Roger Boyle [Earl of Orrery] (1621-79)
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Life
| [Baron Broghill; 1st Earl of Orrery; son of Richard Boyle (1st Earl of Cork; q.v.)]; created Lord Broghill 1627; entered TCD, 1636 (aetat. 15); toured France and Italy; m. Margaret Howard, sis. of Earl of Suffolk; reached Ireland 1641; deserted Parliament at execution of Charles I; private interview with Oliver Cromwell resulting in military office in Ireland during the campaign of 1649; visited Charles II in France during Interregnum and received coldly by the king on his visit to England in 1660; he persuaded Wilson, the Gov. of Limerick, and Sir Charles Coote, commander in the North, to take the King’s side against Richard Cromwell when he - then the Protector - dissolved Parliament and thus dismantled his own party and power; created Earl of Orrery by Charles, 1660; appt. President of Munster but passed over for the viceregal office [Lord Lieutenant]; |
| turned to writing; his early works incl. Parthenissa (1654-65), a romance in the style of in the style of de Scudéry, was printed in Waterford; A Poem ... on the Restoration; Poem on the Death of Cowley; History of Henry V (1668); author of verse drama circulated at court in London, incl. Mustapha (1668), The Black Prince (1669), Henry V (1672); Triphon (1672), Mark Anthony (1690), Guzman (1693); Herod the Great (1694), mostly tragedies; his heroic verse drama, Altemera, one of the first of the genre, was registered in London as The Generall, 1663; performed at Smock Alley [Thomas Court], Dublin, 18 Oct. 1662/3, following Katherine [“Orinda”] Philips Pompey (also 1663), ante-dating plays by Dryden and Howard in the same vein, and - like hers - written in the spirit of Orinda’s Society of Friendship; neo-Platonic in spirit, it lacks any comic elements or any characters other than aristocrats; issued in a version revised by Charles Boyle, 1702; Mr Anthony (1692), a comedy, published posthumously. RR ODNB CAB OCEL OCIL |
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Works| Contemporary editions |
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| Collected plays |
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Criticism
William Smith Clark, Roger Boyle, Earl of Orrery and his Successors in the English Heroic Play (Harvard 1926) [dissertation]; See Irish Book Lover, Vols. 2, 4 & 13; 13 (Lord Orrery); Richard Ryan, Biographia Hibernica, Irish Worthies (1821), vol. I, p.179.
See also remarks in Christopher Morash, A History of Irish theatre, 1601-2000 (Cambridge UP 2002), 322pp. - viz., chap. on Katherine Philips.
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Commentary
Edmund Borlase, Execrable Rebellion (1680), on Lord Broghill: ‘Lord Dungarvan and Lord Broghill summoning the castle of Ardmore in the county of Waterford, 21 August 1642, it was yielded upon mercy. Nevertheless, one hundred and forty men were put to the sword.’ Further: ‘That he knew not what quarter meant.’ (p.110-11; quoted in O’Connell’s Memoir on Ireland, 1884, p.263.)
Sir Edmund Gosse, introduction to Restoration Plays [Everyman Plays] (London: Dent 1912; new edn. 1932; rep. 1968), speaking of Betterton: ‘He is supposed to have visited the theatre of Molière […] but probably what pleased him best were not such French tragedies as we admire today, but those of Quinault and Thomas Corneille, with their languishing ardours of love and romantic travesties of history. These seem, at all events, to have inspired the founder of the English “heroic” tragedy, Roger Boyle, first Earl of Orrery, who had spent his youth in France, and whose Henry V, in 1664, offered Betterton that part of Owen Tudor in whic he is said to have laid the basis of his boundless reputation. / These plays are hardly comprehensible by us today, unless we understand them to represent, as we have said, a semi-operative convention which had its civilising effect manners. When Diderot asked his terrible questions: “Has any one every spoken as we declaim? Do kings walk otehrwise than does every man who walks well? Do princesses always hiss between their teeth when they talk?” he laid the axe to the root of the whole practice of classical histrionics. There was a radical absence of simplicity about the conveniton of tragedy, and a determined abuse of all the tricks of rhetoric, but thes faults are more obvious in England than in France. […]’ (p.ix; and see also under W. B. Yeats, Notes, infra.)
