Life
?1690-1767; thought born at Birr, King’s Country (now Co. Offaly); ed. TCD, and fellow; student Gray’s Inn; entered Middle Temple; practised law in London and wrote for papers; wrote three successful comedies, The Perplexed Couple (Lincoln's Inn 1715); The Coquet (Lincoln's Inn 1718); The Half-Pay Officers (Lincoln's Inn 1720); ed., Fog’s Journal, the Whig organ, from Oct. 1728; prop.-ed., Common Sense: or the Englishman's Journal (1737), with contrib. from Lord Lyttleton et. al.; married an heiress, d. London, 16 July 1767. RR PI ODNB CAB DIW DIL2 OCIL
Works
Molloy , et. al., Common Sense: or the Englishman’s Journal, 2 vols. (London: [n.pub.]1737) [reprinted from the periodical].
Commentary
Joseph Leerssen, Mere Irish & Fíor Ghael (Amsterdam 1986), remarks that Charles Molloy’s The Half-Pay Officers (1720), borrows characters Fluellen and Macmorris (Mackmorrice) from Shakespeare’s Henry V. (Leerssen, p.127.)
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References
Richard Ryan, Biographia Hibernica: Irish Worthies (1821), Vol. II: ‘AN author of some ingenuity, was born in the city of Dublin, and received part of his education at Trinity college. At his first coming to England he entered himself of the Middle Temple, and was supposed to have wrote considerably in a periodical paper, called Fog’s Journal, and afterwards to have been the principal writer in another paper, entitled, Common Sense. Our author had large offers made him to write in defence of Sir Robert Walpole, but these he rejected; notwithstanding which, at the great change in the ministry [432] in 1742, he was entirely neglected, as well as his fellow-labourer Amherst, who conducted “The Craftsman." Mr. Molloy, however, having married a lady of fortune, was in circumstances which enabled him to treat the ingratitude of his patriotic friends with the contempt it deserved. He lived many years after this period, and died July 16th, 1767. He was buried at Edmonton, 20th July. He wrote three dramatic pieces, 1. Perplexed Couple, 1715, l2mo.; - 2. The Coquet, 1718, 8vo.; - 3. Half-pay Officers, 1720, 12mo. none of which met with any very extraordinary success.’ (pp.432-33.)
Charles Read, ed., A Cabinet of Irish Literature (3 vols., 1876-78) reports that both his parents were descendents of ‘good families’; contributed to Fog’s Journal [see Swift, Sheridan], after his three dramatic successes [as above], The Perplexed Couple (London 1715); The Coquette (1718) [in which Mademoiselle Fanast is the coquette, and La Jupe her maid]; The Half-Pay Officers (1720). Selections from The Perplexed Couple, and The Coquette.
D. J. O’Donoghue, Poets of Ireland (Dublin: Hodges Figgis 1912), also, ed. Fog’s Journal (1728), and Common Sense (1737); he became proprietor-editor of Common Sense, which published Lord Chesterfield, Lord Lyttleton, and Dr. King; refuse inducements to write in defence of Walpole, but not rewarded by his opponents. Note that details of the other Charles Molloy (b.1646) are given here.
See also J. S. Crone. Compendium of Irish Biography.
Quotations
Leon in The Perplexed Couple (1715): ‘Sincere! O hideous - What a thing you have named; no, no, sir, well-bred people are never sincere; ‘tis modish to flatter, lie, and deceive. I hate you out-of-fashion good qualities. Sincerity’s altogether of vulgar extraction.’ (Quoted in Charles Read, ed., A Cabinet of Irish Literature, 3 vols., 1876-78).
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