• The Romance of the Irish Stage: with pictures of the Irish capital in the eighteenth century, 2 vols. (London: Downey & Co. 1897; rep. 1904), ill. front. of Mrs Jordan from full-length port. by George Romney.; see Preface, Contents and extract - infra]

• Court Life Below Stairs: or, London under the first Georges, 1714-1760, 4 vols. (London: Hurst and Blackett 1882-83); and Do. [new edn.] 2 vols. (London: Ward & Downey, 1885).
• The Faiths of the Peoples, 2 vols. (London: Ward & Downey 1892).
• Famous Plays: with a discourse by way of prologue on the playhouses of the restoration (London: Ward & Downey, 1886), xvi, 313pp. [ded. to Henry Irving; contains Congreve’s Love for love; Addison’s Cato; John Gay’s Beggar’s opera; Dr. Johnson’s Irene; Oliver Goldsmith’s She stoops to conquer; Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s Rivals and School for scandal; Sheridan Knowles’ Virginius, and The hunchback; also plays of Lord Lytton].
• The Life and Adventures of Peg Woffington: with pictures of the period in which she lived, 2 vols. (London: Hurst & Blackett 1884), xiv, 293pp.; Do. [another edn.] (London: Hurst & Blackett), viii, 284pp., port.; Do. [3rd edn.] (London: Hurst & Blackett 1887), xv, 351pp.; and Do., [new & rev. edn.] (London: Downey, 1897), viii, 340pp..
• Royalty Restored: or, London under Charles II (London: Ward & Downey, 1885), ill. [front. port.].
• The Life and Adventures of Edmund Kean, Tragedian, 1787-1833, 2 vols. (London: Ward & Downey 1888).
• ed. & intro., Memoirs of Mary [Darby] Robinson (1758-1800) [1801] (London: Gibbings & Co.; Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott 1895), xv, 251pp: ill.
• The Most Gorgeous Lady Blessington, 2 vols. (London: Ward & Downey 1896).
• The Queen’s Comrade: The Life and Times of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, 2 vols. (London: Hutchinson & Co. 1901).
• The Sailor King: William the Fourth: his court and his subjects (London: Hutchinson & Co, 1903).
• The Russian Court in the Eighteenth century, 2 vols. (London: Hutchinson, 1905).
• Sir Joshua and his Circle [1 vol.] (London: Hutchinson 1906).
• Victoria Regina: her court and her subjects: from her accession to the death of the Prince Consort, 2 vols (London: Hutchinson & Co., 1908).

• Merely Players, 2 vols. (London: Tinsley Brothers 1881).
• It is No Wonder: A Story of Bohemian life, 3 vols. (London: Hurst & Blackett, 1882).
• That Villain Romeo (London: Ward & Downey 1886).
• A Modern Magician: A Romance, 3 vols. (London: Ward & Downey 1887).
• What Hast Thou Done?: A Novel, 3 vols. (London: Hurst & Blackett 1883).
• How Came He Dead? (NY: J. W. Lovell [1890]).
• An Excellent Knave (NY: Lovell Coryell & Co. [1892]), and Do., 3 vols. (London: Hutchinson; 1893).
• Sweet is Revenge; or, His Wife’s Soul [Broadway Ser. No. 1] NY: J. A. Taylor & Co. [1891]), and Do. as His Wife’s Soul (London: Hutchinson 1893), rep. [cheap edn.] as Sweet is Revenge; or, His Wife’s Soul (1895).
• A Justified Sinner (London: Downey & Co. 1897).

THE Romance of the Irish Stage lies in the histories of those who have fretted their hours upon its boards.

During the Eighteenth Century no other country could boast of so many notable players; in themselves adventurous and fascinating personages, admirably fitted by a national temperament for the art in which they excelled. Fiction might borrow from fact such swift and daring transitions, such amazing episodes as these that enliven their careers.

Charles Macklin, abandoning his more Hibernian name and his saddler’s trade to gain fair renown as a comedian and playwright; Tom Sheridan, flying in the face of family pride and hostile prejudice, and casting aside his college cap and gown to don sock and buskin; Peg Woffington, orange seller and booth dancer, gaining place as the first actress [v]

of her day; Spranger Barry, quitting his silversmith’s shop to become the idol of Smock Alley Theatre; the beautiful Miss Bellamy, daughter of an Irish peer and heroine of a hundred intrigues, arrested by bailiffs in her gilded sedan chair; Henry Mossop, rival of Garrick and dupe of a gambling countess, dying heart-broken in a garret; Dorothy Jordan, the milliner’s apprentice, capturing at first essay the admiration of the town; Richard Daly, the young gentleman out of Galway who fought sixteen duels in three years, and lived to introduce Mrs. Siddons to an Irish audience — all are children of the Celt, the incidents of whose lives clothe themselves in the witching raiment of romance.

In this, as in his former works, the writer has placed the records of the town beside the history of the stage, one being a reflection of the other, a study of each seeming necessary to the understanding of both. And as a picture of social life in the Irish capital during the Eighteenth Century has not heretofore been painted, it is hoped this presentment may please; for no more splendid and varied [vi] panorama can be imagined than Dublin in its pre- Union days, with its state processions, its parliament, its court festivities, its reckless gambling, duelling, and abductions, its roystering and extravagance, the whole illumined by a gaiety that has become a tradition.

