Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/741

.] tune (1795), which has a vague resemblance to Kotzebue s Stranger (not produced on the English stage till 1798), and iu which the character of the misanthropist Penruddock, who cannot forget but learns to forgive, was a celebrated part of John Kemble, while the lawyer Timothy Weasel was made comic by Suett ; First Love (1795) ; The Last cf the Family (1795) ; False Impressions (1797), in which, as the hero instead of the heroine is the injured innocent, the sentimentality is less formidable, the diction of the apothecary Scud will startle readers of Dickens by its striking resemblance to that of Mr Alfred Jingle ; The Sailor s Daughter (1804) ; and a Hint to Husbands (1806), which, unlike the rest, is in blank verse. These appear to be all the comedies by Cumberland printed in his lifetime, during which were also published his farce of The Note of Hand (1774) ; the songs of his musical comedy, The Widow of Delphi (1780) ; his tragedies of The Battle of Hastings (1778) ; and The Carmelite (1784), a romantic domestic drama in blank verse, in the style of Home s Douglas, furnishing some effective scenes for Mrs Siddons and John Kemble as mother and son, but ill-constructed, inasmuch as the hero reveals himself several times in succession ; the domestic drama (in prose) of The Mysterious Husband (1783), in which the chief character, the bigamist Lord Davenant, is, for so incredible a scoundrel, prematurely remorseful, and is ultimately got rid of by suicide, but the intricate plot is cleverly contrived ; and some minor pieces. His posthumously printed plays include the comedies of The Walloons (acted 1782 Henderson, who afterwards performed Lord Dave-nant, achieving a great success as the villainous father Sullivan) ; The Passive Husband (acted as A Word for Nature, 1798) ; The Eccentric Lover (acted 1798) ; and Lovers Resolutions (once acted in 1802) ; the serious quasi-historic drama Confession ; the drama Don. Pedro (acted 1796) ; and the tragedies of Alcanor (acted as The Arab, 1785) ; Torrendal ; The Sibyl, or The Elder Brutus (afterwards amalgamated with other plays on the subject into a very successful tragedy for Edmund Kean by Payne) ; Tiberius in Caprece ; and The False Demetrius, the last on a theme already treated by an earlier English dramatist, and destined to be the last which occupied the genius of Schiller. Beside these and other dramatic pro ductions of more or less originality, Cumberland, as already stated, translated the Clouds of Aristophanes (1797), and altered for the stage Shakespeare s Timon of Athens r 771), &quot; engrafting on the original the part of Evanthe for the purpose of writing up the character of Alcibiades,&quot; and in serting other &quot; new matter,&quot; of which he has preser-^d a specimen in his Memoirs, as well as Massinger s The Bond man and The Duke of Milan (both 1779).  CUMBERLAND,,, son of George II. and Queen Caroline, was born on the 15th of April 1721. When five years of age he was created duke of Cumberland ; and when still very young he gave interesting amusement to his grandfather and the London public by the ability with which ho drilled and manoeuvred a company of boy soldiers under his own charge. His education was well attended to, and his courage and capacity in outdoor exercises were notable from his early years. In 1740 he sailed as a volunteer in the fleet under the command of Sir John Norris ; but he quickly became dis satisfied with the navy, and early in 1742 he began the military career in which he was destined to play so prominent a part. The importance for England of the European struggle which began with the death of Charles VI. was that France had declared against the young Hungarian queen. The war on the part of Britain was begun by a force of over 16,000 men being despatched to Flanders under the com mand of the earl of Stair. The English troops were reinforced by Hessians and Hanoverians in British pay and in 1743 George II. and the &quot;martial boy&quot; shared in the glory of Dettingen (27th June). The duke of Cumberland, who led the left of the victorious army, and was wounded in action, displayed an energy and valour on the report of which in England that tide of his popularity began to flow which was in flood at Culloden, and which steadily ebbed thereafter till his death. In 1745 the duke was again in Flanders, and on this occasion he was in full command, having under him British, Hanoverian, Austrian, and Dutch troops to the number of 50,000. Advancing to the relief of Tournay, which was besieged by Marshal Saxe, he engaged the greatest general of the age at Fontenoy on the llth of May. It cannot now be doubted that, had the duke been supported by the allies in his marvellously courageous- attack on the superior positions of the French army, Fontenoy would not have been recorded as a defeat to the British arms. Three times renewing his attack in spite of repulse, he was at last forced to yield, which he did by effecting a dogged and masterly retreat. Notwithstanding a severity of discipline which would astonish soldiers of the present day, the young duke had the power to inspire his men with a strong attachment to his person and a very lively esprit de corps. As a general his courage and resolution were not sufficiently tempered with sagacity and tact ; but he displayed an energy and power in military .affairs which pointed him out to the British people as the one commander upon whom they could rely to put a decisive stop to the marvellous successes of Prince Charles Edward in the rebellion of 1745-46. He was accordingly recalled from Flanders, and immedi- dately proceeded with his preparations for quelling the insurrection. He joined the midland army under Sir John Ligouier, and was at once in pursuit of his swift-footed foe. But the retreat of Charles Edward from Derby disconcerted his plans ; and it was not till they had reached Penrith, and the advanced portion of his army had been repulsed by Lord George Murray on Clifton Moor, that he became aware how hopeless an attempt to overtake the retreating Highlanders would then be. Carlisle having been retaken, he retired to London, till the news of the defeat of Hawle) at Falkirk roused again the fears of the English people, and centred the hopes of Britain on the royal duke. He waf? appointed commander of the forces in Scotland. Having arrived in Edinburgh on the 30th of January 1746, he at once proceeded in search of the young Pretender. (See .) He diverged, however, to Aberdeen, where he usefully and energetically employed his time in training the well-equipped forces now under his command for the peculiar nature of the warfare in which they were about to engage. What the old and ex perienced generals of his time had failed to accomplish or even to understand, the young duke of Cumberland, as yet only twenty-four years of age, effected with simplicity and ease. He prepared to dispose his army so as to with stand with firmness that onslaught on which all Highland successes depended ; and he inspired his men with courage by directing each, on the fierce assault being made, to transfix with his bayonet not his immediate opponent but the kilted warrior on his right. On 8th April 1746 he set out from Aberdeen on that expedition so fruitful in disaster to his enemies, and so fatal to the last hopes of Jacobitism. To his astonishment he was not opposed on the Spey. To his great advantage the attempt of Lord George Murray to surprise his troops as they lay encamped near Nairn proved worse than futile to the exhausted and starving foe, whom on the morrow he engaged and defeated at Culloden. This battle, fought on