G. C. Duggan, The Stage Irishman (Dublin: Talbot 1937), notes that Henry Brooke’s Little John and the Giants [?viz., Jack the Giant Queller] pillories the Dublin Corporation. Further, Duggan remarks that the degradation of the Irish servant character Teague in Farquhar’s The Twin Rivals into the sentimental version represented by Tirlah O’Flaherty in Henry Brooke’s The Contending Twins, being a close adaptation of the other, shows the fate of the Irish servant in the stagnating English theatre.

Russell K. Alspach, Irish Poetry from the English Invasion to 1798 (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania UP 1959), ‘Charlotte Brooke’, pp.110-21; cites Desmond Ryan on an occasion when Brooke took the pulpit: ‘He consented, and the prayers being over with he opened the Bible and preached extempore on the first text that struck his eye. In the middle of his discourse the clergyman entered and found the whole congregation in tears. He entreated Mr. Brooke to proceed; but this he modestly refused; and the other as modestly declared, that, after the testimony of superior abilities, which he perceived in the eyes of all present, he would think it presumptive and folly to hazard anything his own.’ (Ryan, The Sword of Light, 1939, p.43; Alspach, p.110.)

A. N. Jeffares, Anglo-Irish Literature (London: Macmillan 1982), remarks:‘The fashionable cult of sentimentality reappeared, notably in The Fool of Quality (1776), a novel [...] that is vibrating with sentiment, yet remains eminently readable. Brooke translated Tasso and wrote several tragedies, notably the bombastic Gustava Vasa (1739) as well as a second novel Juliet Grenville (1774).’ Further, [Brooke] married a girl of fourteen; among his children, Charlotte; Brooke wrote a poem ‘Comrade’ which purported to be a fragment of a saga; his Universal Beauty (1735) anticipates Erasmus Darwin [and was admired by Pope].

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Robert E. Ward & Catherine Ward, eds., Letters of Charles O’Conor (1988), cite The Farmer’s Case of the Roman Catholics of Ireland (Dublin: Patrick Lord 1760), advertised by Patrick Lord, printer, as appearing on March 2, in Dublin Journal, 26- Feb–1 March (W&W, p.84; n.3); Brooke writes to O’Conor offering to be secretary to the larger Catholic Association envisaged by Curry and others after the commandeering of the other by Lord Trimleston; p.85, p.1; O’Conor write to Curry that ‘Brooke is now struggling with want, but he is the worst computer that I know. The pen is the worst tool for getting bread in Ireland ...’ (p.128); ‘I have received by my son the third edition of The Tryal, and I thank the writer but little for the cold compliment tacked to the conscious untruth that the author is not known’ (p.129); letter speaks of one, poss. Brooke, who has ‘deserted us, if we ever had him’ (13 Nov. 1762; p.139)

Robert Welch, A History of Verse Translation from the Irish 1789-1897 (Gerrards Cross 1988), Chp. 3, ‘Walker and Brooke’, [pp.28-43]. Cites Brooke, writing in Essay on the Ancient and Modern State of Ireland (1760), that ‘the most awkward-tongued Irishman in London speaks English with more propriety and a better accent than the smartest British petit mâitre in Paris doth French.’ (Quoted in R. B. McDowell, Irish Public Opinion 1750-1800, 1944, p.23.); Note also that Augusta, Gustava’s mother in Gustava Vasa speaks of the ‘terribly beauteous’ cause of Sweden [cf. Yeats’s poem ‘Dublin 1916’].

Joseph Th. Leerssen, Mere Irish & Fior-Ghael: Studies in the Idea of Irish Nationality, Its Development and Literary Expression Prior To The Nineteenth Century (John Benjamins Pub. Co., Amsterdam & Philadelphia, 1986), quotes Brooke: ‘[…] Papists of this Kingdom, are particularly placid and peaceable, at this Season, But reflect whether we ought not to dread the heavier Storm, from so very still and sullen a Calm. [...] those Men, by whom our Maidens were polluted, by whom our Matrons were left childless [...] [etc], from Farmer’s Letters, Letter 2. Later, with reference to his Farmer’s Letters, ‘I most solemnly assure you that when I wrote those letters I was in perfect love and charity with every Roman Catholic in the kingdom of Ireland. I knew that they were a depressed people. I had long pitied them as such. I was sensible that the laws, under which they suffered, had been enacted by our ancestors, when the impressions of hostility were still fresh and warm, and when passion, if I may venture to say so, co-operated, in some measure, with utility and reason’ [in Brookiana, 1804]. He explained that he was ‘never anti-Catholic, but merely fearful that persecution had made Catholics disloyal’ - quoted from a 1760 reprint of the Farmer’s Letters, in Francis G. James, Ireland in the Empire 1688-1770, A history of Ireland from the Wiliamite wars to the eve of the American revolution (Harvard, 1973) [364]. In 1760 he was employed by the Catholic Committee, whose members incl. Charles O’Conor, John Curry, and Thomas Wyse, producing The Tryal of the Roman Catholics which attempted to deflate the myth of 1641 and demonstrate the trustworthiness of the Catholics in the new era [364]. Quotes the prospectus of Brooke’s History of Ireland, from the earliest times [ &c], which appeared in 1744: ‘[...] wherein are set forth the ancient and extraordinary customs, manners, religion, politics, conquests, and revolutions, of that once hospitable, polite, and martial nation; interspersed with traditionary digressions, and the private and affecting histories of the most celebrated of the natives’; with ‘a preface dedicatory to the most noble and illustrious the several descendants of the Milesian line’. Leerssen remarks that this shows his intentions of treating of all Irish record patriotically in a composite tale of honour. Earlier, he had indeed attempted to learn Irish on receipt of a flattering bardic poem. This project was spoiled when Robert Digby, planning a volume of Ogygian tales for which he published a prospectus in 1744, gained manuscript materials from Charles O’Conor which were then embezzled by his cousin, Henry Brooke for his own History. [377]. Leerssen later refers facetiously to this ‘co-operation’ between Digby and O’Conor as a sign of the growing adhesion of the Anglo-Irish to the idea of the Gaelic past as their own national past [382].