William Smith Clark, Roger Boyle, Earl of Orrery and his Successors in the English Heroic Play (Harvard 1926) [dissertation] shows that Altemera was first played in Dublin, and that it was registered in London as The Generall in 1663.
W. B. Stanford, Ireland and the Classical Tradition (IAP 1976; 1984), the first Anglo-Irish dramatist to use a tragic theme ... Roger Boyle, Lord Broghill, afterwards Earl of Orrery ... His Tryphon (1668) enacted the story of the pretender to the throne of Syria in the 2nd century BC as related by Josephus in History of the Jews and in the First Book of Maccabees; the production failed; his play Herod not staged. (p.91.) Further, Roger Boyle, Lord Baron Broghill, 1st Earl of Ossory, a professional Anglo-Irish soldier under Charles I, Cromwell, and Charles II, dramatist, poet of sorts, and elder brother of Robert Boyle, produced a Treatise on the Art of War (1677), involving an ostensibly scientific approach but extensive material from Greek and Roman history. He affirmed, ‘the Ultimate and Onely Legitimate end of war is, or at least ought to be, among Christians, the Obtaining of a Good and Lasting Peace.’ (p.188.)
Raymond Gillespie, ‘Reading the Bible in Seventeenth Century Ireland’, in Bernadette Cunningham and Máire Kennedy, eds., The Experience of Reading: Irish Historical Perspectives (Dublin: Rare Books Group 1999), pp.10-38, quoting King: ‘I confess an aversion from the late custom of our age of every private hand as it serves on occasion to draw all stories and expressions of scripture into the consequence for the conduct of our lives and the framing of our opinioins. I have observed this to be of mischievous effect and destructive in a great measure to the respect and obedience we owe to civil authority. I revere the scriptures but esteem them given us for other use than to fortify disputes concerning state affairs out of every part of them.’ (The Irish Colours displayed, London 1662, p.16; here p.26.)
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| Richard Ryan, Biographia Hibernica: Irish Worthies, Vol. I [of 2] (London & Dublin 1819), pp.135-52. |
[...] On the execution of Charles I Lord Broghill was so much shocked at that melancholy occurrence, that he immediately quitted the service of the parliament, and abandoning his estates in Ireland, embarked for England. He now retired to his seat at Marston, in Somersetshire, where he lived privately till 1649; but this inactive life soon wearied him. He regarded it as a dereliction of his duty to the unfortunate family of the Stuarts, and unfit for a man of his quality. The principles of loyalty in which he had been educated stimulated him to active exertions, and he resolved upon passing over to the continent, to procure a commission from Charles II to levy forces for his service in Ireland. For this purpose, he raised a considerable sum of money upon his estates, and applied to the Earl of Warwick, who was then in great credit with the prevailing party, requesting him to procure for him a free pass to go over to the Spa, the waters of that place having been recommended to him as essential to the recovery and preservation of his health. He also communicated his design to several persons whom he conceived equally devoted with himself to the cause of their exiled {136} sovereign; and the plan being approved of by them, he went to London to wait for his passport. The committee of state, who were then at the head of the government, were ever on the watch to discover the designs of the partisans of Charles, and spared no money to procure intelligence. The Lord Broghill’s: abilities were too well known to them, his principles they had: every reason to suspect were unfavourable to their government, and his every motion was watched: His secret intentions were soon discovered, and the committee resolved upon making him an example to deter the friends of the king from exerting themselves in his behalf. From this resolution they. were, however, diverted by Cromwell, who had just been appointed to the command of the forces in-Ireland, and who was aware what essential service might be rendered him in that office by the interest of Lord Broghill, and his intimate acquaintance: with the country, the subjugation of which he was about to attempt. He represented these reasons to the committee, of which he was a member, and prevailed on them to allow him to talk with Lord Broghill, previous to proceeding to extremities. Having obtained this permission, he immediately dispatched a gentleman to Lord Broghill, requesting to know at what hour it would be convenient for the general to wait upon him. Lord Broghill was much surprised at this message, never having had the slightest acquaintance with Cromwell, and he informed the messenger, that he must: be mistaken in the person to whom the message was sent. The gentleman, however, insisting that it was to the Lord Broghill, his lordship requested him to inform his master, that he would wait upon him if he knew when he would be at leisure, and added, that in the mean time he would remain at home to receive the general’s answer. Relying upon the honour of those he had entrusted with his secret, he did not entertain the slightest idea that his intentions had been discovered, and he remained at home {137}
