THE GENTLEMAN. AN HEROIC POEM. In two cantos … The second edition.

Published by Dublin: printed in the year, 1747

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  • Softcover
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Seller: Christopher Edwards ABA ILAB, Henley-on-Thames, Oxon, United KingdomChristopher Edwards ABA ILAB

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8vo, pp. 23; in recent marbled wrappers. Second edition: first printed earlier the same year, also in Dublin. A mock-heroic poem about 'Kelly's Riot', which brought tumult to the Dublin theatrical world in 1747. The theatre historian Robert G. Lowe gives a good account of the incident: 'On 19th January, 1747, when Aesop was being played, a fellow named Kelly, a gentleman, went into the pit of the Smock Alley Theatre, drunk. He climbed on the stage, and going into the green room, grossly insulted Mrs. Dyer, an actress. [Thomas] Sheridan had him turned out; and Kelly, going back to the pit threw oranges at Sheridan, with one of which he struck him on the face. After the play, Kelly found his way on the stage, and abused Sheridan, who gave him a well-deserved thrashing, which Kelly took like a lamb. Kelly and his friends caused several riots in the theatre on subsequent evenings, in one of which they insulted a Trinity College student. The students, who were great supporters of their former comrade, Sheridan, effectually resented this insult to their body. They captured the leading rioters, carried them to the College, and forced them to kneel and abjectly apologise. Kelly was tried before the Lord Chief Justice, sentenced to three months' imprisonment, and fined £500. After being confined for a week, he begged Sheridan's mercy, and, by the latter's intercession, the fine was remitted and Kelly released. From this time no one was allowed behind the scenes of the theatre.' This rather clever and amusing poem describes the incident up to the point when Kelly receives his thrashing. Sheridan is portrayed as Typhon, and Kelly as Ergasto; a contemporary hand has identified these two, and a number of others, with marginal notes (a bit cropped, but fully intelligible). 'Kelly's Riot' inspired at least a dozen pamphlets, all of them now very rare. Of this one, the only one in verse, ESTC records just two copies of this second edition (Rylands and Newberry), and seven locations, five of them Irish, for the 22-page first edition Foxon G121; Lowe (Arnott and Robinson) 1740.

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Bibliographic details

Title
THE GENTLEMAN. AN HEROIC POEM. In two cantos … The second edition.
Author
[THEATRE, Dublin.]
Publisher
Dublin: printed in the year
Publication year
1747
Binding
Soft cover
Edition
1st Edition
Seller catalogs
Poetry

Christopher Edwards ABA ILAB

Henley-on-Thames, Oxon, United Kingdom

5-star seller

AbeBooks seller since January 6, 2000

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English literature, British history, Early continental books

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Christopher Edwards ABA ILAB

United Kingdom