Life
1793-1842 [pseud. ‘(Sir) Morgan O’Doherty’]; b. 10 July,
Marlboro Fort, Cork; ed. TCD from 1806, aged 12; BA 1811; LLD, 1819; gifted
in several languages; succeeded father at Marlboro St. School, and acted
as headmaster for 10 years; qualified at law at 25; active part in literary
contests; bitter enemy of S. C. Hall; moved to London, 1823; contrib.
Advertiser, and Forck Freeholder; London Literary Gazette,
and Blackwood’s Magazine, 1819-28, and 1834-42; conceived
the idea for ‘Noctes Ambrosianae’, consisting of parodies of
Scott, Moore, Coleridge, Disraeli and others, purporting to be plagiarised
originals, appeared in Blackwood’s Magazine 1822-35 (pseud.
Morgan O’Doherty); m. Ellen Bullen, moved to London, 1823; saw to
the printing of J. J. Callanan’s handful of translations that appeared
in Blackwood’s Magazine in 1823; moved to Paris as corresp.
The Representative; co-ed. The Standard for Murray, contrib.
The Age; fnd.-ed. Fraser’s Magazine, 1830, in which
appeared Maclise’s ‘Gallery of Literary Characters’ to
his text; also ‘Bob Burke’s Duel with Ensign Brady’, 1834;
Ten Tales (1833), Irish stories; published ‘Homeric Ballads’
in Fraser’s Magazine, 1838; reproductions of Lucian’s
dialogues in the form of black-verse comedies, 1839; unhappy episode in
the course of platonic episode with Laetitia Landon hastened death through
dissipation; brief return to journalism, Lancaster Herald, in Liverpool;
imprisoned for debt 1840, and a second time, 1842; died of tuberculosis,
Aug. 21 at Walton-on-Thames; also wrote (in whole or part) several novels,
Whitehall or the Days of George IV (1827), and John Manesty,
2 vols. (1844), published posthumously with ills. by George Cruikshank;
writings collected as Miscellanies, Prose and Verse, ed. R. W.
Montague, 2 vols. (1885), incl. ‘Pendennis[?]’ and ‘Polyglott’
sketches; Thackeray’s Cpt. Shandon modelled on Maginn. DNB PI
IF JMC MKA DIB DIW OCEL DIL RAF FDA SUTH OCIL
[ top ]
Works
Whitehall, or The Days of George IV (London: W. Marsh 1827), novel;
Memoirs of Vidocq, 4 vols. (London: Hunt & Clarke 1828) [trans.
from French]; Tales of Military Life, 3 vols. (London: H. Colburn
1829); Memoirs of Madame Du Barri, trans. from French (London:
Whittaker 1830); collaborated on Fisher’s Drawing Room Scrap Book
(London: Fisher 1832), with poetical ills. by L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon];
Magazine Miscellanies [1841], reps. from Blackwood’s with
a kind of autobiography; John Manesty, The Liverpool Merchant,
2 vols. (London: J. Mortimer 1844), novel, by the late William Maginn,
LLD, ill. George Cruikshank; Maxims of Sir Morgan O’Doherty, Bart.
(Edinburgh & London: W. Blackwood & Sons 1849), 138p. [first in
collab. with Lockhart, and W. H. Forbes, in Blackwood’s, May-Sept.
1849]; Homeric Ballads, with trans. and notes by the late William
Maginn LLD (London: John W. Parker 1850), xx, 300pp., pref. John Churchill,
Greek text facing, previously in Fraser’s, XI-XXVII [1838];
Noctes Ambrosianae, by John Wilson [ ...], Wm. Maginn, J. G. Lockhart,
James Hogg, et al. (NY 1854) [orig. in Blackwood’s]; Do.,
rev. ed. with memoirs and notes, R. Shelton Mackenzie 5 vols. (NY: W.