James Calahan, The Irish Novel: A Critical History (Boston: Twayne Publishers 1988), gives bio-dates as 1703-38 and cites Ernest Baker on Brooke’s The Fool of Quality. Further, this is a Bildungsroman about a young Protestant, Harry Moreland, who is trained to be a good landlord by a moral guide. Cahalan also cites Lubbers who finds Brooke’s own views on the easing of the Penal Code are reflected in his novel: ‘His views are close to Arthur Young’s and look forward to Edgeworth’s.’ (p.12.)

Christopher J. Wheatley, ‘“Our own good, plain, old Irish English”: Charles Macklin Cathal McLaughlin) and Protestant Convert Accommodations’, Bullán: An Irish Studies Journal, 4, 1 (Autumn 1998), pp.81-102, remarks that he ‘could be as flattered by Irish praise as English’, as shown in a narrative of an anonymous pamphleteer in Dublin 1784 (pp.87-88).

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Aileen Douglas, ‘the Novel befor 1800’, in The Cambridge Guide to the Irish Novel, ed. J. W. Foster (Cambridge UP 2006): ‘[...] Distinctions between public and private, home and abroad, are also challenged in Henry Brooke’s singular novel, The Fool of Quality. The fool of the title is Harry Clifton, rationally educated by his uncle, free from conventional views and therefore foolish in prejudiced eyes. The novel has two main threads: one charts the fortunes of the Clifton family over a quarter of a century; the other consistes of various interpolated tales - the life stories of the recipients of the extensive charity of Harry and his uncle. An evangelical novel of reeling, it which various characters are regularly born anew, the narrative dissolves boundaries between pleasure and grief, sexuality and sanctity, in ways that even some eighteenth-century readers, more flexible in this regard than their modern counterparts, found disturbing. Yet more striking is the novel’s unsettling treatment of originals and destinations, the local and the remote. / Ostensibly committed to a domestic ideal, the novel also insists that domestic space be ruptured for true social health: Harry’s beneficial career is inaugurated by his abduction at his uncle’s hands. This initial disregard for conventional notions of the domestic is subsequently offset by the particularly domestic version of the exotic at the novel’s close, when the now adult Harry encounters a Moorish page. One of the first characters in irish fiction to overcome racism, Harry is soon speaking of his former “aversion” to blackness and denouncing his prejudice. Then follow successive unpeelings of strangeness in which the page is revealed to be neither black, nor male, by Harry’s half-Moorish female cousin once-removed. [...].’ (p.36.)

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Quotations
The Farmer’s Letters to the Protestants of Ireland ( 1745): [Brooke warns against] ‘the intrigues of the Church of Rome, who like the world, the flesh, and the devil, make up a triple alliance of strength, intimacy, and craft sufficient for a formidable a war as ever was waged against religion and liberty. [...] that, as she [the RC Church] is ambition of being the prince of this world. She aims at the perversion of all mankind, that she has already seduced millions to her state of perdition; that, for many ages, she has attempted these Kingdoms of light and liberty, and that now, once and for all, she makes her grand effort; she exerts all her influence and summons all her power to subdue us to her dominion of darkness and chains, to which the descent is easy, but from whcih there is no redemption [...]’ (p.5.) Further: ‘Unhappy men! To what state are ye reduced? What usurpations suffer! What Prostitutions of Heaven, what Monopolies of Earth, what a Nightof Superstition, what a Wilderness of Doctrine, what Deprivations of Truth, what Persuasions of Error, what Slavery of Mind and Penalties of Body! Ye were born in the Yoke of your wretched Forefathers; and you have neither Courage nor strength to free yourself from so great a Burden. We Compassionate your Captivity; but we will die rather than share it; We love and cherish you; but we will not arm you to your own danger.’ (Ibid., p.6.)

The Farmer’s Letters to the Protestants of Ireland [2nd Letter] (1746): ‘When I return home, and am met by a Wife of pleased adn unfeigned Looks; when my Children spread their Arms around me and my Heart pours out its feelings over those rewards of my Industry, and Pledges of Happiness; is it possible that I should think with Patience of the Impending Ruin? To see my fields in flmaes, my House a Heap of Rubbish, my Wife rent from my Bosom, and my Infants quartered by War!’ (p.2.) ‘They say to us, had we lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been Partakers with them, in their Oppressions and Massacres: But herein they confess themselves to be the Children of those Men, by whom our Maidens were polluted, by whom our Matrons were left childless; by whom our grandsires were butherd, and their Infants dashed against the stones.’ (Idem., p.8.; all the foregoing quoted in Holland, Ph.D., UU 2004.)

The Farmer’s Case of the Roman Catholics of Ireland (1760): ‘if I know anything of myself, the quality called ill-nature, is not my characteristic [...] And I may say, with great truth, that an excess of humanity hadth occasioned all the misfortunes and distresss of my life. / I most solembly assure you, that when I wrote those letters I was in perfect love and charity with every Roman Catholic in the kingdom of Ireland. I knew that they were a depressed people. I had long pitied them as such. I was sensible that the laws, under whcih they suffered, had been enacted by our ancestors, when the impressions of hostility were still fresh and warm, and when passion, if I may venture to say so, co-operated, in some measure, with utility and reason. I will go a step further. I thought those laws not severe enough to suppress them as enemies, yet not sufficiently favourable to attach them to us as friends. They were not so cruel as to serve wholly for quelling; and yet they had a poignancy that might tend to provoke. And all this I imputed to the resentment that was blended with the humanity of our ancestors. Their humanity left to Papists a power of hurting, while their resentment abridged the inducements that might engage them to serve us.’ (Charles Henry Wilson, ed., Brookiana, 1804, pp.187-88.) Further, ‘Previous to the letters which you censure so warmly, a dangerous rebellion had broken out in Scotland, in consequence of a French invasion that was headed by a Popish-Pretender to the throne. Be pleased to remember (if it is not too mortifying a Recollection for a free-born Briton) the Panic into which all England was struck by a few Scotch vassals, undisciplined and unactuated by any motive of liberty and virtue, save the virtue of being attached to their laird or their leader. Millions of English, at that time, sunk in the down of a long peace, and enervated by ministerial corruption and venality, feared that a handful of Highlanders would win their way to London, and, at one stroke, put a period to the boasted strength and grandeur of the British constitution. / I was astonished at the apprehension that England was under from so contemptible an armament. But I deemed the case of Ireland to be highly alarming. The Roman Catholics, at that time, outnumbered us five to one. They were disarmed, it is true, but I was not equally sure that they had reason to be reconciled. As they were not admitted to realise their fortune, it consisted of ready money, and gave ready power. As they were not permitted to purchase or accept a tenure of any valuable length, loyalty, perhaps, might induce them to fight for their King; but where was the stake to impel them to fight for a country in which they had no inheritance? Without an interest in lands, they had little to lose by change of estate. [...].’ (Ibid., 188-90; all quoted in Pauline Holland, PhD. Diss., UUC 2004.)

