1.
Chinsurah
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Chinsurah is a city in the state of West Bengal, India. It lies on the Hooghly River,35 kilometres north of Kolkata and it is in the district of Hooghly and is home to the district headquarters. Chuchura houses the commissioner of the Burdwan Range and it forms a part of the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority region. The District Court building of Chinsurah is the longest building in West Bengal, Chinsurah is the home to the new state-of-the-art 1000 KW DrM transmitter of Prasar Bharti which enables Akashvaani Maitree to be broadcast across Bangladesh. This Special Bangla Service of All India Radio was launched in the wake of the Bangladesh Liberation Movement and played a key role during the war and it continued till April 2010, but was discontinued thereafter due to decommissioning of the Super Power Transmitter at Chinsurah. Chinsurah is also the home of the oldest Armenian church in India, Hooghly-Chuchura was a municipality formed by the merging of two towns, Hugli and Chinsura, in 1865. The names are spelled in other ways including Hooghly, Hugli, Hughli, Ugulim, Chinsura, Chunchura, Chuchro, the Grand Trunk Road passes through the town. Chuchura and Hugli are historic stations on the Howrah-Burdwan main line of the Eastern Railway, ferry services on the River Hugli serves as a link with the district of North 24 Parganas. Hooghly-Chuchura is at 22. 90°N88. 39°E /22.90,88.39 and this city is on the flood plain on the right bank of river Bhagirathi-Hooghly. The Portuguese founded the town of Ugulim, now Hooghly-Chuchura, in 1579, the city flourished as a trading port and some religious structures were built. One such structure is a dedicated to a charismatic statue of the Mother Mary brought by the Portuguese. In the 17th century, political disorder struck the city and the Mughal governor of Bengal expelled the Portuguese, the fleeing Portuguese lost the statue in the river, but local people later found it on the river bank. The arrested Portuguese were taken to Delhi where a sentence of trampling by elephants was decreed. When the emperor Shah Jahan heard this he ordered the priests released and granted a piece of land on the bank of the river Hoogly where the statue of the Mother Mary was reestablished, there the Portuguese constructed a church to house the statue, which still receives pilgrims today. The church was renovated in 1980s and has declared as a basilica by the authority of Rome. In 1656 the Dutch erected a factory on the site of the town, at that time Calcutta was the principal settlement in Dutch Bengal, being used as a base for the Dutch intra-Asian opium trade. In 1759 the garrison of Chinsurah, on its march to Chandernagore, the Battle of Chinsurah lasted less than half an hour and ended with the rout of the Dutch attackers. In 1795, during the Napoleonic wars, a British garrison occupied the settlement, the peace of 1814 restored Hughli to the Dutch
2.
East India Company
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The company also ruled the beginnings of the British Empire in India. The company received a Royal Charter from Queen Elizabeth I on 31 December 1600, wealthy merchants and aristocrats owned the Companys shares. Initially the government owned no shares and had only indirect control, during its first century of operation the focus of the Company was trade, not the building of an empire in India. The company eventually came to rule large areas of India with its own armies, exercising military power. Despite frequent government intervention, the company had recurring problems with its finances, the official government machinery of British India had assumed its governmental functions and absorbed its armies. Soon after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, London merchants presented a petition to Queen Elizabeth I for permission to sail to the Indian Ocean, one of them, Edward Bonventure, then sailed around Cape Comorin to the Malay Peninsula and returned to England in 1594. In 1596, three ships sailed east, however, these were all lost at sea. Two days later, on 24 September, the Adventurers reconvened and resolved to apply to the Queen for support of the project, the Adventurers convened again a year later. For a period of fifteen years the charter awarded the newly formed company a monopoly on trade with all countries east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of the Straits of Magellan. Anybody who traded in breach of the charter without a licence from the Company was liable to forfeiture of their ships and cargo, the governance of the company was in the hands of one governor and 24 directors or committees, who made up the Court of Directors. They, in turn, reported to the Court of Proprietors, ten committees reported to the Court of Directors. According to tradition, business was transacted at the Nags Head Inn, opposite St Botolphs church in Bishopsgate. Sir James Lancaster commanded the first East India Company voyage in 1601, in March 1604 Sir Henry Middleton commanded the second voyage. Early in 1608 Alexander Sharpeigh was appointed captain of the Companys Ascension, thereafter two ships, Ascension and Union sailed from Woolwich on 14 March 1607–8. Initially, the company struggled in the trade because of the competition from the already well-established Dutch East India Company. The company opened a factory in Bantam on the first voyage, the factory in Bantam was closed in 1683. During this time belonging to the company arriving in India docked at Surat. In the next two years, the company established its first factory in south India in the town of Machilipatnam on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal
3.
