way to Keep Him,” a comedy, firft of three adls, after¬ 
wards enlarged to five adls, and perhaps the moft popular 
of his dramatic compofitions, appeared in 1760. After 
he had refigned the ftage in a capacity of a performer, he 
engaged in the ftudy of the law with a profeffional view. 
An attempt twice repeated, to enter the fociety of Gray’s 
Inn, was rejedted on the plea of his having been a player. 
The fociety of Lincoln’s Inn, however, gave him admif- 
fion. Mr. Murphy occafionaily went the circuits, but 
never obtained much employment in his legal charadler. 
He was at the bar twenty-fix years, during which his 
total receipts were 10,744b 15s. 
A variety of other dramatic pieces, confifting of tra¬ 
gedy, comedy, and farce, fucceftively proceeded from his 
fertile pen. For the ground-work of thefe he was ge¬ 
nerally obliged to a foreign original, but he always em¬ 
ployed confiderable pains and judgment to fit them for 
the Englifh theatre. Of his exertions in this walk h® 
thus fpeaks in his prologue to Zenobia : 
Not to tranjlate our bard his pen doth dip ; 
He takes a play, as Britons take a fhip : 
They heave her down ; with many a flurdy ftroke 
Repair her well, and build with heart of oak ; 
To every breeze fet Britain’s ftreamers free. 
New man her, and away again to fea. 
“ This,” fays one of Mr. Murphy’s biographers, “ is an 
ingenious iiluftration of the bufinefs of dramatic altera¬ 
tion, but cannot elevate it to the rank of original com¬ 
position.” Mr. Murphy’s plays generally aCted well, and 
had temporary fuccefs, but they made little addition to 
the true theatrical flock of the country. His farces ftiil 
are aCted, fo alfo are his “ Way to Keep Him,” and the 
“ Grecian Daughter.” At one period of his life, as we 
have feen, he engaged in the field of political warfare: 
he alfo publifhed ieveral occalional poems, and gave Latin 
verfions of fome popular Englifh poems; by the latter he 
obtained great credit as an elegant fcholar. In 1786, he 
publifhed his works collectively, in feven volumes, oCtavo. 
In 1792, he appeared as one of the biographers of Dr. 
Johnfon, in “ An Eflay on his Life and Genius;” and in 
the following year he publifhed a tranflation of Tacitus, 
in four volumes, quarto, dedicated to the late Edmund 
Burke. To this work, which is done in a refpeCtable and 
eve« 