The Farmer’s Case of the Roman Catholics of Ireland (1760): ‘There is a very wide difference between a Popish Regency, and a Popish People. The whole Intent, and Virulence, as you call it, of my Papers, is pointed and levelled against the One, but not a syllable uttered, from end to end, against the Other. A Popish regency, in temporals alike as in spirituals, I held to be, by principle, a[n] arbitrary and oppressive government; but I held the Popish people to be, of all people, the most amenable and submissive to rulers, whatever the form or nature of that state may be, under which they happen to be subjected. And, on this very account, I dreaded them the more, should they become passive instruments in the hands of a Papal dictator.’ (p.11; quoted in Holland, doct. diss. 2004 [pag. of pamphlet].)

Tryal of the Cause of the Roman Catholics (1761): ‘You must know I am a member of a Society of about thirty Protestant Gentlemen, partly English and partly Irish, who meet on Wednesday every week, at the King’s Arms Tavern [...] We aim at instruction as well as amusement; and, almost on every meeting, we debate some question of public concern [...] About four months ago we received some printed Papers, entitled, The Farmer’s Case of the Roman Catholics of Ireland. [...]’ Further, ‘But, God be praised! Neither our Sectaries, nor our Irish-Catholics, are Turks or Wild Indians; They are pious, and have long been, all peaceful men. However they may differ from Us, in some matters of Faith or of Form; They unite with us in the humble, and ardent, Adoradtion of our common CREATOR and Saviour. it is true that, in adhering to their ecclesiastical Errors, they decline some temporal Advantages, and further lay themselves under some very irksome Restraints, But is not this their Suffering, for Conscience Sake, the surest Testimony that they can give us of their inward Virtue and Integrity? And have we not, Thereby, a better hold on them, than all the Laws and Institutions upon Earth can give? Even the Obligations of Religion, their regard to Futurity, and their Attachment to CHRIST’S DOCTRINE OF LOVE AND PEACE.’ (3rd Edn., p.102; quoted in Pauline Holland, Ph.D., UU 2004.)

‘For righteous monarchs, / Justly to judge, with their own eyes should see; / To rule o’er freemen, should themselves be free.’ (Earl of Essex, I; in Dictionary of Quotations). Note, these lines were rendered satirically by Johnson thus: ‘To rule o’er fat oxen, should themselves be fat.’

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References

Dictionary of National Biography notes that Gustava Vasa was prohibited by the Lord Chamberlain at the instance of Robert Walpole, who was believed to be the model for Trollio [var. Trollis], the Viceregent of Christiern. The play was later produced successfully in Dublin as The Patriot, and was construed as having reference to Irish politics; his Betrayer of his Country was acted in Dublin in 1741; he contrib. ‘The Man of Law’ to Ogle’s Chaucer Modernised; The Earl of Westmoreland played first in Dublin (1745), and also Jack the Gyant Queller, op. sat. (1748). He retired to Kildare and later Cavan after office as barrack-master, and was ‘dreaming his life away’ when his wife and children, all but Charlotte, died. Further, The Farmers Letters &c. were written in the character of a Protestant farmer with the avowed object of rousing his co-religionists to make preparations against the Jacobite invasion. The peaceable demeanour of the Irish Catholics at the time was compared by Brooke to the attitude of the crocodile, which ‘seems to sleep when the prey approaches’; [...] The Spirit of Party (1754 [sic]), once more against the Irish Catholics, was criticised by Charles O’Conor in a pamphlet called “The Cottager”; [...] in 1760 he became secretary to an association of peers and others at Dublin [...] he entered negotiations with some influential Roman Catholics and was employed by them to write publicly in advocacy of their claims for a relaxation of the penal laws, and using material supplied by them he wrote Tryal; [...] In the same connection he published a ‘Proposal for the Restoration of Public Wealth and credit by means of a loan from the Roman Catholics of Ireland in consideration of enlarging their privileges’; also [...] a treatise on the constitutional rights and interests of the people of Ireland. [...] he was apparently the first conductor of The Freeman’s Journal (1763). [For further Irish applications of the ‘crocodile’ trope, see under Samuel Ferguson, q.v.]

The Cambridge History of English and American Literature, 18 vols. (Cambridge UP 1907-21), Vol. X: “The Age of Johnson” - III: ‘Sterne, and the Novel of His Times, §10: ‘Henry Brooke: The Fool of Quality’: [...] For our purposes, two things in particular deserve notice in the work of Brooke. In the first place, The Fool of Quality (1766) is more deeply stamped with the seal of Rousseau - the Rousseau of the second Discourse and of Émile - than is any other book of the period. The contempt which Rousseau felt for the conventions of society, his “inextinguishable hatred of oppression” in high places, his faith in the virtues of the poor and simple, his burning desire to see human life ordered upon a more natural basis - all this is vividly reflected upon every page of The Fool of Quality. It is reflected in the various discourses, whether between the personages of the story or between the author and an imaginary friend (of the candid sort), which are quaintly scattered throughout the book: discourses on education, heroism, debtors’ prisons, woman’s rights, matter and spirit, the legislation of Lycurgus, the social contract, the constitution of England - on everything that happened to captivate the quick wit of the author. Clearly, Brooke had grasped far more of what Rousseau came to teach the world, and had felt it far more intensely, than Mackenzie. Before we can find anything approaching to this keenness of feeling, this revolt against the wrongs of the social system, we have to go forward to the years immediately succeeding the outbreak of the French revolution; in particular to the years from 1790 to 1797 - the years of Paine and Godwin, of Coleridge’s “penny trumpet of sedition”; or, in the field of the novel, the years of Caleb Williams, of Nature and Art, of Hermsprong, or Man as he is not. There, no doubt, the cry of revolt was raised more defiantly. For, there, speculation was reinforced by practical example; and the ideas of Rousseau were flashed back, magnified a hundredfold by the deeds of the national assembly, the convention and the reign of terror. And this contrast between the first and the second harvest of Rousseau’s influence is not the least interesting thing in the story of the eighteenth century novel. / The second point which calls for remark is connected with the mystical side of Brooke’s character of which notice has been taken in an earlier chapter. Through the mystics, it will be remembered, Brooke was brought into touch with John Wesley and the methodists. It is, in fact, the methodistical, rather than the mystical strain which comes to the surface in The Fool of Quality - though, in the discourse on matter and spirit, mentioned above, the author boldly declares, “I know not that there is any such thing in nature as matter.” Such defiances, however, are rare, and, in general, the appeal of Brooke is of a less esoteric kind. He dwells much on conversion; and, as revised by Wesley, the book was long a favourite with methodists. [...] On the other novel of Brooke - Juliet Grenville or the History of the Human Heart (1774), it is not worth while to linger. His plays and poems may be passed by here. He lives, indeed, by The Fool of Quality, and by that alone.’ (Accessed at Bartleby.com [online]; 24.11.2004.)

