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Life
1678-1750; ed. TCD; issued Poems (1741, 1742, 1751), editions of which where printed in Dublin with more than six hundred subscriptions on each occasion; styled himself ‘a Doctor tho’ without degrees’. PI
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Quotations
“On Marriage”: ‘Cries Celia to a reverend dean, / “What reason can be given, / Since marriage is a holy thing, / That there are none in heaven?” // “There are no women”, he reply’d; ’/ She quick returns the jest; / “Women there are, but I’m afraid / They cannot find a priest.’” (Anthologised in D. J. O’Donoghue, The Humour of Ireland, London: Walter Scott 1894, p.56; bio-dates supplied.)
“An Inventory of the Furniture of a Collegian’s Chamber”: ‘Imprimis, there’s a Table blotted; / A tatter’d Hanging all besnotted; / A Bed of Flocks, as one may rank it, / Reduc’d to Rug, and half a Blanket; / A Tinder-box, as People tell us; / A broken-winded pair of Bellows. / A pair of Tongs, bought from a Broker, / A Fender, and a rusty Poker. / A Penny-pot, and Bason, this / Desigri’d for Water, that for Piss. / A Trencher, and a College-bottle/ Riding on Locke, or Aristotle: / A smutty Ballad, musty Libel, / A Burgersdiscius, and a Bible: / A Prayer-book, he seldom handles; / Item, a Pound of Farthing-candles. / A rusty Fork, a blunted Whittle, / To cut his Table, and his Vittle. / There is likewise a pair of Breeches, / But patch’d, and fallen in the Stitches. / Item, a Surplice, not unmeeting / Either for Chappel, or for Sheeting, / Hung up in Study very little, / Plaister’d with Cobwebs, Ink, and Spittle, / With lofty Prospect, all so pleasing, / And Sky-light window without Glazing. / Item, if I am not mistaken, / A Mouse-trap, with a Bit of Bacon. / A Candlestick, without a Snuffer, / Whereby his Fingers often suffer; / And Chairs a couple (I forgot ’em) / But each of them without a Bottom. / A Bottle-Standish, Pen unmended, / His inventory thus is ended.’ (Selected in A. N. Jeffares & Peter Van de Kamp, eds., Irish Literature: The Eighteenth Century, Dublin: IAP 2006, p/118.)
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References
A. N. Jeffares & Peter Van de Kamp, eds., Irish Literature: The Eighteenth Century - An Annotated Anthology (Dublin/Oregon: Irish Academic Press 2006), gives “An Inventory of the Furniture of a Collegian’s Chamber” [118].
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