The Plays of William Shakespeare
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The Plays of William Shakespeare was an 18th-century edition of the dramatic works of William Shakespeare, edited by Samuel Johnson and George Steevens. Johnson announced his intention to edit Shakespeares plays in his Miscellaneous Observations on Macbeth, the edition was finally published in 1765. In the Preface to his edition, Johnson justifies trying to determine the language of the Shakespearean plays. To benefit the reading audience, he added explanatory notes to various passages, later editors followed Johnsons lead and sought to determine an authoritative text of Shakespeare. Johnson began reading Shakespeares plays and poetry when he was a young boy and he would involve himself so closely with the plays that he was once terrified by the Ghost in Hamlet and had to have people about him. Johnson came to believe there was a problem with the collections of Shakespearean plays that were available during his lifetime. Instead, Johnson believed that the reader of Shakespeare was the audience of the play. Furthermore, Johnson believed that later editors both misunderstood the context of Shakespeare and his plays, and underestimated the degree of textual corruption that the plays exhibit. He believed that this was because The style of Shakespeare was in itself perplexed, ungrammatical, to correct these problems, Johnson believed that the original works would need to be examined, and this became an issue in his Proposal. Johnson also believed that an edition of Shakespeare could provide him with the income, however, a full edition of Shakespeare would require a publisher to make a large commitment of time and money, so Johnson decided to begin by focusing on a single play, Macbeth. Johnson began work on Macbeth to provide a sample of what he thought could be achieved in a new edition of Shakespeare. He got much of his information while working on the Harleian Catalogue, Hanmer produced an edition of Shakespeares plays for the Clarendon Press in October 1744, and Johnson felt that he could attract more attention to his own work by challenging some of Hanmers points. Johnson criticised Hanmer for editing Shakespeares words based on subjective opinion instead of objective fact, such harmless industry may surely be forgiven if it cannot be praised, may he therefore never want a monosyllable who can use it with such wonderful dexterity. The Miscellaneous Observations contains many of Johnsons early thoughts and theories on Shakespeare, for instance, Johnson thought that there was an uncanny power in Shakespeares supernatural scenes and wrote, He that peruses Shakespeare looks round alarmed and starts to find himself alone. By the author of the Miscellaneous Observations on the Tragedy of Macbeth, in response, Jacob Tonson and his associates, who controlled the copyright of the current edition of Shakespeare, threatened to sue Johnson and Cave in a letter written on 11 April 1745. They did so to protect their new edition, edited by the Shakespeare scholar William Warburton, the Proposal sold subscriptions for Johnsons future edition at the cost of two guineas, the first paid before and the second upon printing. When Johnson achieved scholarly renown for his A Dictionary of the English Language, Warburtons publishers, in the Proposal, Johnson describes the various problems with previous editions of Shakespeare and argues how a new edition, written by himself, would correct these problems. In particular, Johnson promised to correct what is corrupt, and he would accomplish this by relying on a careful collation of all the oldest copies and to read the same story in the very book which Shakespeare consulted
4.