Justin McCarthy, gen. ed. Irish Literature (Washington: Catholic Univ. of America 1904), gives extract from Earl of Essex.

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Peter Kavanagh, The Irish Theatre (Tralee: The Kerryman 1946), gives details: 1703-83; Gustava Vasa, the Deliverer of his Country (Dublin: Theatre Royal, Aungier St., 1741), 1739; Earl of Westmoreland (Aungier St., 8 Feb. 1741/2), 1778; Earl of Essex (Smock Alley, May 1750), 1761; Anthony and Cleopatra, unacted (1778); The Imposter, unacted (1771); Cymbeline, unacted (1778); Montezuma, unacted (1778); The Vestal Virgin, unacted (1778). Comedies, The Contending Brothers, unacted (1778); The Charitable Association, unacted (1778); The Female Officer, unacted com. (1778); The Marriage Contract, unacted (1778). Others, Jack the Giant Queller, op. allegory (Smock Alley 27 Mar 1778); Ruth, an oratoria [sic]. Gustava Vasa is taken from Vertot’s Revolutions of Sweden, and written by Brooke in Shakespearean style. Sir Robert Walpole was supposed to be represented in the char. of Trollis; acted as The Patriot in Aungier St., Feb. 1741 [PK, ftn. p.275, acted as the ?Betrayer of his Country, and acted in 1754 as Injured Honour]. Acted five times in the 1774-5 season, and revived at Smock Alley, 7 May 1772. His allegorical Jack the Giant Queller was brought out by Sheridan on 27 March 1749 and vetoed by the Lords Justices the next morning. It represents family of Goods waging war against Wealth, Power, Violence, and Wrong, with songs ridiculing bad governors, Mayors, and Aldermen. Rewritten and revived Smock alley early 1757. It was the only new piece to be prohibited on the Irish stage. Johnson’s parodied of Essex (‘To rule o’er freemen should themselves be free’ to ‘who drives fat oxen should himself be fat’) is given in Boswell’s Life of Dr Johnson (1924 ed., 3, 379). Brooke’s works ed. by his dg. Charlotte in 1792, omitting plays incl. in earlier ed. of 1788, suggesting that some were published there contrary to his wishes, and others published at that earlier date than he never had in fact written. Her edition includes a life.

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William Bergquist, A Checklist of English and American Plays [in conjunction with the Wells full-text Microcards] (1963), lists Anthony and Cleopatra (1778); Charitable Association (1778); Contending Brothers; Cymbeline; Earl of Essex; Female Officer; The Imposter; Marriage Contract; Montezuma; Prologue to Victims of Love and Pleasure; Vestal Virgin (all these in Collection of Pieces, Lon. 1778); also Gustava Vasa (Lon. 1739); and Jack the Gyant Queller (Faulkner, Dublin 1749).

Esther Sheldon, Thomas Sheridan of Smock Alley (Princeton UP 1967), Appendix of plays in Dublin during the age of Sheridan lists Henry Brooke, Jack the Giant Queller (1748-49), operatic play. Sheldon notes that Brooke was known pseudonymously as ‘the Farmer’.

W. B. Stanford, Ireland and the Classical Tradition (IAP 1976; 1984), lists NOTE, Irish classical plays incl. Brooke’s Anthony and Cleopatra (1778) [110].

Margaret Drabble, ed., Oxford Companion to English Literature, ed. (OUP 1985): Universal Beauty (1740) though to have greatly influenced E. Darwin’s The Botanic Garden; encouraged by Garrick, he wrote Gustava Vasa (1739), prohibited since the villain resembled Sir R. Walpole. Fool of Quality (1765-70) and Juliet Grenville (1774), both notable for loose structure and sustained note of high sensibility.

Seamus Deane, gen. ed., The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 1, p. 427 [IC Ross, ed., consistent classical influence; ‘deepest art’ belongs both to Minerva, goddess of wisdom whom Brooke sees as originating the universe, and to Urania, symbolising creative force; six books of his long philosophical poem, 1735, demonstrates nature of God and surveys creation, forms of knowledge, and nature of man, concluding with contemplation of beauty of overall design; Universal Beauty [428-29]; 492 [bibl. Extract form Universal Beauty, A Philosophical Poem (1735) from Poetical Works of Henry Brooke, Esq., 4 vols. ed Charlotte Brooke [3rd ed.] (Dublin 1792), II, pp.18-22]; 494 [biog., see 759]; 502 [Murray, ed., Gustava refused in London, staged in Dublin under title The Patriot; viewed tragedy as literary exercise [...] &c ,]; 685-86 [Sentimentalism ... evident in The Fool of Quality, or History of Henry, Earl of Moreland (1765-70); three years after Émile, directly inspired by Rousseau’s traité d’education; owes much to Tristram Shandy; education of boy-hero who derives sobriquet from admirable simplicity, by his merchant uncle via anecdotes and digressions on literature, politics, and religion; progress form birth to marriage first account of boyhood in fiction; tears flow as prelude to practical charity or authorial irony; interpolated dialogues between Author and Reader [notes and cites Sternean preface, 738 infra.]; lacks Irish dimension; nominal ‘English’ setting] also Juliet Grenville, or the History of the Human Heart (1774); The Fool of Quality [738-45, Preface; also includes Charles Skeffington’s uncomplimentary account of London life as char. of the novel’s patriotic and anti-English values, while Miss Freeman, is the novel’s English villainess, 758]; 759; The Farmer’s Letters to the Protestants of Ireland [900-02]; The Tryal and Cause of the Roman Catholics [909-12]; 957; 980; 1008; 1078; 114n. incl. John Wesley, preface to abridged ed. of The Fool of Quality (1781); WORKS [n. pubs.], Universal Beauty (1735); Tasso’s Jerusalem [...] translated ((1738); Gustava Vasa (1739); Farmer’s Letters (1745); Interests of Ireland Considered (1759); Tryal and Cause of Roman Catholics (1761); Earl of Essex (1761); Fool of Quality (1765-70), and Do. ed. Ronald Paulson (NY & London: Garland 1979); Juliet Grenville (1774); also John Wesley ‘Preface’ to abridg. ed. of The Fool of Quality (1781); Charles Kingsley, pref. to ed. of The Fool of Quality (1859).

