Life
?1670-1726 [fl.1710-20]; son of Thomas Shadwell; served in the army in
Portugal, made supervisor of the excise in Kent, 1710; wrote The Fair
Quaker of Deal (Drury Lane, 25 February, 1710) and The Merry Wives
of Broad Street (Drury Lane, 9 June, 1713), both set in London; The
Humours of the Army (1713), ded. Maj.-gen. Newton, Governor of Londonderry,
under whom he served in Portugal; set up as assurance broker in William
Street, Rotherick O'Connor (1715); nr. Dublin Castle, 1713, running an insurance business for two
years before returning to playwriting; wrote The Hasty Wedding, Or, The Intriguing Squire (Smock
Alley, 1716-17), a satire on an Irish servant willing to reject her national
ways; Irish Hospitality, Or, Virtue Rewarded (Smock Alley,
1717-18), includes Sir Jowler Kennel, an Anglo-Irish foxhunter; The
Sham Prince; Or, News from Passau (Smock Alley, 1718-19) offers Dublin
satire on recent scandal in which William Newsted of Westmeath had passed
himself off as a German princeling, and includes patriotic Irish characters
expressing national pride; The Plotting Lovers, Or, The Dismal Squire
(Smock Alley, 1719-20) taken freely from Moliere’s Monsieur de
Pourceaugnac, the play transplants Cornishman Squire Trelooby to Dublin
for a planned marriage with a merchant’s daughter; Rotherick O’Connor,
Or, The Distressed Princess (Smock Alley, 1719-20), Shadwell’s
last play, dealing with warring kings of Connaught and Leinster and the
invasion of Ireland by by Strongbow, with a double love plot whose tragic
outcome leaves Strongbow and Eva [Aoife] sole survivors of carnage; collected
plays published in 1720; d. 11 Aug., Dublin. FDA OCIL
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Works
Christopher Wheatley & Kevin Donovan, eds., Irish Drama of the Seventeeth and Eighteenth Centuries, 2 vols. (UK: Ganesha Publishing UK 2003), 1,1140pp. [contains Rotherick O'Connor, King of Connaught or the Distressed Princess (1720); Irish Hospitality, or Virtue Rewarded (1720)].
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Criticism
Judith
Bailey Slagle, ‘Thomas Shadwell’s The Lancashire-Witches,
and Tegue o Divelly the Irish-Priest: A Critical Old-Spelling Edition
(Diss.; Tennessee 1991).
Christopher Wheatley, Beneath Ierne’s Banners: Irish Protestant Drama of the Restoration and Eighteenth century (Notre Dame UP 1999) [q.pp.].
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Notes
William Smith Clark, Early Irish Stage (OUP 1955) writes that Shadwell ‘sought
to be a spokesman for Irish attitudes and loyalties’ (p.158). Clarke also cites The Hasty Wedding, as being played in 1716-17 season at Smock Alley (Clarke, p.160).
G. C. Duggan, The Stage Irishman (1937) gives full account of Charles Shadwell, Rotherick O’Connor (1715; being of first performance the date fixed by the prologue).
Joseph Leerssen, Mere Irish & Fíor Ghael (Amstersdam: John Benjamins Pub. Co. 1986): Charles Shadwell, The Humours of the Army (1713), set in Portugal, with chars. of four nations, of whom Major Outside has a broad brogue and another, called Young Fox, an Irish major, speaks standard English, ergo Gaelic and Anglo-Irish. (p.127). Also: In Rotherick O’Connor (Smock Alley, 1720), Shadwell’s sympathies are clearly on the Norman side; Rotherick is considered a tyrant, whole under the sway of the play’s main villain, the archbishop of Tuam; the Gaelic hero cheerfully acknowledges the superiority of the English and that there presence can only improve the Irish. [380] Shadwell takes care to avoid any reflection on Ireland’s bravery from the fact that the Gaels are militarily inferior to the Norman’s ‘artful Engines’. Leerssen shows than the imagotype involves a supine adulation of the English, but also a valorisation of native Irish courage sine Catholicism and rebellion. (p.381.)
Dublin Weekly Journal (20 Aug 1726): ’On Thursday the 12 Instant, August died Mr. Charles Shadwell, a Poet, whose Comedies were too Virtuous to meet with much Encouragement ... nor is it strange he was dislik’d by those with whom Obscenity and Prophaness perhaps, are Wit ... resident for several Years in Foreign Countries ... etc. (Quoted in La Tourette Stockwell, Dublin Theatres and Theatre Customs 1637-1820, NY: John Benjamins Pub. Co. 1968, p. 323.).