J. Middleton 1863-66) [var. 1865 FDA2]; Miscellaneous Writings of the
Late Dr. Maginn, ed. Dr Shelton Mackenzie, 5 vols. (NY: Redfield 1855-57),
Vols. I+II, ‘The O’Doherty Papers’ (1855); Vol. III, ‘The
Shakespeare Papers’ (1856), 363pp.; Vol. IV, ‘Homeric Ballads
and Translations and Comedies of Lucian’ (1856), 342pp. [Lucian trans.
appeard in Fraser’s, XIX-XXI]; Vol. V, ‘The Fraserian Papers’
[also in Fraser’s]; Photographic Similes of the antique
Gems Formerly Possessed by the Late Princess Poniatowski, accompanied
by a descript. and poetical illustration of each subject ... gem-engraving
by James Prendeville ... assited by the late William maginn (London: Longman
&c., 1st er. 1857; 2nd ser. 1859); Shakespeare Papers, Pictures
Grave and Sad (London: R. Bentley 1859), 368pp. [new edn. 1860]; A
Gallery of Illustrious Characters [...] accompanied by Notices
Chiefly by the late William Maginn LLD (London: Chatto &
Windus [1873]) [incl. ‘Mrs. S. C. Hall’, et al., from Fraser’s
Magazine, 1830-1838]. Also Ten Tales (London: Partridge 1933);
‘Irish Songs’, in Blackwood’s Magazine, Vol. 17
[q.d.] p.318.
[ top ]
Criticism
Dod[d]’s
Annual Obituary for 1842; Edward Vaughan Hyde Kenealy, ‘Our
Portrait Gallery, no. 34: William Maginn L.L.D.’, Dublin University
Magazine, 23 (1844), pp.72-101.
D. O. Madden, Revelations of Ireland (1848); [q.a.], Irish Quarterly Review, Vol. 2 (1852), [q.p.].
P. Webster, The Closing Day of William Maginn (Allen: [n.d.]).
Miriam M. H. Thrall, Rebellious Fraser’s: Nol Yorke's Magazine in the Days of Maginn, Thackeray, and Carlyle (NY: Columbia UP 1934), [lists of Maginn’s publications in Fraser’s in Chp. VIII to XI and App. 6].
Ralph Martin Wardle, ‘William Maginn and Blackwood's Magazine’, Diss. Harvard University 1940.
Robert Welch, Irish Poetry from Moore to Yeats (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1980), p.47.
See also W. E. Houghton, in Wellesley Index, arts. from 1824; Irish Book Lover, Vols. 1, 2, 3, 4, [6], 26.
Mrs. Oliphant, House of Blackwood [n.d.], [also as Annals of Publishing House, ed. George Saintsbury].
Smiles, Life of John Murray [q.d.]; M. Monahan, Nova Hiberinia [q.d.].
R.
W. Montague, ed., Miscellanies, 2 vols. (1885).
Patrick Rafroidi, Irish Literature in English, The Romantic Period, 1789-1850, Vol 1 and 2 (1980).
W. B. Stanford, Ireland and the Classical Tradition (1984), pp. 170-71].
[ top ]
Notes
Dictionary
of National Biography, William Maginn, LLD, b. Marlboro Fort,
Cork, 10 July; TCD BA, 1811; LLD, 1819; took off Moore’s style perfectly
and perpetrated a parody of Adonais more inept, if possible, than
his previous parody of Christabel. ... Some suspension for some
unexplained reason of his contributions to Blackwood in 1828 left
him free for the most memorable of his undertakings, the est. of Fraser’s
Magazine, in 1830. ANTH, Justin McCarthy, Irish Lit., gives ‘Bob
Burke’s Duel with Ensign Brady’ and ‘Daniel O’Rourke’.