A. N. Jeffares & Peter Van de Kamp, eds., Irish Literature: The Eighteenth Century - An Annotated Anthology (Dublin/Oregon: Irish Academic Press 2006), gives from The Fool of Quality [179-87].

Burke’s Peerage traces Brooke line in Ireland from Rev. William Brooke of Rantavan Hse., Co. Cavan, rector of Killinkere, eldest son of Dr. William Brooke of Dromovana, Co. Cavan.

Belfast Linenhall Library holds newspaper cuttings, shelfmark 2.15, 2.87, 2.117, 182.16.

Marsh’s Library (Dublin) holds The Poetical Works of H. B., revised by the original manuscript, &c., edited by Miss C[harlotte] Brooke [3rd ed] 4 vols. (Dublin 1792), 277 subscribers; also Interests of Ireland Considered particularly with respect to inland navigation (Dublin: for George Faulkner 1759), 8o [de luxe copy presented by author to Rev. John Wynne, DD, of Marsh’s library].

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British Library Catalogue lists [2] Universal Beauty. A poem. [By Henry Brooke.] [Another copy.] [Another copy.]. 6 pt. J. Wilcox: London 1735. fol. [3] Universal Beauty: a poem. [Part 1. By Henry Brooke.]. pp.20. London printed; re-printed by George Faulkner: Dublin 1736. 8o. [4-9: other namesake authors] [10] A Brief Essay on the Nature of Bogs, and the method of reclaiming them. Humbly addressed to the [...] Dublin Society, etc. pp.15. Printed by S. Powell: Dublin 1772. 8o. [11] A Collection of the Pieces formerly published by Henry Brooke, Esq. To which are added, several plays and poems, now first printed. 4 vol. Printed for the Author: London 1778. 8o. [12] A Compleat Vindication of the Licensers of the Stage, from the malicious and scandalous aspersions of Mr. Brooke, author of Gustavus Vasa. With a proposal for making the office of Licenser more extensive and effectual. By an Impartial Hand [i.e. Samuel Johnson]. [Another copy.]. pp.31. C. Corbett: London 1739. 4o. [13] Benignity, or the Ways of happiness. A serious novel, selected, with additional conversations, from the works of H. Brooke [...] By a Lady. pp.vii. 280. P. Norbury: Brentford 1818. 8o. [14] Gustavus Vasa [...] As performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. Printed [...] from the prompt book. With remarks by Mrs. Inchbald. [Another edition.] [Another edition.] [Another edition.] [Another edition.] [Another edition.] [Another edition.] [A reissue.]. pp.61. Longman, Hurst, Rees & Orme: London, [1806.] 12o. pp.61. pp.54. 1824. pp.12. [1826.]. 1871. pp.50. London, [1877?] 8o. [15] Gustavus Vasa, etc. pp.72. [16] Gustavus Vasa, etc. pp.80. Printed by A. Donaldson & J. Reid for Alexander Donaldson: Edinburgh 1761. 12o [17] Gustavus Vasa, the deliverer of his country [...] The fourth edition. Dublin: James Williams 1773. pp.vi, 71. 12o. [18] Gustavus Vasa, the deliverer of his country. A tragedy. As it was to have been acted at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane. By Henry Brooke [...] London: printed for R. Dodsley [...] 1739. viii, [14], 81, [5]p. (8o); 21cm [19] Gustavus Vasa, the Deliverer of his Country. A tragedy, etc. [Another copy.] [Another edition.] [Another edition.]. pp.72. John Bell: London 1778. 12o. London 1778. 12o. pp.114. George Cawthorn: London 1796. 12o. pp.xvii. 100. 1797. [20] Gustavus Vasa, the Deliverer of his Country. A tragedy, etc. [In verse.]. pp.viii. 81. R. Dodsley: London 1739. 8o. [21] Julie Grenville, oder die Geschichte des menschlichen Herzens, etc. pp.560. Leipzig 1774. 8o. [22] Juliet Grenville, etc. 3 vol. James Williams: Dublin 1774. 12o. [23] Juliet Grenville; or, the History of the human heart. 3 vol. G. Robinson: London 1774. 12o. [24] Liberty and Common-sense to the people of Ireland, greeting. Letter IV. [By Henry Brooke.]. Dublin 1760. pp.17. 8o. [25] Liberty and Common-sense to the people of Ireland, greeting. Letter III. [By Henry Brooke.]. Dublin: printed by Dillon Chamberlaine 1760. pp.19. 8o. [26] Liberty and Common-sense to the people of Ireland, greeting. Letter II. [By Henry Brooke.]. Dublin 1760. pp.19. 8o. [27] Liberty and Common-sense to the people of Ireland, greeting. [By Henry Brooke.]. Dublin printed; London: reprinted for J. Williams 1760. pp.35. 8o. [28] Liberty and Common-sense to the people of Ireland, greeting. [By Henry Brooke.]. Dublin, printed; Edinburgh: reprinted, for Alex Donaldson 1760. pp.24. 8o.... [29] Liberty and Common-sense to the people of Ireland, greeting. [By Henry Brooke.]. Dublin 1759. pp.16. 8o. [30] Redemption: a poem. [Another edition.]. pp.28. B. White: London 1772. 4o. [31] The Affecting History of Henry, Earl of Moreland. (By Henry Brooke.) [Abridged, with a preface by John Wesley.] A new edition, with alterations and improvements. To which is added, The Old English Baron, a gothic story [by Clara Reeve.] [With plates and a portrait frontispiece.]. 2 pt. Russell & Allen: Manchester 1814 15. 8o. [32] The case of the Roman-Catholics of Ireland. In a course of letters from a member of the Protestant Church, in that kingdom [i.e. Henry Brooke], to his friend in England. Letter I. Dublin: Pat. Lord 1760. pp.22. 8o. [33] The Earl of Essex. A tragedy. As it is now acting at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane. Dublin: P. Wilson; W. Smith, junior 1761. pp.60. 12o. [34] The Earl of Essex. A tragedy, etc. Edinburgh: Alexander Donaldson 1761. pp.54. 12o. [35] The Earl of Essex. A tragedy, etc. [In verse.]. pp.77. T. Davies; J. Coote: London 1761. 8o. [36] The fool of quality; or, The history of Henry, Earl of Moreland, etc. Title A new and revised edition, with a biographical preface, by the Rev. Charles Kingsley. [With a portrait.] Title New edition. [Another edition.] With a biographical preface by Charles Kingsley. And a new life of the author by E. A. Baker. [With a portrait.] [Another edition.] With introduction by Francis Coutts. Manchester: J. Gleave 1810. 2 vol. pp.iv, 672: plates. 4o. 2 vol. Smith, Elder & Co.: London 1859. 8o. pp.xxiii. 427. Macmillan & Co.: London 1872. 