Samuel Johnson
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Johnson was a devout Anglican and committed Tory, and is described by the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history. He is also the subject of perhaps the most famous biography in English literature, born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, Johnson attended Pembroke College, Oxford for just over a year, before his lack of funds forced him to leave. After working as a teacher, he moved to London, where he began to write for The Gentlemans Magazine and his early works include the biography Life of Mr Richard Savage, the poems London and The Vanity of Human Wishes, and the play Irene. After nine years of work, Johnsons A Dictionary of the English Language was published in 1755 and it had a far-reaching effect on Modern English and has been described as one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship. This work brought Johnson popularity and success, until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary 150 years later, Johnsons was viewed as the pre-eminent British dictionary. His later works included essays, an annotated edition of The Plays of William Shakespeare. In 1763, he befriended James Boswell, with whom he travelled to Scotland. Towards the end of his life, he produced the massive and influential Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, Johnson was a tall and robust man. His odd gestures and tics were disconcerting to some on first meeting him, after a series of illnesses, he died on the evening of 13 December 1784, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Born on 18 September 1709, to Michael Johnson, a bookseller and he did not cry and, with doubts surrounding the newborns health, his aunt exclaimed that she would not have picked such a poor creature up in the street. Since it was feared that the baby die, the vicar of St Marys was summoned to perform a baptism. Two godfathers were chosen, Samuel Swynfen, a physician and graduate of Pembroke College, Oxford, and Richard Wakefield, a lawyer, coroner, Johnsons health improved and he was put to wet-nurse with Joan Marklew. He soon contracted scrofula, known at time as the Kings Evil because it was thought royalty could cure it. Sir John Floyer, former physician to King Charles II, recommended that the young Johnson should receive the royal touch, however, the ritual was ineffective, and an operation was performed that left him with permanent scars across his face and body. Johnson demonstrated signs of intelligence as a child, and his parents, to his later disgust. His education began at the age of three, and was provided by his mother, who had him memorise and recite passages from the Book of Common Prayer. When Samuel turned four, he was sent to a nearby school, a year later, Johnson went to Lichfield Grammar School, where he excelled in Latin. During this time, Johnson started to exhibit the tics that would influence how people viewed him in his years
5.
Frances Burney
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For the playwright Frances Burney, niece of the novelist, see Frances Burney. Frances Burney, also known as Fanny Burney and after her marriage as Madame dArblay, was an English satirical novelist, diarist and playwright. She was born in Lynn Regis, now Kings Lynn, England, on 13 June 1752, to the musician and music historian Dr Charles Burney and his first wife, Esther Sleepe Burney. The third of six children, she was self-educated and began writing what she called her scribblings at the age of ten, in 1793, aged 41, she married a French exile, General Alexandre DArblay. Their only son, Alexander, was born in 1794, after a lengthy writing career, and travels during which she was stranded in France by warfare for more than ten years, she settled in Bath, England, where she died on 6 January 1840. Frances Burney was a novelist, diarist and playwright, in all, she wrote four novels, eight plays, one biography and twenty volumes of journals and letters. She has gained respect in her own right, but also foreshadows such novelists of manners with a satirical bent as Jane Austen. She published her first novel, Evelina, anonymously in 1778, when the books authorship was revealed, it brought her almost immediate fame due to its unique narrative and comic strengths. She followed it with Cecilia in 1782, Camilla in 1796, all Burneys novels explore the lives of English aristocrats, and satirise their social pretensions and personal foibles, with an eye to larger questions such as the politics of female identity. The exception was Edwy and Elgiva, which unfortunately was not well received by the public, today critics are returning to her novels and plays with renewed interest in her outlook on the social lives and struggles of women in a predominantly male-oriented culture. Scholars continue to value Burneys diaries as well for their depictions of English society in her time. Her early novels were read and enjoyed by Jane Austen, whose own title Pride, william Makepeace Thackeray is reported to have drawn on the first-person account of the Battle of Waterloo, recorded in her diaries, while writing Vanity Fair. Frances Burneys early career was affected by her relationship with her father. Many feminist critics thus see her as an author whose natural talent for satire was somewhat stifled by the pressures exerted on female authors of the age. But Burney persisted in writing despite the setbacks, when her comedies were poorly received, she returned to novel writing, and later tried her hand at tragedy. She supported both herself and her family with the proceeds of her novels, Camilla and The Wanderer. Frances was the child in a family of six. Her elder siblings were Esther and James, the younger Susanna Elizabeth, Charles, of her brothers, James became an admiral and sailed with Captain James Cook on his second and third voyages
6.
Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire
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Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire was an English socialite, style icon, author, and activist. Of noble birth from the House of Spencer, married into the House of Cavendish, she was the first wife of William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire, as the 5th Duchess of Devonshire, she garnered much attention and fame in society during her lifetime. She was the great-great-great-great-aunt of Diana, Princess of Wales and their lives, centuries apart, have been compared in tragedy in contemporary time. The duchess was born Miss Georgiana Spencer, on 7 June 1757, as the first child of John Spencer and his wife, Georgiana, at the Spencer family home, Althorp. After her daughters birth, her mother wrote that I will own I feel so partial to my Dear little Gee, two younger siblings followed, Henrietta and George. Mr John Spencer, great-grandson of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough and he built a Spencer family residence at St. Jamess, London and raised his children there. The parents raised Georgiana and her siblings in a marriage which bears no record of ever having been any extramarital affairs - a rarity in the era. Meanwhile, Georgiana grew to be close to her mother who was said to favour Georgiana over her other children, when her father assumed the title of Viscount Spencer in 1761, she became The Honourable Georgiana Spencer. In 1765, her father became Earl Spencer and she Lady Georgiana Spencer, on her seventeenth birthday,7 June 1774, Lady Georgiana Spencer was married to societys most eligible bachelor, William Cavendish, the 5th Duke of Devonshire. The wedding took place at Wimbledon Parish Church and it was a small ceremony attended only by her parents, her maternal grandmother, one of her prospective brothers-in-law, and soon-to-be sister-in-law. Her parents were reluctant to let their daughter go. Her father, who had always shown affection to his children, wrote to her, My Dearest Georgiana, I did not know till lately how much I loved you, I miss you every day. Mother and daughter continued to correspond throughout their lives and many of their letters survive. From the beginning of the marriage, the Duke of Devonshire proved to be a reserved man who was quite unlike the duchesss father. The spouses also had little in common and he would seldom be at her side and would spend nights at Brooks playing cards. The duke continued with adulterous behaviour throughout their life and discord followed pregnancies that ended in miscarriage or failure to produce a male child as heir. Before their marriage, the duke had fathered a daughter, Charlotte Williams, born from a dalliance with a former milliner. This was unknown to the duchess until years after her marriage to the duke, after the death of the childs mother, she was compelled to raise Charlotte herself
7.
