Page:A Compendium of Irish Biography.djvu/510

 SMY

doctrines of the old Whigs, and through- out his life was the consistent advocate of Koman Catholic Emancipation." Amongst his writings may be mentioned pamphlets on the Union, the Slave Trade, and Catholic Claims ; and a work on the Law of Evidence, published in 1 8 1 1 . '*'-'*

Smyth, Edward, a sculptor, was born in the County of Meath in 1 746. He was indentured to Verpoyle, an Italian sculptor residing in Dublin, and early gave tokens of considerable genius. His first public work was the statue of Dr. Lucas, now in the City Hall, Dublin. The figures on the Bank of Ireland, Four Courts, and King's Inns are from his chisel, as is also the ornamentation on the Custom House and Castle Chapel, Dublin. " He was a man of singular modesty and retired habits. His genius qualified and his respectable family entitled him to mix with the best society ; but he was embarrassed in such company, and he unfortunately sought for other less respectable, but where he felt himself more at ease." He died in 1812. "°t

Smyth, Thomas A., Brigadier-Gen- eral in the United States Volunteer service, was born in Ireland early in the present century. He emigrated to the United States while yet a mere lad, settled at Wil- mington, Delaware, and engaged in coach- building. At the commencement of the war in 1 86 1, he raised a company for a Phila- delphia " three-months " regiment, and served in the Shenandoah Valley. His abilities were so conspicuous that he was made major of a Delaware regiment, and for bravery at Cold Harbour (3rd June 1 864) was created a brigadier-general. He was mortally wounded near Farmville, Virginia, whilst commanding the second division of the Second Army Corps, 6th April 1865, and died three days after- wards. 37*

South«»rn, Thomas, a dramatist, was born in Lublin in 1660. He was educated at Trinity College, was entered at the Middle Temple, and subsequntly adopted dramatic authorship as a profession. His first piece was produced in London in 1682. He was frugal and pushing ; he was pecu- liarly fortunate in the sale of his plays; and his judicious flattery of the Duke of York considerably advanced his interests. During the Duke of Monmouth's rebellion Southern served in the army. He is des- cribed as having been in his latter days "a quiet and venerable old gentleman, who lived near Covent Garden, and frequented the evening prayers there, always neat and decently dressed, commonly in black, with his silver sword and silver locks." He died (the oldest and richest of the dramatic 486

SPE

brotherhood), 26th May 1746, aged 85. Two of his plays, all that are now known to the public, are thus commented on by Hallam : "Southern's Discovery, latterly represented under the name of Isabella, is almost as familiar to the lovers of our theatre as Venice Preseroed itself ; and for the same reason, that whenever an actress of great tragic powers arises, the part of ' Isabella ' is as fitted to exhibit them as that of ' Belvidera.' The choice and con- duct of the story are, however, Southern's chief merits ; for there is little vigour in the language, though it is natural and free from the usual faults of his age. A similar charactermay be given to his other tragedy, Oroonoko, in which Southern deserves the praise of having first of any English writer, denounced the traffic in slaves and the cruelties of their West Indian bondage. The moral feeling is high in this tragedy, and it has sometimes been acted with a cer- tain success ; but the execution is not that of a superior dramatist." '* "^'''s)

Spenser, Edmund, the English poet, author of the Faerie Queene, resided for a considerable time in Ireland. He was born in London in 1552, and came over as Secretary to Arthur Lord Grey of Wilton, probably in August 1580. In the fol- lowing March he obtained the lucrative post of Clerk of Decrees and Recog- nizances in the Irish Court of Chancery. He was given a lease on beneficial terms of the abbey and manor of Euniscorthy. About 1586 he was granted 3,028 acres in the County of Cork, including the manor and Castle of Kilcolman; and in June 1588 was appointed Secretary of the Council of Munster. On the nth June 1594, he married, at Cork, the daughter of a mer- chant of that city. It is believed that he wrote much of the Faerie Queene at Kilcolman. The beautiful and interest- ing references to the Irish rivers in that work (Book iv. Canto 1 1., vv. 40-44), were doubtless written from personal observa- tions. Spenser's important political tract, A View of the State of Ireland, ivritten Dia- logue-ivise between Eudoxus and Irenaeus, was probably composed in 1596, duiing a visit to England. It was not printed till 1633, at the cost of Sir James Ware. It is an extremely interesting and thought- ful survey of the state of Ireland and its relations with England, and contains much that is applicable to the present day. His low estimate of the character of the inhabitants of the country, and his heartless incentives to farther sweeping confiscations of the lands of the Irish were so irritating, that it is not surprising he was one of the first sufferers from the