Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/342

 his library. It is stated that he ate himself out of every tavern from the other end of Temple Bar to the West End. He afterwards lived in Brompton, and was in the habit, when writing, of staying at an hotel at Richmond. It was only in his later years, when his health and mind had begun to fail, that he was free from pecuniary embarrassments. He was a favourite in society, a guest at noble houses, and a man much respected and courted. According to his friend Samuel Rogers, whom he introduced to the Piozzis, Murphy used at one time to walk arm in arm with Lord Loughborough. Rogers, who had bills of his for over 200l., received an assignment of his 'Tacitus' and other works, and found that they had already been assigned to a bookseller. For this conduct Murphy offered an abject apology. On other occasions the honourable conduct of Murphy is praised. He was in 1784 a member of the Essex Head Club, and Johnson, according to the 'Collectanea' of Dr. Maxwell, 'very much loved him.' His correspondence with Garrick shows him, however, suspicious and irascible, if soon appeased. Rogers says that when any of his plays encountered opposition he took a walk to cool himself in Covent Garden.

Murphy died 18 June 1805 at his residence, 14 Queen's Row, Knightsbridge. He was buried at his own request in Hammersmith Church in a grave he had previously bought for his mother. An epitaph was placed there by his executor and biographer, Jesse Foot [q. v.] He was fairly well built, narrow-shouldered, had an oval face with a fair complexion and full light eyes, and was marked with the small-pox. Two portraits of him appear in the 'Life' by Foot, and one, painted by Nathaniel Dance, was engraved by W. Ward. Murphy brought on the stage and lived with a Miss Ann Elliot, an uneducated girl of natural abilities, who was his original Maria in the 'Citizen.' He took great interest in her and wrote her biography (1769, 12mo). She died young and left him her money, which he transferred to her relatives.

The comedies of Murphy have not in all cases lost the spirit of the originals from which he took them. Several of them were acted early in the present century. His tragedies are among the worst that have obtained any reputation. 'Zenobia,' however, was played so late as 1815, and the 'Grecian Daughter' many years later. Totally devoid of invention, Murphy invariably took his plots from previous writers. He showed, however, facility and skill in adapting them to English tastes. His collected works appeared in 1786 in 7 vols. 8vo, with a portrait by Cook after Dance. These consist of the plays and the 'Gray's Inn Journal.' Many of his plays figure in Bell's, Inchbald's, and other collections.

Murphy edited in 1762 an edition in 12 vols. of the 'Works' of Henry Fielding, with a life, giving facts with very slight attention to chronological sequence. In 1801 he issued in 2 vols. a 'Life of David Garrick,' which is clumsy and ill-digested and largely occupied with his own relations, seldom too amiable, to Garrick. It was abridged and translated into French. He published an 'Essay on the Life and Genius of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.,' 8vo, 1792, and collected materials for a life of Foote. He translated 'Tacitus' in 4 vols. 4to, 1793, described as an 'elegant but too paraphrastic version;' Sallust, 8vo, 1807; Vaniere's 'The Bees,' from the 14th Book of the 'Prædium Rusticum,' and Vida's 'Game of Chess.' Other works by him are: 'A Letter to Mons. de Voltaire on the "Desert Island," by Arthur Murphy,' London, 1760, 8vo; 'The Examiner [originally called 'The Expostulation']: a Satire by Arthur Murphy,' London, 1761, 4to, directed against Lloyd, Churchill, &c., an answer to 'The Murphiad, a Mock-heroic Poem,' London, 1761, 4to; the 'Meretriciad,' and other satires; an 'Ode to the Naiads of Fleet Ditch, by Arthur Murphy,' London, 1761, 4to, a furious attack on Churchill, who in his 'Apology' had derided Murphy and his 'Desert Island;' 'Beauties of Magazines, consisting of Essays by ... Murphy,' 12mo, 1772; 'Anecdotes by Murphy,' added to Boswell's 'Johnson,' 1835, 8vo; 'A Letter from a Right Honourable Personage, translated into Verse by A. Murphy,' 4to, 1761; 'A Letter from the anonymous Author of the "Letters Versified" to the anonymous Writer of the "Monitor, 4to, 1761; 'Seventeen Hundred and Ninety-One: an Imitation of the 13th Satire of Juvenal,' 1791, 4to.

'A Letter from Mons. de Voltaire to the Author of the "Orphan of China,London, 8vo, was published in 1759.

The actor's elder brother, (1725-1759), dramatic writer, was born on St. George's Quay, Dublin, in September 1725, and was educated at Westminster School. He studied law in the Middle Temple, and was called to the bar. He soon adopted the surname of French, from his uncle Jeffery French, M.P. for Milbourne Port, and was generally known as James Murphy French. When his brother started the 'Gray's Inn Journal' he joined him, and wrote for it occasionally. He made the acquaintance of Samuel Foote and David Garrick, and wrote two plays, 'The Brothers,' a