D. J. O’Donoghue, Poets of Ireland (Dublin: Hodges Figgis 1912), lists Eneas Eunuchus [published while at TCD]; Homeric Ballads (Lon 1850); Miscellanies in Prose and Verse (2 vols., London 1835); pseuds are Morgan O’Doherty; M. O’D.; R.T.S.; Olinthus Petre, D.D.; Rev. E. Hincks, F.T.C.D.; Morty MacNamara Mulligan; Philip Forager; Richard Dowden; Wm. Holt; An Irish Gentleman lately Deceased; Bob Buller; Giles Middlestitch; Thomas Jennings, Soda Water Manufacturer; Blaize FitzTravesty, Esq.; Rev. J. Barrett, DD FTCD; R.F.P; Augustinus; P.T.T.; W. Seward; Ralph Tuckett Scott; John T-n; etc., etc.; m. Ellan, dg. Robert Bullen, of Mallow; assumed names in Literary Gazette were Dionysius Duggan; P. P. Crossman; P.P.P; P. J. Crossman; and C. O. Crossman; published satirical novel Whitehall, or the Days of George IV (1827); other works include Tales of Military Life (c.1841), being the only one to bear his name on the title page; Dr. Kenealy was the only one present at his funeral; Miscellanies, 5 vols. (1857) ed. Dr. Mackenzie in America and reissued in selection 2 vols. (London 1885).
Justin McCarthy, ed., Irish Literature (Washington: Catholic Univ. of America 1904), , contains long biographical notice, beginning with the story of his jocose manner of introducing himself to Moir [Muir], the Blackwood’s editor; selects ‘ "Bob Burke’s Duel with Ensign Brady" and "Daniel O’Rourke" [written for Crofton Croker’s Fairy Legends, and attributed long after], both prose pieces; no verse.
Stephen Brown, Ireland in Fiction [Pt. I] (Dublin: Maunsel 1919), lists Miscellanies, Prose and Verse [1840]; IF2 adds Ten Tales (1933); A Story Without a Tail (1928); and The Maxims of Sir Morgan O’Doherty (1849). CHECK for reprnts.
Brian McKenna, Irish Literature, 1800-1875: A Guide to Information Sources (Detroit: Gale Research Co. 1978), citing Micheal Sadlier, ‘William Maginn ... Bibl. and Epitaph’, in Bulwer, A Panorama, Edward and Rosina 1803-1836 (London 1931), pp.419-21; also a bibliography by Miriam M. H. Thrall in Rebellious Fraser’s [... &c.]. (NY 1934), and Wellesley’s Index to Victorian Periodicals. Biogs. incl. Edward Vaughan Kenealy, ‘Our Portrait Gallery’, no. 34, William Maginn LLD, DUM 23 (1844), pp.72-101; John Lyle Donaghy (Dublin Mag., 1938); see also J. S. Crone in IBL 26 (1939). WORKS, Miscellaneous Writings of the Late Dr. Maginn, ed. R Skelton MacKenzie, 5 vols. (NY 1855-57), I & II, the O’Doherty Papers; III The Shakespeare Papers; IV, The Homeric Ballads; V, The Fraserian Papers; R. S. MacKenzie ed., Noctes Ambrosianae, 5 vols. (NY 1863-65); R. W. Montagu, ed., Miscellanies, Prose and Verse, 2 vols. (Lon. 1885); also Ten Tales (1933), reviewed by Patrick S. O’Hegarty in Dublin Magazine (1934).
John Sutherland, The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction (Longmans 1988; rep. 1989), remarks on astonishing amount of literary activity [during] short, debaunched life; b. Cork, schoolmaster’s son; precocious; ed. TCD; classics BA Mod., 1811; law doctorate, 1819, after school-teaching with his father; contrib. Blackwood’s Magazine, and Literary Gazette; leading Blackwood’s author in Edinburgh after 1821; generally used pseud. Morgan O’Doherty; London, 1823; connection with Laetitia Landon (L.E.L), till her mysterious death in 1838; by-word for dissipation; Whitehall, or the Days of George IV (1827), satirical novel; broke with Blackwood’s in 1828 and fnd. Fraser’s Magazine in 1830; duelled with author of Berkeley Castle following his review, in 1836; debtor’s prison in 1837; protrayed unflattering affection as Captain Shandon in Thackeray’s Pendennis; began John Manesty, issued posthumously. SUTH lists John Manesty, The Liverpool Merchant, ill. George Cruickshank (1844; ser. Ainsworth’s Magazine, intermittently July 1843-Feb. 1844); inedited work completed by Charles Ollier for Ainsworth to relieve family distress after Maginn’s early death from debauchery; starts brilliantly with description of Liverpool in 1760s, a city built on slavery; continues with grotesque theatricality rather than Maginn’s characteristic wit. NOTE, under Maxwell, W. H., Maginn prefaces Erin Go Bragh with a biographical sketch (1859), presumably taken from his Lit. Portraits [1840]. NOTE, Rafroidi attests that Maginn edited Gallery of Illustrious Characters, including for instance a sketch of Béranger by Mahony [Father Prout].
Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing, gen. ed., Seamus Deane (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 2, selects from The O’Doherty Papers (1855), ‘The Wine-Bibber’s Glory, A new Song’, ‘Toporis Gloria, a Latin Melody’, ‘‘Tis the Last Glass of Claret [18-20]; remarks at 4, 9, 1011, and 112, BIOG, took over as principal of father’s Marlborough St. school at his death, and after TCD degree; m. 1823, and devoted to writing; fnd. Fraser’s Magazine with Hugh Fraser; best work in it incl. Homeric Ballads, and A Gallery of Literary Portraits; joint ed. Evening Standard, contrib. Punch and Lit. Gazette; one of the most important contribs. to Noctes Ambrosianae, 1822-35; d. of tuberculosis at Walton-on-Thames shortly after release from debtors’ prison. Add. bibl., Noctes Ambrosianae, 5 vols. (NY 1863-65) contains his various contribs. to famous series of dialogues between J. G. Lockhart, J Wilson, J. Hogg, et el.; RW Montague, ed., Miscellanies, Prose and Verse, 2 vols. (London 1885); Whitehall &c. (1827; never reprinted).
M. J. Barry alludes a paper by Maginn on subject of Irish Songs, ‘in which he exposes with his usual wit and ability, the spuriousness of a number of these stupid caricatures’ (Blackwood’s Magazine, Vol. 17 [q.d.] p.318). See Preface of Songs of Ireland (Dublin: James Duffy 1845), ftn.
Maginn’s posthumous editor cited as styled R. Sheldon Makenzie in Brian McKenna, Irish Literature, 1800-1875: A Guide to Information Sources (Detroit: Gale Research Co. 1978), and do. in Robert Hogan, ed., Dictionary of Irish Literature (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1979), but called J. S. Knowles in Patrick Rafroidi, Irish Literature in English: The Romantic Period, 1789-1850 (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1980).
W. M. Thackeray wrote, ‘Everybody [in Cork] seemed to know what Maginn was doing [...]' (Irish Sketchbook, 1842; rep. Blackstaff, 1985), p.84. Note that Captain Shandon in Thackeray's ballad is generally taken to represent William Maginn. See the Dictionary of National Biography article by ‘R.G’, which discusses probability of Thackeray’s claim to have lent £500 to Maginn at a time when his own financial records show that he could ill afford it. Charged with ‘fostering baneful prejudice against literary men’, he replied in Morning Chronicle (12 Jan. 1850), making reference to ‘someone not unlike Captain Shandon in prison’ to whom his bookseller brings financial assistance. [See under Thackeray, Rx.]
J. C. Mangan wrote: ‘And he fell far through that pit abysmal,/The gulf and grave of Maginn and Burns,/And pawned his soul for the Devil’s dismal/Stock of returns.//But yet redeemed it in days of darkness, ... [Mangan, ‘The Nameless One’] Quoted Stephen Gwynn, Irish Literature and Drama, 1936].
Belfast Central Public Library holds Miscellanies, Prose and Verse (1885); Shakespeare Papers (1860); A Story without a Tail (1928); Ten Tales (1933).
[ top ]
Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)