Life
1772-1849; author of Life in London. Attacked the Prince Regent
and Mrs. Robinson [?Mrs Fitzherbert] in The Mistress of Royalty, or
the Loves of Florizel and Perdita (1814); Boxiana, or Sketches
of Modern Pugilism, a monthly serial (1818-24); Life in London,
or The Day and Night Scenes of Jerry Hawthorn [...] and [...]
Corinthian Bob, accompanied by Bob Logic, in monthly numbers from
1821; a didactic sequel (1828); furnished slang phrases
for Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1823); a weekly
newspaper, Pierce Egan’s Life in London and Sporting Guide (1824);
Pierce Egan’s Book of Sport’s and Mirror of Life (1832);
The Pilgrims of the Thames in Search of the National (1838), dedicated
to Queen Victoria. DNB PI RAF OCEL OCIL
Works
Life in London (1820 & edns.) ill. by George & Robert Cruikshank;
Real Life in Ireland, or the Day and Night Scenes, roving rambles,
sprees, bulls, blunders, bodderation and blarney of Brian BORU,
Esq. and his elegant friend Sir Shawn O’Dogherty [...] high
and low life in Dublin and various parts of Ireland ... by a real Paddy
(Lon. 1821); Life in Dublin, or Tom, Jerry and Logic on their Travels,
unpubl. com. (1834).
Reprints, John Marriott, ed., Unknown London: Early Modernist Visions of the Metropolis 1815-45, 6 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto 2001), £495pp.
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Criticism
J. C. Reid, Bucks and Bruisers, Pierce Egan and Regency England
(London: Routledge 1971), 253pp.
Louis James, review of John Marriott, ed., Unknown London: Early Modernist Visions of the Metropolis 1815-45, 6 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, in Times Literary Supplement, 28 Dec. 2001, pp.4-5.
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Notes
D. J. O'Donoghue, The Poets of Ireland: A Biographical Dictionary
(Dublin: Hodges Figgis & Co 1912); Irish origin, perhaps born in Ireland;
in London, Tom and Jerry, burlesque songs and parodies (Lon. 1822);
founded Bell’s Life (sporting). Other works were comic poems,
The Show Folks (1831) and Mathew’s Comic Annual, or The
Snuff-Box and the Little Bird (1831). FURTHER, A son, Pierce (1814-1880),
‘a clever novelist’, did etchings for Pilgrims, and published
novels on feudal period; ed. Home Circle (1849-51), contrib. London
Journal. Works incl. Eve, or the Angel of Innocence (1867)
and The Poor Girl (1862-3); pioneer of cheap literature.
Margaret Drabble, ed., Oxford Companion of English Literature (OUP: 1985), the Elder, 1772-1849; Life in London, or the Day and Night Scenes of Jerry Hawthorn Esq., and Corintian Tom, issued in monthly nos. from 1820 and complete in 1821, interesting for the light it throws on manners and slang phrases of the period; Pierce Egan’s Life in London and Sporting Guide, 1824, developed into Bell’s Life in London [mag.]; a son and namesake (1814-80) wrote a vast number of novels.
Patrick Rafroidi, Irish Literature in English, The Romantic Period, 1789-1850, Vol 1 (1980), lists Pierce Egan, Real Life in Ireland, or the Day and Night Scenes [&c] by a Real Paddy and refers to his incredible stage-Irishman in that text, quoting: ‘Fam’d for potatoes, love, and whiskey,/For men so brave, and girls so frisky,/For ease, for elegance, and grace,/With matchless impudence of face,/An isle there lies, ’tis close to hand,/Good humour calls it "Paddy’s Land", ... ‘Tis numbered amongst the worldly wonders,/The fountain-head of bulls and blunders.’ (pp.5-6).
There is an allusion to Pierce Egan in James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake (1939): ‘Compost of Dufblin by Pierce Egan
with the baugh of Baughkley of Fino Ralli. Explain why there is such a
number of orders of religion in Asea!’ (447.23).
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)