ART. IX.-1. The Complete Works of James Sheridan Knowles. In 3 Vols. New Edition. London. 1859

2. Personal Recollections of James Sheridan Know'es. By R. SHELTON MACKENZIE, LL.D. Philadelphia. 1863.

3. The Men of his Time. New York. 1852.

4. Biographical Sketches in Frazer's Magazine, London Athenæum, &c.

A GREAT light has fallen from the literary firmament. James Sheridan Knowles died at Torquay, in the south of England, on Sunday, November 29th, 1862, in his seventy-ninth year, having been born at Cork (a city ever fertile in genius) on the 12th of May, 1784. In compliance with his own request, his remains have been interred in Glasgow Cemetery.

He was the son of James Knowles, a teacher of grammar and elocution, in Cork, and author of a Dictionary of the English Language. He was a learned man, fond of teaching, and bent on making elocutionists of all his pupils. He went to London, in 1792, with his son, then a lad in his ninth year. Here he opened a school, with his usual success, and gave his son-the future dramatist-a substantial, rather than a showy, education. Eventually, the elder Knowles became English and elocutionary teacher in the Belfast Academical Institution. For many years he was wholly maintained by his son, and died, at a very advanced age, in London. So lately as 1835, the old man published a Pronouncing and Explanatory Dictionary of the English Language, which he dedicated as "A Fac-Simile Pronouncing Dictionary, in which every letter, in ninety-eight thousand words, represents a sound actually heard in the Pronunciation," and claimed to have performed more, in this respect, than either Walker or Sheridan. It is, perhaps, as good a book as any could be, whose author was prevented, by infirmity, from correcting the proofs. Following the preface is a page of gratitude, rather out of place, to one Baron Heurteloup, a surgeon, who had successfully operated as a lithotripist on Mr. James Knowles, ending with an earnest request that William IV. would propose a parliamentary grant, to enable the Baron to found a Lithotriptic Institution, pro bono publico. He declared that it was necessary to add a description of his own case, as supplementary to what he had already said under the term Lithotriptist, in the Dictionary; but it is a curious fact that this word (signifying one who treats a stone in the bladder) actually is not to be found in the book! But the term Lithotomist is, which renders the mistake still more amusing. The title-page of this vocabulary runs thus: "Pronounc ing and Explanatory Dictionary of the English Language; founded on a correct development of the nature, the number,

and the various properties of all its simple and compound sounds, as combined with syllables and words; to which is added a vocabulary of Greek, Latin, and Scripture proper names, divided into syllables, with the accented letters and vowel sounds in each, marked according to their classical pronunciation; by James Knowles, teacher of reading, elocution, grammar and composition; father of the author of 'Virginius,' 'William Tell,' 'The Hunchback,' 'The Wife,' &c.; and nephew of Thomas Sheridan, author of the Art of Reading Prose and Verse, Lectures on Elocution, Pronouncing Dictionary, &c. London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co., Stationers' Hall, 1837." This is a curious title-page, but what is peculiarly humorous is the author's apology for inserting so common a word as "Papist," and adopting Johnson's definition, " One who alheres to the Church of Rome;" because some of his Roman Catholic friends had'objected to its use.

Of this Dictionary, originally published in August, 1835, a fifth edition was published, by Bohn, of London, in 1847. The apology for giving the word "Papist" was appended to the preface, in which the author boasts of his early acquaintance with the Rev. Father O'Leary, (a Cork man, like himself.) and promises" that in the second edition of my Dictionary, about to be printed-one thousand copies of the first having been subscribed for, or sold by my publishers-the term Roman Catholic shall be substituted in room of the offensive expression." It so happened, however, that such substitution was never made. In the apology, James Knowles says, that, in 1792 or 1793, as "a freeholder of small property, near the city of Cork," he signed a petition to George III., and the Parliament, in favor of Catholic Emancipation. The portrait of the elder Knowles, which forms the frontispiece of his Dictionary, is very like the son, James Sheridan Knowles. The publication of this work was extremely costly, (800 octavo pages of small type;) and as the sale was not very large, the chief burden of payment fell upon the younger Knowles, and heavily oppressed him for many years.

James Sheridan Knowles derived his second surname from the famous Richard Brinsley Sheridan, who was his father's first cousin. The grandfather of both was Dr. Sheridan, renowned for his wit and learning, to whom Dean Swift was so much attached. The Doctor's son, Thomas Sheridan, manager and actor, who published a Pronouncing Dictionary of the English Language, in 1780, was himself a man of talent. His son was" The dramatist, orator, minstrel, who ran through each mode of the lyre, and was master of all.”

Then came Tom Sheridan, who may be chronicled as having

died too soon for his renown and the advantage of literature. The family list closes with Mrs. Norton, the most eminent of all poor Tom Sheridan's daughters. This is the line in which the hereditary genius of the race of Sheridan has been transmitted. Knowles, collaterally, added to the family honors a grace of a very rare and un-Sheridan-like description-that of a genius for the serious drama, full of faith in the good and beautiful, and grand upon that account. From this seemingly necessary adjunctive genealogy of the two illustrious families from which James Sheridan Knowles inherited his genius and talents, we come now to the main object of this paper.

As has already been remarked, the elder Knowles came to London when the younger was in his ninth year. Three years later, James Sheridan had gained some distinction as a youthful actor, in a small Thespian society. At fourteen, he was the author of a play, and the libretto of an opera, called "The Chevalier de Guillon," and soon after produced the ballad of the "Welsh Harper," and at twenty-one, a tragedy, in five acts, called "The Spanish Story."

