Life
fl.1841 [Thomas Travers Burke, M.D.]; author of Temora (London 1818), an epic poem in 8 cantos after MacPherson’s 'Ossian'; also Darthula (1820), sep. printed from the same work and ascribed to T. T. Burke, H.P., 11th Light Dragoons. on the title-page; also Fingal (1844); prob. author of The Royal Visit (Dublin 1821), ded. to George IV; also Arismedi, or, The Revolution of Marguerita (1841), a historical and military play in five acts. PI RAF.
Works
Temora: An Epic Poem in 8 Cantos [after MacPherson’s “Ossian”](London 1818); Darthula, by T. T. Burke, H.P., 11th Light Dragoons (London 1820), Fingal: An Epic Poem versified from the genuine remains of Ossian, with notes (London 1844); The Royal Visit [of George IV] (Dublin 1821); Arismedi, or, The Revolution of Marguerita (1841), drama. PI RAF.
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Commentary
[?Robert Welch, Irish Verse Translation, 1980]: ‘thomas Travers Burke based Temora on Macpherson in 1819, and in 1820 produced Darthula, followed in 1844 by Fingal. The first was ‘versified from Macpherson’s prose translation of the poems of Ossian’, though the later - following a disaffection registered in his charge that Macpherson had been ‘slovenly’ - were based on Macgregor’s
‘genuine’ translations.'
Patrick Rafroidi, Irish Literature in English, The Romantic Period, Vol. 2 (1980), gives no bio-dates; prob. a doctor (cf. The Accoucheur’s Vademecum ... Modern Guide to ... Midwifery, 1840); disputes his authorship of The Royal Visit, a poem on the arrival of George IV (Archer 1821) 48pp. Darthula referred to Dublin and London Magazine for 1827, p.99 [No entries in ODNB,DIB, or DIW].
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References
Peter Kavanagh, The Irish Theatre (Tralee: The Kerryman 1946), cites Thomas Travers Burke f.1841; Aresmedi or The Revolution of Marguerita, hist. and mil. play, 5 acts, verse; printed London 1841.
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