8o. pp.lix. 427. London; E. P. Dutton & Co.: New York 1906. 8o. 2 vol. John Lane: London, New York, [1909.] 16o. [37] The fool of quality; or, the history of Henry Earl of Moreland. In five volumes By Mr Brooke [Another issue]. London: printed for A. Millar [...] and Silvester Doig [...] Edinburgh 1792. 5 vol. (12o); 18cm.... London: printed for Edward Johnston 1792 [38] The fool of quality; or, The history of Henry Earl of Moreland [...] A new edition. [Another copy.] Title A new edition, greatly altered and improved. [Another edition.]. London: Edward Johnston 1782. 5 vol. 12o. 3 vol. P. Wogan: Dublin 1796. 12o. 4 vol. Arliss & Huntsman; Thomas Tegg: London 1808, 09. 12o. [39] The Fool of Quality; or, the History of Henry Earl of Moreland [...] The third edition. Title A new edition, greatly altered and improved. [Another copy.] Title A new edition, greatly altered and improved. 5 vol. W. Johnston: London 1770, 67-70. 12o. 4 vol. Edward Johnston: London, 1776. 12o. 5 vol. Edward Johnston: London 1777. 12o. [40] The Fool of Quality; or, the History of Henry Earl of Moreland. Title The second edition. vol. 1, 2. W. Johnston: London 1766. 12o. 5 vol. W. Johnston: London 1767-70. 12o. [41] The Fool of Quality; or, the History of Henry Earl of Moreland, etc. 5 vol. Printed for the Autor [sic] by Dillon Chamberlaine: Dublin 1765-70. 12o [...] [42] The History of a Reprobate, as given in a work entitled Henry, Earl of Moreland; being the Rev. John Wesley’s abridgement of The Fool of Quality [by H. Brooke], paraphrased into verse, by John Phillips. pp.xvi. 151. J. Bennett: Redruth 1822. 12o. [43] The History of a Reprobate; being the life of David Doubtful. [An episode in the “History of the Earl of Moreland,” abridged by John Wesley from Brooke’s “The Fool of Quality.”]. pp.95. Printed for the Booksellers: London 1784. 12o. [44] The History of Henry Earl of Moreland [...] Revised and edited by the Rev. John Wesley. (With engravings.) [Another copy.]. pp.576: plates. Thomas Kelly: London; John Bourne: Edinburgh 1819. 8o. [45] The History of the Man of Letters. From The Fool of Quality. [With an essay on Brooke.] [46] The interesting narrative of the life and adventures of David Doubtful [...] Second edition. 1798. pp.48. 8o. [47] The Interests of Ireland considered, stated and recommended, particularly with respect to inland navigation. [With a plan.] L.P. pp.168. Geo. Faulkner: Dublin 1759. 8o. [48] The Poems of Henry Brooke. [With a life by A. Chalmers.] [49] The Poetical Works [including the plays in verse and prose] of Henry Brooke, Esq. [...] Revised and corrected by the original manuscript; with a portrait of the author, and his life. By Miss Brooke. The third edition. 4 vol. Printed for the Editor: Dublin 1792. 8o. [50] The Songs in Jack the Giant Queller, an antique history [...] The second edition. [Another edition.]. pp.36. George Faulkner: Dublin 1749. 8o. pp.31. George Faulkner: Dublin 1757. 8o. [51] The Three Silver Fishes: a tale for children. By H. Brooke [...] and The Naughty Little Spider. (By Miss Anne Augusta Gray.). pp.16. Fred Pitman: London 1854. 16o. [52] The Tryal of the Cause of the Roman Catholics; on a Special Commission directed to Lord Chief Justice Reason, etc. [Another edition.] The Tryal of the Roman Catholicks. MS. notes [by Francis Hargrave]. pp.304. George Faulkner: Dublin 1761. 8o. pp.310. T. Davies: London 1762. 8o. [53] The tryal of the Roman Catholics [...] The third edition. [By Henry Brooke.] Title The fourth edition. Title The second edition. Dublin: printed by George Faulkner 1762. pp.310. 8o. pp.234. George Faulkner: Dublin 1762. 12o. pp.234. T. Davies: London 1764. 12o. [54; another author] [55; another author; prob. relation] [56] A Guide to the Stars [...] With twelve planispheres, on a new construction, etc. pp.xi. 101. Taylor & Hessey: London 1820. 4o. [57] The Lot of the Miners. pp.8. S.P.C.K.: London, [1929.] 8o. [58] A Familiar Introduction to Crystallography; including an explanation of the principle and use of the goniometer, etc. pp.xv. 508. W. Phillips: London, 1823. 8o. [59] Observations on a Pamphlet lately published by Mr. Morgan, entitled A Vi. ew of the rise and progress of the Equitable Society, &c. pp.65. T. & G. Underwood: London 1828. 8o.... [60] Pianoforte Students’ Catechism, containing the rudiments of music [...] New and enlarged edition, etc. pp.36. J. McDowell & Co.: London 1873. 8o. [61] The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer. Modernis’d by several hands [George Ogle, Thomas Betterton, John Dryden, Samuel Cobb, Samuel Boyse, Henry Brooke, Alexander Pope, John Markland and - Grosvenor]. Publish’d by Mr. Ogle. [With the Life of Chaucer by John Urry. Including the spurious Tale of Gamelyn, and the continuation of the Squire’s Tale by Spenser.] [Another edition.]. 3 vol. J. & R. Tonson: London 1741. 8o. 2 vol. George Faulkner: Dublin 1742. 12o. [62] A Cottager’s Remarks on the Farmer’s Spirit of Party. [By Charles O’Conor. A reply to “The Spirit of Party,” by Henry Brooke.]. pp.16. Dublin, 1754. 8o. [63] Memoirs of the Life of the late excellent and pious Mr. Henry Brooke, collected from original papers and other authentic sources. To which is subjoined an appendix, containing extracts from his correspondence, &c. [...] Compiled and edited by I. D’Olier. pp.x. 228. M. Keene, etc.: Dublin 1816. 8o. [64; another author] [65] The Story of David Doubtful: or, the Reprobate reformed. From the Fool of quality. Enlarged and improved. [An extract from the “History of the Earl of Moreland,” abridged by John Wesley from Henry Brooke’s “The Fool of quality.”]. pp.iv. 164. Vernor & Hood: London 1798. 12o. [66] Fables for the Female Sex [...] The fifth edition. [By Edward Moore and Henry Brooke. With plates.] [Another copy.]. pp.173. J. Dodsley: London 1783. 8o. [67] Fables for the Female Sex. [By Edward Moore and Henry Brooke. In verse. With engravings after F. Hayman.] Title Second edition. pp.173. R. Francklin: London 1744. 8o. pp.173. R. Francklin: London 1746. 