Edward Moore (playwright)

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Edward Moore (born March 22, 1712 in Abingdon , Berkshire , † March 1, 1757 in Lambeth , London ) was an English playwright and writer who was known for a long time in the English-speaking world for his domestics - tragedy The Gamester ( 1753 ). Two of his pieces and a collection of poems were translated into German as early as the 18th century.

Life

Edward Moore was born in Abingdon, Berkshire, in 1712, the third son of Thomas Moore, an apostate priest, and his wife Mary, nee Adler. Paternal grandfather, Reverend John Moore, was a curator of Holnest, Dorset . The father died in 1722, so the boy grew up in the house of his uncle, John Moore, a schoolmaster in Bridgwater , Somerset . Edward Moore also attended school in East Orchad , Dorset, and was then apprenticed to a textile merchant in London , where, after a few years as a factor in Ireland , he tried himself as an independent merchant. After failing as a textile dealer for linen fabrics , Moore turned to writing.

Moore was the author of Fables of the Female Sex (1744), whose humorous poems remained very popular for a long time and were also translated into German. Later literary critics praised the poems' excellent morality, but complained about the lack of liveliness in style. He created the long poem The Trial of Selim the Persian (1748), as well as the comedies The Foundling (1748) and Gil Blas ( 1751 ).

Moore's first comedy The Foundling premiered on February 13, 1748 at the Theater Royal, Drury Lane and was dismissed with weak praise by critics. His second comedy, Gil Blas , based on the story of the Aurora from the romantic saga , was performed for the first time at the same theater on February 2, 1751 . Although the play was rather poorly received, it lasted for nine performances.

The playwright wrote the domestics tragedy The Gamester , which was staged on February 7, 1753 with the well-known British actor David Garrick , who is said to have written some of the dialogue scenes himself, in the lead role of Beverley the gambler . The play had eleven well attended performances and has been on the repertoire ever since. To this day, the literary fame of the English writer is based on The Gamester . The prose piece was performed across England and the United States even 100 years after his death . The much-centered phrase "rich beyond the dreams of avarice" ("rich beyond all dreams of greed") is pronounced in the play by Mrs. Beverley in the second act. There was also a translation into German and French . Later, the play was less a literary than an educational aspect, as it was seen as the strongest plea against gambling addiction that was ever performed on stage. Furthermore, it was assumed that Moore shaped the character of Beverley the gambler , which required a great skill from every actor, after the model of Henry Fielding's Captain Booth .

Title page of the first edition of The World , January 4, 1753

As a poet, Edward Moore created intelligent imitations of the works of John Gay and Thomas Gray . With the patronage help of George, 1st Lord Lyttelton , Lord Chesterfield and Horace Walpole , he published The World from 1753 to 1757 , a literary weekly based on the Rambler model , to which Richard Owen Cambridge contributed as an author. He published this under the pseudonym Adam Fitz-Adam. 61 of the 210 numbers alone came from his pen. In its prime, the newspaper was able to sell a circulation of up to 25,000 copies in a week. Only a few literary magazines could claim this success - they usually only got a few hundred copies. The World even experienced a Germanization by Richter in Altenburg in 1779/80 Die Welt: a weekly; Translated from English.

Moore published his poems under the title Poems, Fables and Plays in 1756 . On March 1, 1757, Edward Moore died in poverty in Lambeth at the age of 44 , just as his health had apparently improved and a planned new edition of The World would have meant financial security. His body was buried anonymously in the South Lambeth cemetery. He left behind his wife Jenny, née Hamilton, the daughter of the roofer of the royal princesses, whom he married on August 10, 1749, and an only son, Edward, whose later education was funded by Lord Chesterfield. This son later joined the Royal Navy and died at sea in 1773.

Edward Moore's collected dramatic works, Dramatic Works , were published posthumously in 1788 . Even after his death, The foundling was translated into German under the title Die Unknown in Vienna in 1774 .

plant

  • Fables of the Female Sex. 1744.
    • Fables for the fair sex by E. Moore . Translated from the English by Christian Felix Weisse . Weidmann & Reich, Leipzig 1762.
  • The Trial of Selim the Persian for diverse high crimes and misdemeanours. 1748.
  • The Foundling. (Comedy) 1748.
    • The unknown; a comedy in five acts . Lodge master, Vienna 1774.
  • An or to David Garrick upon the talk of the town . 1749.
  • Solomon: a serenata . 1750.
  • Gil Blas. (Comedy) 1751.
  • The Gamester. (Tragedy) 1753.
    • Beverley or the Gambler: a civil tragedy in five acts. Translation from English by Johann Heinrich Steffens , ND Runge, cell 1755.
  • The World. (Periodicals) R. and J. Dodsley, London 1753-1757.
  • Poems, Fables and Plays. 1756.
  • Dramatic Works. 1788.

literature

  • Hugo Beyer: Edward Moore. His life and his dramatic works. F. Richter, Leipzig 1889.
  • John Homer Caskey: The life and works of Edward Moore. Yale University Press, New Haven 1927 (= Thesis (PH. D.) Yale University, 1923)

Web links

Wikiquote: Edward Moore  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b The Gamester . On: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved August 7, 2012.
  2. ^ Edward Moore In: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 10th edition 1910. Accessed August 7, 2012
  3. ^ Iona Italia: The Rise of Literary Journalism in the Eighteenth-Century Anxious Employment. Routledge, London 2005, p. 9.
  4. ↑ Sample poem The Happy Marriage Accessed August 7, 2012.
personal data
SURNAME Moore, Edward
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fitz-Adam, Adam
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English playwright and writer
DATE OF BIRTH March 22, 1712
PLACE OF BIRTH Abingdon , Berkshire
DATE OF DEATH March 1, 1757
Place of death Lambeth , London