G. C. Duggan, The Stage Irishman (1937), Charles Shadwell, The Hasty Wedding, or the Intriguing Squire, set in Dublin; chars. Sir Ambrose Wealthy, his dg. Aurelia; Sir John Dareall, in reality a sharper, Jack Ombre, who sues for her hand, in competition with the ludicrous Squire Daudle (of the title), a masterpiece of blundering character. Also, The Sham Prince, or News from Passau, written in 5 days to celebrate a famous hoax in Dublin; Sir William Cheatley, title char.; Araminta, and Trueman; Welldone, who rumbles Cheatley early, and contrives to fool him with an offer of marriage from ‘the Princess of Passau’; the tradesmen accomodate Cheatley and his father royal; the culprits make their escape to London; other chars. are Sir Bullet Airy, a fat man, who marries Miss Molly; Lady Homebred, Molly’s mother; Araminta, a well-balanced and witty young lady, who believes a little freedom good for her sex (‘My der Aunt, my cousins shall not be cooped up after your manner’); she is an example of ‘fine, gay, sprightly Irishwomen’, and a type of debutante. Also, The Plotting Lovers, or the Dismal Squire, from Moliere’s Monsieur de Pourceaugnac; reduced to one act, close adaptation; in it, a patient is examined by two physicians who have been told he is a lunatic, a plot element repeated by Thomas Sheridan in Captain O’Blunder. Also, Irish Hospitality or Virtue Rewarded; Sir Patrick Worthy, a Fingallian land owner; his retainer Morose; his loutish brother Squire Clumsey; his sister Lady Peevish; a friend Goodlove; a spendthrift son Charles Worthy (who takes advantage of a tenant Winifred Dermott, but marries her at his father’s insistence); his daughters Myra and Penelope, with the former of whom Goodlove is in love; contrasted with Sir Wou’d-be-Generous, a new arrival in county circles; and Sir Jowler, a sporting baronet.
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 1: selects ‘A Second Song’ (Dublin 1725 [and in The Hibernian Patriot, being a collection of the Drapier’s letters to the people of Ireland concerning Mr Wood’s Halfpence, London 1730, pp.256-7]); Rotherick O’Connor, King of Connaught. Two of the poems that Swift inspired in his role as the Drapier, Witheral’s ‘New Song ..’, and Charles Shadwell’s ‘A Second Song ..’, created a sense of the temporary unity which emerged in Ireland as the factions united to protect their common interest. Shadwell’s poem opens: ‘Since the Drapier’s set up, and Wood is cry’d down,/Let ballads be made by the Bards of this Town;/To thank the brave Drapier for what he has done/Which no Body can deny &c.’; and ends with references to ‘Carteret’s Merit’ and to ‘the Protestant Int’rest Abroad and at Home’. Little is known of his life ... he joined in the pop. attack on Wood’s Halfpence and died, possibly in Dublin, in 1726. [497]. ALSO, In Rotherick O’Connor, King of Connaught, or The Distress’d Princess (1720), ... the victory of Strongbow over the villainous last high king of Ireland in the late 12th century is presented as the victory of enlightenment over barbarism ... a point of view identical with countless prologues delivered in Dublin theatres, namely that refinement, reason and good taste were all hallmarks of the rule aristocracy ... an ideology not challenged till the Irish Lit. Theatre established by Yeats &c. [501]. SEE also comments in Seamus Deane, A Short History of Irish Literature (1986).
British Library holds; Works of Charles Shadwell, 2 vols. (Dublin 1720), 8o; another, Dublin 1727, dupl. of preceeding with new title-pages; Five New Plays, viz, 1] The Hasty Wedding, or the Intriguing Squire, com. 2] The Sham Prince, or the News from Passau, com. 3] Rotherick O’Connor, King of Connaught, or The Distress’d Princess, trag. 4] The Plotting Lovers, or the Dismal Squire, farce 5] Irish Hospitality, or Virtue Rewarded, com. (Lon. 1720) 12o. [Also lists The Fair Quaker, and Humours of the Navy, eds. 1710, 1715 [copy with Shadwell’s signature]; Quaker, ed. in Bell’s Brit. Th., 1777; Quaker and Humours, now altered, with additions, 1773; 2nd ed. 1775; Also, The Humours of the Army, taken from F. Carton D’Ancourt’s Les Curieux de Compienge (London 1713); Charles Shadwell, Five New Plays; viz. I. the Hasty Wedding: or, The Intriguing Squire. A comedy. II. the Sham Prince: or, News from Passau. A comedy. III. Rotherick O'Connor, King of Connaught: or, The Distress'd Princess. A tragedy. IV. the Plotting Lovers: or, The Dismal Squire. A farce. V. Irish Hospitality: or, Virtue Rewarded. A comedy. London, 1720. 12o.
Dictionary of National Biography gives orth. Rotherich O’Connor [err. sic].