8o. [68] Fables for the Female Sex. [In verse. By E. Moore of Abingdon, and H. Brooke of Rantavan]. [Another edition.] Fables for the Female Sex. [By E. Moore and H. Brooke.]. London 1744. 8o. pp.112. George Faulkner: Dublin 1744. 8o. [69] Fables for the Female Sex. Third [sic] edition. London 1766. 8o. [70] New Fables [in verse] invented for the amusement of young ladies. By the author of the Foundling. [E. Moore and H. Brooke.] The third edition. pp.137. 1749. 8o. [71] New Fables invented for the amusement of young ladies. By the author of the Foundling. The fourth edition. 1754. 12o. [72] The Farmer’s letter to the Protestants of Ireland, [in relation to the Pretender’s invasion]. No. 1. (The Farmer’s second-sixth letter, etc.) [By Henry Brooke.] [Another edition.] The Farmer’s six letters to the Protestants of Ireland. [Another edition.] The Farmer’s six letters, etc. 6 pt. Dublin 1745. 8o. Dublin reprinted 1746. 12o. London, reprinted 1746. 8o. [73] The Farmer’s Letters to the Protestants of Ireland. [By Henry Brooke.] [74] The Farmer’s Six Letters to the Protestants of Ireland [...] The second edition. [By Henry Brooke. The preface signed: W. H.]. pp.52. W. Pennington: Kendal 1771. 8o. [75] The History of Henry, Earl of Moreland. [Abridged, with a preface, by John Wesley, from “The Fool of Quality”, by Henry Brooke.]. 2 vol. J. Paramore: London 1781. 12o. [76] The History of Henry, son to Richard, Earl of Moreland [a chap-book taken from “The Fool of Quality” by Henry Brooke], and the Life of Bob Easy, Gent. pp.24. Marshall Vesey: Darlington, [1800?] 8o. [77] The history of Henry Earl of Moreland. Second edition. [Another edition.] [The editor’s preface signed: J. W., i.e. John Wesley.]. London: printed by G. Paramore; sold by G. Whitfield 1793. 2 vol. 12o. pp.480. Nuttall, Fisher & Co.: Liverpool 1815. 8o. [78] A seventh letter from the farmer, to the free and independent electors of the city of Dublin. Dublin: printed by George Faulkner 1749. pp.16. 8o. [79] Copie d’une lettre [signed, T. M.] traduite de l’Anglois [...] concernant la procedure faicte à Winchester, contre le Milord Cobham, le Milord Gray, & Messire G. Marckham, tous attaints & convaincuts de grande trahison [...] 1603, etc. Rouen 1604. 8o. [80] The copie of a letter written from Master T. M. neere Salisbury, to Master H. A. at London, concerning the proceedings at Winchester; where the late L. Cobham, L. Gray, and Sir G. Marckham, [...] all attainted of hie treason, were ready to be executed [...] the 9 of December 1603: at which time his maiesties warrant: [...] whereof the true copy is here annexed, was delivered to Sir B. Tichbourne high sheriffe of Hampshire, commanding him to suspend their execution. [Another copy.]. pp.12. Imprinted by R. B.: London 1603. 4o. [81] Fabeln für das schöne Geschlecht von [...] E. Moore [and H. Brooke]. Aus dem Englischen [by C. F. Weisse]. Neue Auflage. pp.116. Frankfurth und Leipzig 1772. 8o. [82] Fables for the Female Sex. [Another edition.] Title New edition. [Another edition.] [Another edition.] Fables for the Female Sex. [Another edition.]. Chester 1802. 16o. London 1806. 12o. [83] Fables for the female sex [...] The fifth edition. Title Fourth edition. Title New edition. Dublin: printed by George Faulkner 1749. pp.108. 12o. 1766. 8o. [London?] 1770. 12o. pp.vii. 189. B. Long & T. Pridden: London 1771. 12o. [84] Fables for the female sex. [By E. Moore and H. Brooke.] [85] Fables for the Female Sex. [By Edward Moore and Henry Brooke. With plates after Francis Hayman.] The fourth edition. [Another edition.] New edition. pp.173. T. Davies & J. Dodsley: London 1771. 8o. London 1777. 12o. [86] Fables for the Female Sex. By E. Moore [and Henry Brooke]. Title New edition. [Another edition.] Fables for the Ladies. To which are added, Fables of Flora, by Dr. Langhorne. pp.104. Printed by Fr. Amb. Didot for P. Theophilus Barrois: Paris 1782. 12o.... pp.80. J. Wenman: London 1786. 12o. pp.144. T. Dobson: Philadelphia 1787. 12o. [87] Fables for the Female Sex. By E. Moore [and Henry Brooke]. The third edition. [With engravings after F. Hayman.]. pp.173. R. Francklin: London, 1749. 8o. [88] Fables for the Female Sex. By Edward Moore [and Henry Brooke]. New edition. [Another edition.] [Another edition.]. London 1795. 24o. London 1799. 8o. [89] Fables for the female sex. By Edward Moore [and Henry Brooke]. Tenth edition. [90] Fables for the female sex. By Edward Moore [and Henry Brooke.] The fifth edition. London: R. Francklin 1761. pp.173: plates. 8o. [91-93; other authors]. [94] The Spirit of Party. Chapter the First(-Third), etc. Being an introduction to the History of the Knight of the Bridge, etc. [By Henry Brooke.]. 3 pt. [Dublin?] 1753. 8o. [95] An Abstract of the Trial of G. S., H. Brooke, C. Floyer, and G. Mackay, for deposing the Rt. Hon. Lord Pigot, late Governor of Fort St. George, in the East Indies. London 1780. 8o. [96] Tasso’s Jerusalem, an epic poem, translated from the Italian. By Henry Brooke [...] Book I.(-III.) [Another copy.]. 3 pt. R. Dodsley: London, 1738. 4o. [97] Mr. Morton’s Zorinski and Brooke’s Gustavus Vasa compared. Also a critique on Zorinski [...] With alterations and additions, by Truth. London, 1795. 8o. [98] A new collection of fairy tales. None of which were ever before printed. Containing many useful lessons, moral sentiments, surprizing incidents, and amusing adventures [...] London: printed for C. Davis [...] C. Hitch [...] R. Dodsley [...] W. Bowyer [...] and G. Woodfall [...] 1750. 2 vol. (12o); 17cm... [99] Brookiana. [A collection of anecdotes illustrative of the life and opinions of Henry Brooke. With a portrait, and quotations from his writings. The preface signed: C. H. W., i.e. Charles Henry Wilson.]. 2 vol. Richard Phillips: London 1804. 8o. Reprints, Brooke Henry, The fool of quality or, the history of Henry Earl of Moreland by Mr. Brooke Publisher (Philadelphia: Robert Campbell 1794); The fool of quality (NY: London Garland 1979).

