Life
?1800-1874 [Morgan Peter Kavanagh; M. P. Kavanagh]; b. Tipperary [or Dublin];
prob. self-educated; visited London on literary business, 1823, and lived
chiefly in London therafter; issued The Wanderings of Lucan and Dinah
(1824), printed in London by a wealthy friend of his chance acquaintance
Martin MacDermot, who wrote a preface; issued The Reign of Lockryn
(1839), a Spenserian poem; m. Bridget née Fitzpatrick, c.1823,
with whom Julia Kavanagh (b.1824); moved with family to London; teacher
of languages; moved to Paris, c.1834, returning to London in 1844; pre-occupied
with linguistic theory supposedly accounting for the origin of all languages
in terms of the words first given to the sun, viz., The Discovery of
the Science of Languages (1844), called ‘a ridiculous work on
philology translated into French the same year’ [DNB]; living in
London at 28 Dean St., Soho, in 1850; sub-lets two rooms to Karl Marx,
Dec. 1850 at this address, where Marx settled longest; separated from
Bridget before 1851 and entered common-law marriage with Marie Rose, with
whom an eldest son Alfred; visited Thomas Carlyle at Cheyne Row, Chelsea,
and elicited literary support with John Gough, editor of Gentleman’s
Magazine, by whom it was rejected; refused Carlyle’s subsequent
offer to supply his name to a subscription list; Myths Traced to their
Primary Source through Language (1856), unsuccessfully submitted by
author for Prix Volney (Paris); believed to have issued The Hobbies
(1857), a novel, in his daughter’s name though actually citing
her as an editor only, nevertheless inciting her to repudiate it in the
columns of The Athenaeum (9 June 1857), where it had been called
‘the most foolish novel we have ever read’ by the reviewer;
resident in Paris during the 1860s; dg. Mathilda b. 1862; s. Alexander
b. 1866; submitted fragment for Prix Volney, and challenged M. Littré
to a 1,000fr. wager on the probability of his views; issued same as The
Origin of Language and Myths (1871), contesting the work of Friedrich
Max Müller and others, and making philological conjectures on his
own account based on his knowledge of Gaelic, Latin, French, Saxon, Hebrew,
Sanskrit, Greek, Italian, Spanish and German; damningly reviewed in The
Atheneum and Spectator (resp. Sept. & Nov. 1871); living
at 13 Ashburton Grove (off Hornsby Rd., Islington), 1873; a Louisa Kavanagh
presents herself at the coroner’s inquest as his wife; d. there Feb.
1874, of concupia, having suffered fractured skull following a
street accident; left 680-page MS The Errors of Religion, acc.
author’s note intended as third volume of Myths Traced [...
&c.]. [DNB] PI [OCIL]
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Works
Poetry, The Wanderings of Lucan and Dinah: A Poetical
Romance, in Ten Cantos, pref. Martin MacDermot (London: Sherwood &
co. 1824); The Reign of Lockrin: A Poem in Spenserian Stanzas
([Paris] 1839). Fiction, Aristobulus: The Last of the Maccabees:
A Tale of Jerusalem, 3 vols. (London; T. Cautley Newby 1855); The
Hobbies, 3 vols. (London: T. Cautley Newby 1857).
Prose, The Discovery of the Science of Languages, in which are show the real nature of the parts of speech; the meanings which all words carry in themselves, as their own definitions; and the origin of words, letters, figures, &c., 2 vols. (London: Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans 1844), and Do. [in French as] La decouverte de la science des langues contentant: une opinion sur la manière d’opérer d’un esprit humain; l’explication de la nature réelle des parties du discourse et de la signification que tous les mot renferment en eux-mêmes commes leur propre definition; l’origine des mots, lettres, chiffres, &c., ainsi que les principes fondamentaux de la première religion de l’homme, traduit de l’anglais par Morgan Cavanagh et C. Joubert [2 vols in 1], au comptoir des imprimeurs-unis (Paris 1844); Myths Traced to their Primary Source through Language, 2 vols. (London: Newby 1856); An Author his Own Reviewer; or, An Analysis of "Myths Traced to their Primary Source through Language" by its author (London: J. R. Smith 1857); Origin of Languages and Myths, 2 vols. (London: Sampson, Low, Marston, Searle 1871).
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Criticism
Robert J. Kavanagh, The Mysterious Irishman: Morgan Peter Kavanagh
(Ottawa 2001), 44pp. [RJK is a great-grandson of Morgan Kavanagh through
his ‘marriage’ to Rose Marie].
A paper by Jacques-Philippe Saint-Gerand (Université Blaise-Pascal Clermont Farrand II) can be read on his internet site.
Robert J. Kavanagh, The Mysterious Irishman: Morgan Peter Kavanagh (Ottawa 2001).
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Notes
Dictionary of National Biography lists under Julia Kavanagh
the follows works actually written by Morgan Kavanagh: The Reign of
Lockrin, a poem in Spenserian stanza (1838); The Discovery of the
Science of Languages (1844), ‘a ridiculous work on philology
translated into French the same year’; Myths traced to their Primary
source through Language (1856), and The Origin of Language and
Myths (1871). The Hobbies, a novel disowned by Julia Kavanagh
though her name appears on the title-page (Vide Athenaeum, 1857).
Also cited in Boase’s Modern Biographia.
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)