In striving to present the period with vividness, innumerable histories, biographies, newssheets, playbills, and manuscripts have been consulted. As a hundred exposures of a camera may be necessary to the production of a single animated photograph, so a score or more volumes, at an average, have contributed to the writing of a chapter. A whole library may be said to be condensed in this book, covering a century and describing events connected with the stage and the town.

J. FITZGERALD MOLLOY.

CHAPTER I: Accident to Smock Alley Theatre — The ambition of Thomas Elrington, manager — Laying hold of a ghost — Madame Violante comes to town — The entertainments of a booth — The English Gladiator— Managers three — Lord MountcashePs noble example — New theatres arise — Lacy Ryan and Denny Delane — Keeping a birthday — The opening of Aungier Street Theatre. [1]

CHAPTER II: Dublin in the last century — A picturesque city and a prosperous people — Some famous peers — Street scenes — Notable beggars and their witty remarks — The merriment of a criminal's wake —Coffee houses and clubs — Young Talbot Edgeworth — The Hellfire Club and its practices — Gambling and duelling — Lord Trimlestown's escape — Major Pack seeks adventure — Fight produces friendship [26]

CHAPTER III: Public spectacles — Receiving the Viceroy — A gorgeous spectacle — King William's statue — Dining with the Lord Lieutenant on Twelfth Day — A strange custom — Places of recreation — Some eccentric characters — A wise woman — An Irish lord at home — Lord Rosse and his practical joke [54]

CHAPTER IV: The management of Aungier Street Theatre — Rivalry of the Rainsford Street house — Smock Alley rebuilt — The Tragedy of King Charles I. — Peg Woffington dances — Playing Ophelia — The celebrated Mr. Quin — The romance of his birth — Taking to the boards — Visit to Dublin — A terrible winter — Kitty Clive’s first appearance in the Irish capital — A brilliant season [80]

CHAPTER V: The homes of the Irish nobility — Love of entertainment— The Castle balls — The Duke of Dorset as Lord Lieutenant — Miss Wesley’s dancing — Receptions at Bishop Clayton’s — Concerts and Ridottos — Miss Letitia Pilkington — Dancing the order of the day — That dear Dean Swift — Miss Constantina Grierson [106]

CHAPTER VI: Susanna Maria Gibber and her spouse — One Stint the candle-snuffer — Mrs. Gibber’s success in Dublin — The famous Mr. Handel and his oratorios — Woffington and Garrick at Smock Alley — Enthusiasm of the town — Tom Sheridan’s first appearance — Quarrel with Theo Gibber— Old Trinity— Town and Gown — The college boys take Sheridan’s part — Riot in the theatre [125]

CHAPTER VII: The rival theatres unite their fortunes — Offer made to Sheridan — Sheridan writes to Garrick — The uprise of Spranger Barry — The charm of his voice and excellence of his acting — Samuel Foote visits Dublin — Sheridan’s management — The strange state of the theatres — New laws and promise of prosperity [154]

CHAPTER VIII: George Anne Bellamy — Strange career — She becomes a player — Appearance in Dublin — Sheridan’s brilliant season — Miss Bellamy quarrels with Garrick — Lord Chesterfield and the playhouse — St. Leger’s impertinence — Garrick’s farewell — Miss Bellamy undergoes a social trial [179]

CHAPTER IX: Sheridan’s second season — Departure of Barry — The adventures of Miss Bellamy’s silver tissue suit — Nancy O’Brian’s hot blood — A young buck in the green-room — Sheridan is abused — Riots in the theatre — Vengeance of the college boys — Trial of the offenders — Sheridan on his dignity [197]

CHAPTER X: Royal deadheads — Foote returns to Dublin — A musical company — Charles Macklin and his quarrels — His jealousy of Sheridan — His grand pause — A scion of nobility takes to the stageInterest and excitement regarding his appearance — Prosperous seasons — New actors on the Dublin stage — Woffington again visits Ireland [221]

HERE was no doubt that an accident had happened, though a tragedy had been averted. As the occurrence took place late on the night of the 26th of December, 1701, the news had not spread over the city of Dublin until the following morning, when vast crowds, neglectful 01 such unexciting matters as their own business, assembled round the entrance of Smock Alley Theatre to see for themselves that the galleries had fallen, and to discourse of such details as might be forthcoming.

To a people emotional and dramatic, picturesque, eloquent, vivid, and imaginative by temperament, the theatre was a centre of attraction, an object of interest, a familiar and delightful place whose fortunes concerned them, whose productions occupied them, whose players were as familiar friends. The stage \vas not less to them than it had been to the Greeks of an earlier day ; that gracious race whose spirit they shared if not inherited.

Therefore, in the raw cold morn of the dying year, whilst mists rising from the adjacent Liffey hung in the atmosphere, this throng of fine gentlemen and worthy citizens, tradesmen and mechanics, hackney coachmen, chair-men, and apprentices, oyster wenches, orange sellers, ballad singers, and beggars by profession, gathered together, talking in chorus and gesticulating, stirred to greater animation and closer intimacy by sight of what they considered a common loss.

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