Anna Laetitia Barbauld
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Anna Laetitia Barbauld was a prominent English poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, and childrens author. A woman of letters who published in multiple genres, Barbauld had a writing career at a time when female professional writers were rare. She was a teacher at the Palgrave Academy and an innovative childrens writer, her primers provided a model for pedagogy for more than a century. Her essays demonstrated that it was possible for a woman to be engaged in politics. Barbauld was also a critic, and her anthology of 18th-century British novels helped establish the canon as known today. Barbaulds career as a poet ended abruptly in 1812 with the publication of Eighteen Hundred and Eleven, vicious reviews shocked Barbauld, and she published nothing else during her lifetime. Her reputation was damaged when many of the Romantic poets she had inspired in the heyday of the French Revolution turned against her in their later, more conservative. Some letters from Barbauld to others also exist, however, a great many Barbauld family documents were lost in a fire that was the result of the London blitz in 1940. Barbauld was born on 20 June 1743 at Kibworth Harcourt in Leicestershire to Jane and she was named after her maternal grandmother and referred to as Nancy. She was baptised by her mothers brother, John Jennings, in Huntingdonshire two weeks after her birth, Barbaulds father was headmaster of the Dissenting academy in Kibworth Harcourt and minister at a nearby Presbyterian church. The family had a standard of living. McCarthy suggests they may have ranked with large freeholders, well-to-do tradesmen, at his death in 1780, Barbaulds fathers estate was valued at more than £2,500. Barbauld commented to her husband in 1773 that For the early part of my life I conversed little with my own Sex, in the Village where I was, there was none to converse with. Barbauld was surrounded by boys as a child and adopted their high spirits, Barbauld demanded that her father teach her the classics and after much pestering, he did. Thus she had the opportunity to learn Latin, Greek, French, Italian, Barbaulds penchant for study worried her mother, who expected her to end up a spinster because of her intellectualism, the two were never as close as Barbauld and her father. Barbaulds brother, John Aikin, described their father as the best parent, the wisest counsellor, Barbaulds father prompted many such tributes, although Lucy Aikin described him as excessively modest and reserved. Barbauld developed a bond with her brother during childhood, standing in as a mother figure to him. In 1817, Joanna Baillie commented of their relationship How few brothers and sisters have been to one another what they have been through so long a course of years
8.
Samuel Foote
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Samuel Foote was a British dramatist, actor and theatre manager from Cornwall. He was known for his acting and writing, and for turning the loss of a leg in a riding accident in 1766 to comedic opportunity. Born into a family, Foote was baptized in Truro. His father, Samuel Foote, held public positions, including mayor of Truro, Member of Parliament representing Tiverton. His mother, née Eleanor Goodere, was the daughter of baronet Sir Edward Goodere of Hereford, Foote may have inherited his wit and sharp humour from her and her family which was described as eccentric. whose peculiarities ranged from the harmless to the malevolent. About the time Foote came of age, he inherited his first fortune when one of his uncles, baronet Sir John Dineley Goodere, 2nd Baronet was murdered by another uncle and this murder was the subject of his first pamphlet, which he published around 1741. An undisciplined student, he frequently was absent from his Latin and Greek classes and subsequently, Foote was destined for the law, but certainly not by nature. Though he never applied himself to his studies at the Inner Temple, he applied himself to spending money. After finding himself in debt, Foote married a certain Mary Hickes on 10 January 1741, with his wife also came a sizable dowry. Contemporaries note that Foote mistreated his wife, deserting her when his situation improved. But a stronger attraction drew him to the Bedford Coffee-house in Covent Garden and his extravagant living soon forced him into debtors prison in 1742, and friends encouraged Footes going onto the stage to make a living. Footes first training for the stage came under the tutelage of Charles Macklin, by 1744, when they appeared onstage together, Macklin had made a name for himself as one of the most notable actors on the British stage, after David Garrick. His appearance as Shylock in Shakespeares The Merchant of Venice at the Drury Lane Theatre in 1741, dismissing the conventional comedic approach to the character, Macklin played the character as consummately evil. Following less than a year of training, Foote appeared opposite Macklins Iago as the role in Shakespeares Othello at the Haymarket Theatre,6 February 1744. In order to skirt this law, the Haymarket Theatre held musical concerts with plays included gratis, following his unsuccessful London appearance, Foote spent the summer season in Dublin at the Theatre Royal, Smock Alley where he found his first success. Returning to England, he joined the company at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane which at that time included such noted actors as Peg Woffington, David Garrick and Spranger Barry. There he played comic roles including Harry Wildair in Farquhars The Constant Couple, Lord Foppington in Vanbrughs The Relapse and most notably and it was in this role that Foote publicly showed his gift of mimicry. Borrowing from David Garricks interpretation of the role, Foote used this role to many leading contemporaries
9.
