Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 11.djvu/396

 monastery during the summer, and went each one to his old home or whither he would, and when they came back at the approach of winter, expected to share in the harvest that had been gathered in during their absence by the toil of their English brethren. Accordingly Colman bought land in Mayo, obtaining it at a small price, for the noble who sold it added the condition that the monks should pray for him, and there he built another monastery, and settled the Englishmen of his party in it. The Irish monks he kept on the island, and he himself remained with them there. He died at Inishbofin on 8 Aug. 676. The ruins of his church are still to be seen in the town-land of Knock. St. Colman's day in the Irish calendar is 8 Aug., and in the Scottish 18 Feb.



COLMAN, GEORGE, the elder (1732–1794), dramatist, was born in Florence, in which capital his father, Francis Colman, resided as envoy at the court of Tuscany. His mother, Mary Gumley, was sister to Mrs. Pulteney, subsequently Countess of Bath. A scandalous suggestion that George Colman was in fact the son of William Pulteney, afterwards earl of Bath, by whom after the death of Francis Colman he was befriended, and who left him a handsome annuity —had sufficient currency to lead Colman in later years to publish a denial. From Francis Colman, who was a dilettante musician and a correspondent of Handel, and who for Owen McSwiney, at one time manager of Drury Lane Theatre, corresponded with Senesino and other Italian vocalists, George Colman assumably derived his dramatic tastes. His name of George was bestowed upon him after George II, who, as was customary in the case of a child of an ambassador, was his sponsor. For a similar reason his only sister was named after the queen, Caroline. Colman was baptised in the Duomo of Florence on 18 April 1732. A year later (20 April 1733) his father died, and his mother was assigned a house near Rosamond's Pond, in the south-west corner of St. James's Park, where she resided till her death, May 1767. The charge of young Colman was undertaken by William Pulteney, by whom he was sent to Westminster School. His first literary production, consisting of 'Verses to the Right Hon. Lord Viscount Pulteney,' his cousin, was written at Westminster. It subsequently appeared in the 'St. James's Magazine,' edited by his friend and schoolfellow, Robert Lloyd. In 1751, having at the request of Lord Bath ' stood over ' for a year, making his entire stay at Westminster five years, he ' was elected head to Oxford' (, Westminster School Past and Present, p. 242), entering at Christ Church on 5 June 1751. His first published production consisted of 'A Vision,' contributed to the ' Adventurer ' of Dr. Hawkesworth, in which it appeared as No. 90, on Saturday, 15 Sept. 1753. On 31 Jan. 1754 he began with Bonnell Thornton 'The Connoisseur,' which lasted until 30 Sept. 1756. While at Oxford, where he took his B.A. degree in 1755, Colman was entered by Lord Bath at Lincoln's Inn, where he was called to the bar in 1755. His position about this time, with his uncle urgently persuading him to aim at legal distinction, his aunt recommending him to take orders, and his own temptations to literature, is depicted in ' The Law Student ' (Works Prose, ii. 284), which contains a few interesting autobiographical particulars. His chief associates at this time were Lloyd, Bonnell Thornton, and Churchill, and he also made the acquaintance of Cowper. An intimacy with Garrick, which soon ripened into a friendship, interfered greatly with his chance of legal preferment. In 1759 Colman, who the previous year had proceeded M.A., went on the Oxford circuit, receiving from his uncle, who addressed him constantly as ' Dear Coley,' all encouragement in so doing. Not until the death of Lord Bath, however, who had become reconciled to Colman's literary pursuits and proud of his reputation, was the bar definitely abandoned. Colman's acquaintance with Garrick began through his dedicating to the actor a pamphlet entitled ' Critical Reflections on the Old English Dramatick Writers ' (ib. ii. 107), afterwards prefixed to Coxeter's edition of ' Massinger,' or, according to another account, presenting him with an unsigned pamphlet entitled ' A Letter of Abuse to David Garrick, Esq.,' 1757-8, in which, at the expense of Theophilus Cibber and Macklin, Garrick is warmly if covertly complimented. The 'Ode to Obscurity and Oblivion,' parodies on those of Mason and Gray (ib. p. 273), were published in 1759. Colman was now known as a writer, and as a man of taste. Murphy, in February 1758, quotes in favour of his farce, 'The Upholsterer,' the 