in much perplexity, waiting the return of the messenger, when, to his great surprise, Cromwell himself entered the room. After the first civilities were exchanged between them, Cromwell in few words informed him, that the committee of state were aware of his design of going over and applying to Charles Stuart for a commission to raise forces in Ireland, and that they had determined to punish him with the greatest severity, had not he himself diverted them from their resolution. Lord Broghill on this, interrupted him, with an assurance that the committee had been misled by false intelligence, as he had neither the power nor the inclination to raise any disturbance in Ireland; he also thanked the general for his kind offices to him, and entreated him to continue his good opinion. Cromwell made no reply, but drew from his pocket some papers, and put them into Lord Broghill’s hands. These were copies of several letters which he had sent to some of the persons, on whose assistance he most relied. Finding farther dissimulation impracticable, he asked his excellency’s pardon for what he had said, thanked him for his protection against the resolutions of the committee, and entreated his advice how to act on so delicate an occasion. Cromwell candidly told him, that though till that time he had been a stranger to his person, he was none to his merits and character; that he had heard how gallantly his lordship had already behaved in the Irish wars; and therefore, since he was named lord-lieutenant. of Ireland and the reduction of that country had now become his province, he had obtained leave of the committee to offer him the command of a general-officer, if he would serve in that war; that he should have no oaths nor engagements imposed upon him, nor be expected to draw his sword, except against the Irish rebels. So generous and unexpected an offer much surprised Lord Broghill. [...] |
| See full copy in RICORSO > Library > Criticism > History > Legacy - via index, or as attached. |
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Quotations
The Black Prince (1669), Preface: ‘Is England’s genius, this victorious name / Which shakes the world and fills the mouth of fame/So much forgot [that you] ...Seek new worlds for a less noble theme?’ [Wells, Microcards].
“On Christmas Day” (Poems), ‘Hail glorious day, which miracles adorn, / Since ‘twas on thee eternity was born!’; “On the Day of the Crucifixion” [… ending:] ‘Oh may this day in all hearts be engraved; / This day in which God dy’d and man was saved!’; on the Incarnation, ‘To prove him man, he did from woman come, / To prove him God, ’twas from a virgin womb ... Oh prodigie of mercy, which did make/The god of gods our human nature take! / And through our vaile of flesh, his glory shine, / That we thereby might share in the divine.’ (Extract in Cabinet of Irish Literature.)
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References
Libraries: University of Ulster Library, Morris Collection, holds Collection of the State Letters of the Rt. Hon. Roger Boyle, the 1st Earl of Orrery Lord President of Munster in Ireland, containing a series of correspondence between the Duke of Ormonde and his Lordship from the Restoration to the Year 1668 together with some letters. Belfast Linen Hall Library holds Answer to the scandalous letter ... by Peter Walsh (1662).
Notes
Charles Boyle revised Altemira in 1702 [supra]; Henry Bradshaw identified Parthenissa as a Waterford printing of 1654; there is an memoir, deemed unreliable, by Chaplain Connelly.
Hammered: Peter Walsh (?1618-88; q.v.) conducted a pamphlet war with Roger Boyle, Earl of Orrery, known as ‘the Hammer of the Catholics’ and the organiser of an extensive spy-ring throughout the country in the teeth of Ormonde’s administration.
Kith & kin: A brother Francis was created Viscount Shannon by Charles II at the Restoration having travelled to France at his brother”s behest to invite the king to Ireland - an invitation rejected in favour of the support of General Monck (later Duke of Albemerle) in England. Francis also wrote, and produced “Discourses and Essays, useful for the vain modish Ladies and their Gallants; as also upon several subjects, moral and divine, in two parts”. This collection of prose contains essay-titles such as such as “Against maids marrying for mere love, &c.”, “Against widows marrying” and “Against keeping of misses” &c. - all cited by Richard Ryan in his article on Viscount Shannon as being cited in “Park’s edition of Orford’s Royal and Noble Authors”. (See Ryan, “Francis Boyle”, in Biographia Hibernica, Vol. 1, 1819, pp.152-53 - as attached..)
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