Edmond Malone
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Edmond Malone was an Irish Shakespearean scholar and editor of the works of William Shakespeare. Assured of an income after the death of his father in 1774, Malone was able to give up his law practice for at first political and he went to London, where he frequented literary and artistic circles. He regularly visited Samuel Johnson and was of assistance to James Boswell in revising and proofreading his Life. He was friendly with Sir Joshua Reynolds, and sat for a now in the National Portrait Gallery. He was one of Reynolds executors, and published a collection of his works with a memoir. Horace Walpole, Edmund Burke, George Canning, Oliver Goldsmith, Lord Charlemont and his refusal to alter some of his notes to Isaac Reeds edition of 1785, which disagreed with Steevenss, resulted in a quarrel with the latter. Malone was also a figure in the refutation of the claim that the Ireland Shakespeare forgeries were authentic works of the playwright. He had two sisters, Henrietta and Catherine, and a brother, Richard. Edmond Malone Sr. was a lawyer and politician, educated at Oxford University and the Inner Temple in London, and called to the Bar in England in 1730. But in 1740, a year before Edmond Jr. was born, his practice in England failed and he took up residence with his wife on the familys country estate, Shinglas, in County Westmeath, and began a more successful legal practice there. Malone excelled at his studies, a student, naturally diligent, consistently at the top of his class. In the very first examination, of four in the year, he shared top honours with James Drought and John Kearney. As an undergraduate he wrote poetry and literary history. Of the latter, an example is a prose translation of Oedipus Rex by Sophocles with annotations. His studies were interrupted when, in the summer of 1759, he, catherines health had been deteriorating for some time and she now had increasing difficulty walking. After a short stay in Highgate she moved to the Roman Baths at Bath in Somerset, Malone and his father returned to Ireland in October, too late to resume the winter term, so he elected to stay at Shinglas until the new year and study on his own. Not wishing to leave his father solitary, he nearly did not return to Trinity, Malones final examination at Trinity was in the Michaelmas term in 1761, and he received his BA degree at the following Commencement on 23 February 1762. As only one of three, he achieved the top mark, the decision to study law was an obvious choice, his father, uncle, and grandfather had all been Irish Barristers
10.
Charles Dibdin
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Charles Dibdin was a British composer, musician, dramatist, novelist and actor. With over 600 songs to his name, for many of which he wrote both the lyrics and the music and performed himself, he was in his time the most prolific English singer-songwriter. He is best known as the composer of Tom Bowling, one of his many sea songs, the son of a silversmith, he was privately baptised on 4 March 1745 in Southampton and is often described as the youngest child of 18 born to a 50-year-old mother. His parents, intending him for the clergy, sent Dibdin to Winchester School and he possessed a remarkable good voice at a young age, and was in demand for concerts even as a boy. Anthems were composed for him by Mr. Kent and his successor Mr Fussell, organists of Winchester Cathedral and he went to London at the age of fifteen at his brothers invitation, and was first employed tuning harpsichords in a music warehouse in Cheapside. Through Mr. Berenger he was introduced to John Rich and John Beard, as his voice was not yet settled, Rich thought he would become a bass, and marked out the pantomime roles of Richard Leveridge for him. Dibdin held back from this path, but made the most of his introductions, as an actor, Dibdin had constant opportunities to study Garricks performances, and befriended his associates, notably his prompter, who could remember Cibber. He enjoyed two seasons touring at the Vauxhall in Birmingham, and another at Richmond and he gained so much success over a run of more than fifty nights, that Ralph handkerchiefs were worn in compliment to him. He agreed to article himself, both as actor and musician, to Beard for three years at a salary rising from three to five pounds a week, however, his contract established a precedent by which actors were not paid in case of absence through sickness. The script for The Maid of the Mill was by playwright Isaac Bickerstaffe, who had written the libretto for Love in a Village and he had already confided to Beard that he disliked acting