Thomas 1779-1852 Moore

After 1812 he broke ground in a new field—political squib writings. His first butt was the prince regent, once his friend and patron, whose foibles, fatness, love for cutlets and curacao, for aged mistresses and practical jokes, were ridiculed with the lightest of clever hands. His earlier political poems appeared in the Morning Chronicle, but in 1813 he published a thin volume of Intercepted Letters: The Twopenny Post Bag. Other volumes of squibs, most of which passed through several editions, followed: The World at Westminster (1816), The Fudge Family in Paris (1818), The Journal of a Member of the Pococurante Society (182o), Fables for the Holy Alliance (1823), Odes on Cash, Corn, Catholics and other Matters (1828), The Fudge Family in Eng land (1835). The only failure among his satirical writings was Tom Crib's Memorial to Congress (1819) for which he had made an elaborate study of thieves' argot.

In 1814 he contracted with the firm of Longmans, for 3,000 guineas, to supply a metrical romance on an Eastern subject. Moore retired to a cottage in the neighbourhood of Donington Park, where with the help of Lord Moira's library he read himself slowly into familiarity with Eastern scenery and manners. But he was forestalled by Byron in The Giaour and again in The Bride of Abydos. The publication of Lalla Rookh was deferred until 1817. It was an immediate success. After the completion of Lalla Rookh, Moore removed with his family to Sloperton Cot tage, Wiltshire, where he was close to Bowood, Lord Lans downe's country seat. Moore's plans were interrupted by the embezzlement of some L6,000 by the deputy he had left in Ber muda, for whose default he was fully liable. To avoid a debtors' prison Moore retired to the Continent. He visited Byron in Italy, and in Oct. 1819 received from him the first part of the Memoirs. The continuation was sent to Moore in Paris the next year, with Byron's suggestion that the reversion of the ms. should be sold. Moore did not remain long in Italy, but made his home in Paris, where he was joined by his wife and children. He was not able to return to England until 1822, when the Bermuda affair was compromised by a payment through Longmans of ii,000.

During his exile he had written another oriental poem,

The Loves of the Angels (1822), which was hardly less popular than Lalla Rookh. He became a contributor of satirical verse to The Times, the connexion lasting until 1827. He now wrote his Memoirs of the Life of Sheridan, first contemplated in 1814, which appeared, after some delay, in 1825. The Memoirs of Cap tain Rock (1824), in which he gives a humorous but convincing account of English misgovernment in Ireland, was the result of a tour with Lord Lansdowne in western Ireland. His prose tale,

The Epicurean, appeared in 1827, and the Legendary Ballads in 183o. In 1831 he completed his Life and Death of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, probably his best piece of prose work.

The death of Byron in 1824 raised the question of the publi cation of his Memoirs. Moore had parted with them in 1821 to John Murray for £2,000. After they had come into Murray's possession, Moore began to have doubts about the propriety of publishing them, and an arrangement was therefore made that the .12,000 should be regarded as a loan, to be repaid during Byron's lifetime, and that the ms. should be retained as a security. When Byron died the Memoirs were still unredeemed, and the right of publication therefore rested with Murray. Moore now borrowed the money from Longmans and induced Murray to give up his claim. The money was paid, and, after a heated discussion with Byron's executors, the ms. was burnt. It was partly the pressure of the debt thus contracted, and partly the expressed wish of Byron, that induced Moore to undertake for Murray The Letters and Journals of Lord Byron, with Notices of his Life (183o).

In 183o he undertook to write a History of Ireland which he left unfinished. After the death of his last child in 1845, Moore became a total wreck, but he lived until Feb. 25, 1852. He left sufficient provision for his wife in the Diary which he kept chiefly on her behalf.

His other works are, A Letter to the Roman Catholics of Dublin (1810); A Melologue upon National Music (1811); an operetta, M.P. or The Blue Stocking (1811); A Set of Glees (1827) ; The Summer Fete (1831) ; Evenings in Greece 32) ; Travels of an Irish Gentleman in Search of a Religion; Alciphron, a Poem (1839).

See Memoirs, Journal and Correspondence of Thomas Moore (8 vols., 1853-56), ed. by Lord John Russell, which contains an immense quantity of biographical material; Tom Moore's Diary (1925) ; The Poetical Works of Thomas Moore, Collected by Himself (io vols., 184o-42) ; also Notes from the Letters of Thomas Moore to his Music Publisher, James Power (1854) ; and Prose and Verse, Humorous, Satirical and Sentimental by Thomas Moore, with suppressed passages from the memoirs of Lord Byron . . . (1878), which includes Moore's contributions to the Edinburgh Review (1814-34). Among modern editions of Moore's Poetical Works may be mentioned that by Charles Kent (the Centenary ed., 1879), and that by W. M. Rossetti (1880). Memoirs of Moore are prefixed to these editions. There are many contemporary references to him, especially in the journals and letters of Byron. There is an excellent life, by Stephen Gwynn, Thomas Moore (1905), written for the "English Men of Letters Series."