Shortly after this, in 1808, Mr. Knowles left London for Dublin, and there gained some credit for his rendering of Irish melodies, pleasing his friends by his sweet singing, and especially delighting in declamatory exhibitions. The earlier passion of Knowles for the stage was irrepressible in such a place as Dublin, where even the shoe-black, who sits among his associate "gods," in the gallery, is a natural critic; and resolving to become an actor, he made his debut at Crow Street Theatre, but signally failed, although performing with sense, considerable skill, and ability.

He abandoned the idea of becoming a "player," for a time, and occupied himself by writing "Leo, the Gipsey," a play destined to greater honor than fame. Quitting Dublin, he joined the "nomadic" company of Mr. Cherry, at Waterford, in the south of Ireland, and here became acquainted with Edmund Kean, who had come over from Swansea, to star.. Knowles was twenty-five years old at this time, and Kean only twentytwo. "Leo, the Gipsey," was produced, with Kean as the hero, with great success. Soon after, he produced "Hersilia," and subsequently, "Brian Boroighme," founded on the history of the Irish warrior, who defeated the Danes, and lost his own life, at Clontarf. This play was frequently performed, with great applause--Kean personating the hero, Mrs. Knowles (an actress, named Miss Charteris, whom Knowles had married in 1810.) representing the heroine, and Knowles himself appearing first singer, as the high priest.

In 1811, the elder Knowles having become teacher in the

Belfast Academical Institution, Sheridan Knowles published a small volume of poetry, entitled "Fugitive Poems." It was published by subscription, and yielded him a handsome sum. In this volume may be found "The Smuggler," a very spirited ballad, which has since become very popular, Knowles having frequently recited it in public with great effect.

Arriving at Belfast, he took his father's advice to abandon the stage, and became a teacher of elocution and grammar. His power of imparting instruction to others was very great. Among his distinguished pupils was the late famous orator, Richard Lalor Shiel.

While teacher at Belfast, Knowles compiled an English Reader, called "The Elocutionist"-a collection of pieces in prose and verse-the introduction to a successful attempt to simplify Walker's system. The chief advantage of the work is the application to phrases and accented words of every description of the principle of the series-the law, in fact, of Walker's harmonial inflection, although Knowles was unaware of this truth. The result is, that the student cannot be at a loss for the inflecting of passages which preceding systems did not contemplate. The selection is made with much taste and judgment, and, as early as 1830, had passed into the eighth edition. It is a permanent school-book in the North of Ireland and West of Scotland. Among other original portions, is a noble debate on the question, "Was Cæsar a Great Man?" This is written with admirable tact, and proves that if Knowles had not been a poet, he might have been successful in other fields of literature.

Mr. Knowles's prominent career as a dramatic writer may be said to have begun with his play of "Brian Boroighme," whose success was followed up by his "Caius Gracchus," which was first performed by Talbott's company, in Belfast, on the 13th of February, 1815, and afterwards in London, with more than ordinary applause.

In 1820 Knowles produced "Virginius," founded, as its name indicates, on the well-known incident in Livy's Roman History. The subject was suggested to Knowles by his old comrade, Edmund Kean, then at the highest pinnacle as an actor. Knowles took his time to the composition of "Virginius," which was first played in Glasgow, in 1820, under the management of Mr. Mason, the hero being personated tolerably well by John Cooper, an actor of moderate ability but of general utility, who has only lately retired on a large fortune, laboriously earned and penuriously put together and retained.

After Virginius had been played fifteen times in Glasgow,

it attracted the attention of Macready, who soon after induced Mr. Harris, lessee of Covent Garden Theatre, to produce it before a London audience, Macready personating Virginius. This play, having in it much of the melo-dramatic element, and Macready's talents running in that line, rather than in true tragedy, he soon rendered it exceedingly popular among all classes, and built up for its author a wide reputation, besides giving Macready himself great renown as the greatest performer of the age. It is said that Kean always regretted having allowed Macready to gather the laurels which he might have easily earned himself, had he not neglected the chance of making himself famous in the same part.

In 1823, Mr. Macready produced "Caius Gracchus," in London, himself acting Caius, but without much success. This was followed by " William Tell," the subject of which was suggested by Macready. This noble play, by common consent, placed Knowles among the best living dramatists, and gave Macready a higher rank as an actor than he had ever held before. In after times, when-despite a bad figure, small eyes, a cocked nose, wretched profile, horribly bad voice, and painfully elaborate utterance, Macready became an "eminent tragedian," he made it an express stipulation that, either as stock actor or star, he should never be asked to play "Virginius," "William Tell," or "Rob Roy," the three great melo-dramatic characters upon which he had built up his great fame and popularity as an actor.

In 1829, Knowles, being a teacher of elocution in Glasgow, after leaving Belfast, produced another play, called the "Beggar's Daughter of Bethnal Green," founded on a ballad in Percy's Reliques. It failed-but in 1834, he cut it down from five to three acts, and appeared in it at a minor theatre in London, with good success. The best part of the "Beggar's Daughter" was its underplot, very slightly connected with the main story, but full of wit and humor.

A lapse then ensued, when a new group of plays, of another style, brought a new instalment of fame to Knowles. These began with the "Hunchback," one of the most popular English dramas in possession of the stage. It was first brought out at Drury Lane in 1831; but the underplot being considered imperfect, it was remodelled, and the play carefully produced at Covent Garden, under Mr. Bartlev's superintendence, on Thursday, the 5th of April, 1832, with very great success. Miss Fanny Kemble and Miss Taylor (now Mrs. Walter Lacy) were the original Julia and Helen. Charles Kemble played Sir Thomas Clifford, and Knowles Master Walter. This part had been offered to the late William Farren, but as he "did