NB: British Library incls. Henry Brooke Parnell [Baron Congleton], A history of the penal laws against the Irish Catholics: from the Treaty of Limerick to the Union (London J. Harding 1808), 159, xxivpp.; Do. [4th edn.] (London 1825) [as Microfilm - British Library, 1 reel [35 mm.]

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Notes
Patrick Duigenan called Brooke ‘a profligate scribbler’ in 1789 (see R. R. Madden, The History of Irish Periodical Literature, Vol. 1, London: Newby, p.392; quoted in Pauline Holland, doct. diss., 2004.)

Cormac O Grada, Ireland: A New Economic History 1780-1939 (Clarendon Press 1994): Robert Brooke’s venture into mechanised cotton-spinning at Prosperous, Co. Kildare, in 1780 raised an obscure and scanty trade into a great national manufacture’ [275]; That Brooke was no businessman is indicated by his choice for a factory on a virgin site in the middle of a bog twenty miles from Dublin. Nevertheless, in an era of lax public accountability, he obtained vast subsidies from the public purse for a time. When his request for further support was refused in 1786, his project collapsed.’ (p.275.) [Robert Brooke was a nephew of the author.]

Charles Henry Wilson published a collection of Select Irish poems translated into English (c.1782), which anticipated Charlotte Brooke’s Reliques of ancient Irish poetry. Wilson later published recollections of her father Henry Brooke in Brookiana (1804). [Leerssen, op. cit., infra.]

The Brooke family descends on the distaff side from King Edward III by marriage with Phillippa of Hainault > John of Gaunt + Catherine Swinford > Joan Beaufort + Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmorland > Richard Neville, Earl of Westmorland + Alice Montacoute, dg. Earl of Salisbury > Alice Neville + Henry Lord Fitzhugh > Elizabeth Fitzhugh + Nicholas Lord Vaux > Hon. Catherine Vaux + Sir George Throckmorton > Anne Throckmorton + John Digby of Colehill, Co. Warwick (d.1558) > Sir George Digby + Abigaile Hemingham > Sir Robert Digby, b. Earl of Bristol + Lettice Fitzgerald, Baronese Offaly gdg. of Gerald 11th Earl of Kildare > Essex Digby, Bishop of Dromore + Thomasine Gilbert > Simon Digby, Bishop of Elphin + Elizabeth Westeura > Lettice Digby + Rev William Brooke, rector of Killivkan [sic], Co. Cavan >Henry Brooke + Catherine Mearcourt > Arthur Brooke, Charlotte Brooke; also Henry’s br. Robert Brooke + Honor Brooke > Robert Brooke, &c. (Information supplied by Josephine Felton, a descendent.)

H. M. Scurr, Henry Brooke (Univ. of Minn. thesis, 1922) demonstrates that the Earl of Essex, a theme successful for Henry Jones in London, was first advanced by Brooke in Dublin. (See Esther Sheldon, Thomas Sheridan, 1967, p. 9, ftn 28.)

Bath Cathedral funerary plaques incl. Robert Brooke, residing at Royal Crescent; formerly Bengal Civil Service, 4th son of Henry Brooke, Esquire, of Ratcoffey, Co. Kildare, obit. 10 Dec. 1843, aetat. 72; also Robert Arthur Brooke, 1830-60, d. at Malaga; and Elizabeth, his m., d.1875.

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