because of the jealousy and spite which his success brought upon him from other actors. Hence he had turned again to composition, Love in the City was abandoned, but Dibdins music was successful and was transferred into a play called The Romp. The association with Bickerstaffe continued in Dibdins music for the play Lionel and Clarissa at Covent Garden in 1767, by 1768, his articles completed, and receiving harsh treatment from his new manager George Colman, Dibdin was ready to part company with Covent Garden. Dibdin made only £40 from it while Bickerstaffe made a fortune, the Padlock was produced at Drury Lane under Garricks management in 1768, Dibdin taking the part of Mungo so as to cause that degree of sensation in the public which is called a rage. In 1769 for Garrick he also composed for Garricks Shakespeare Jubilee at Stratford, Dibdin set a text by Garrick for The Installation of the Garter in 1771. Dibdin was obliged to appear on stage and claim authorship of both words and music, while salacious tittle-tattle sought to both him and Garrick in Bickerstaffes offence. During the same year he worked closely with Garrick at Hampton to compose songs and music for Garricks winter piece, The Christmas Tale. From this ordeal he acquired the technique of composing the music entire in his mind, writing down nothing until the manuscript was needed. Dibdins own most lasting opera, The Waterman, the music of which he sold for £30, was produced first at the Haymarket Theatre in 1774, Charles Bannister was again prominent in the cast of all three operas
11.
John Home
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Rev John Home FRSE was a Scottish minister, soldier and author. His play Douglas was a standard Scottish school text until the Second World War, in 1783 he was one of the joint founders of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He was born at Ancrum in Roxburghshire, but moved to Leith, near Edinburgh, in childhood when his father, Alexander Home. He was born on 13 September and christened on 22nd September 1722 John was educated at the Leith Grammar School, and at the University of Edinburgh, though interested in being a soldier, he studied divinity, and was licensed by the presbytery of Edinburgh in 1745. In the same year he joined as a volunteer against Bonnie Prince Charlie, with many others he was carried to Doune castle in Perthshire, but soon escaped. In July 1746, Home was presented to the parish of Athelstaneford, East Lothian and he had leisure to visit his friends and became especially intimate with David Hume who belonged to the same family as himself. His first play, Agis, a tragedy, founded on Plutarchs narrative, was finished in 1747 and he took it to London, England, and submitted it to David Garrick for representation at Drury Lane, but it was rejected as unsuitable for the stage. The tragedy of Douglas was suggested to him by hearing a lady sing the ballad of Gil Morrice or Child Maurice, the ballad supplied him with the outline of a simple and striking plot. After five years, he completed his play and took it to London for Garricks opinion and it was rejected, but on his return to Edinburgh his friends resolved that it should be produced there. It was performed on 14 December 1756 with overwhelming success, in spite of the opposition of the presbytery, Home wisely resigned his charge in 1757, after a visit to London, where Douglas was brought out at Covent Garden on 14 March. Peg Woffington played Lady Randolph, a part which found a later exponent in Sarah Siddons, Garrick produced Agis at Drury Lane on 21 February 1758. By dint of good acting and powerful support, according to Genest, the play lasted for eleven days, in 1760 his tragedy, The Siege of Aquileia, was put on the stage, Garrick taking the part of Aemilius. In 1769 another tragedy, The Fatal Discovery ran for nine nights, Alonzo also had fair success, Home was also an active participant in the social life of Edinburgh, and joined the Poker Club in 1762. In 1778, he joined a regiment formed by the Duke of Buccleuch and he sustained severe injuries in a fall from horseback which permanently affected his brain, and was persuaded by his friends to retire. From 1767, he resided either at Edinburgh or at a villa which he built at Kilduff near his former parish and it was at this time that he wrote his History of the Rebellion of 1745, which appeared in 1802. Home died at Merchiston Bank, near Edinburgh, in his eighty-sixth year and he is buried in South Leith Parish Church. He died on 4 September and was buried on the 5th, see also Sir W Scott, The Life and Works of John Home in the Quarterly Review. Douglas is included in collections of British drama