Rotherick O’Connor, dram.
pers., Rotherick O’Conner [sic]; Dermond MacMurrough, King of Leinster;
Strongbow, Earl of Chepstow; Cothurnus, son of Dermond; Auliffe O’Kinaude,
faithful follower of Dermond; Maurice Regan, Dermond’s friend and
favourite; Catholicus, Archbishop of Tuam; Eva, dg. of Dermond; Marlagh,
foster to Eva; Avelina, dg. of Rotherick. A deeply sectarian melodrama
in which Catholicus plays the part of the melodramatic villain and Rotherick
the cruel and treacherous overlord; Strongbow, though hardly any better
than him in the body of the play, emerges at the end as custodian of Irish
peace and marries Eva, who has resisted him, after she is persuaded to
love him by his killing Rotherick in single combat. SUMMARY & QUOT,
Rotherick O’Conner [sic] King of Connaught, or the Distressed Princess,
by Charles Shadwell (Dublin 1720). 1st PROLOGUE, ‘[The author] .../
... resolves to show a monarch of your own/Who holds, alone from Jupiter,
his throne;/His rule of life does from the Passions draw/Not aw’d
by priests, nor terrified by law;/A popish priest the ventures to expose/Who
sticks at nothing to distress his foes./Thanks, Revolution, we have none
of these,/For such outragious Plagues we’re not in pain:/They’re
to be found in Muscovy or Spain.’ 2nd PROLOGUE, by Shadwell, ‘From
distant climes each scribbling author brings/A race of heroes or a race
of kings .../Our author tries by different ways to please/And shews you
kings that never crossed the seas./He brings to view, five hundred years
ago,/Heroes nursed up in slaughter, blood, and woe,/And kings that rule
by arbitrary sway/Their slavish subjects, born but to obey;/When Brehon
laws could reach the subjects life/And none but great Ones dare support
the strife./There nature show’d them in the strongest Passions,/When
each king govern’d by his inclinations,/Where Church and Clergy were
monarchs tools,/And who opposed the king were reckoned fools;/Learn then,
from these unhappy days of yore/To scorn and hate an arbitrary power;/To
praise and love those laws that make you free/And are the bulwarks of
your liberty./Adore the Prince who rules by milder sway/And like good
subjects lawfully obey:/All tragedies this moral should observe,/The best
of kings does surely best deserve.’ EPILOGUE [spoken by Mr. Griffith,
written by Hercules Davis, Esq.], ‘This is his first essay in tragic
strains ... [&c]/The poet to please you, done his best/But to keep
one alive had been a jest .../. TEXT includes, ‘Rotherick’s
tyranny’; ‘savage kerns’; ‘great Henry’s court’;
EVA [on the Normans], ‘but when they have conquered all our Enemies/Perhaps
they’ll then attack my father’s friends/And so in time, make
slaves of all this island.’; ROTHERICK, ‘Have you perused/the
copy of the Grant sent to be signed/By that most mighty Lord of all our
Church/Infallible and never erring Pope/Adrian the fourth, and since that
confirmed/By Alexander’s Bull to give my land/Away to Henry the English
king?/ ... Now, by St. Patrick, Who was the greater man/Than ever filled
your juggling Papal Chair/I swear revenge on all that Romish tribe! ...
[W]ho gave the Priest the power he pretends to have on earth?’ STRONGBOW,
‘... deceitfulness is very deeply rooted/In each corner of this wretched
isle/Instead of friendship, charity, and love/you plunder, burn, and sacrifice
each other/And strive and fight and gape for revenge.’ DERMOND to
STRONGBOW, ‘thou great, thou godlike man, more than man, thouo Briton!’/STRONGBOW
boast of having killed his own son in the fray when he showed cowardice;
of Eva he says, ‘this female toy that has enraged me’. CATHOLICUS
is finally stabbed by Rotherick, and exclaims, ‘Quite through you’ve
pierced my heart and I must die/There’s all my worldly glory thrown
away/I’ve lost a cardinal’s cap, so fare you well.’ Rotherick
kills Dermond; When Strongbow kills Rotherick, Eva says, ‘My heart
grows pitiful and I must pray/The saints to favour Strongbow’s cause
and mine’; at the end, Eva invites him to rule Ireland, while he
puts by his impatience for her beauty, and accepts that she needs to mourn
her loss a while; they finally speak of the coming age of peace in Ireland.
ROTHERICK, in his last passion, exclaims, ‘Fetch me to my hand that
foolish girl/That I may squeeze and crush her in my arms/To Death, I hate,
and I hate myself/And you, and all the World - when am I going?’ [dies].’
Ruaidhri Ó Conchubhair [Roderick O'Conor] is castigated in his obituary notice in the Irish Annals on the grounds that he would not have lost to the Anglo-Normans if he had not blatantly ignored the new climate of sexual morality introduced by clerical reformers.
Variant dates: There is a confusion about the dates of the first performance of Rotherick given as 1715 in Duggan but as 1719 abd his last play elsewhere; likewise Irish Hospitality is variously given as 1717 and 1720.
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)