MOORE, THOMAS, the son of a small tradesman, who, through the influence of lord Moira, afterwards became a barrack-master in the army, was born in Dublin on May 28, 1779. At an early age he was placed at a school in which Sheridan had formerly been a pupil. In 1793 he was sent to the Dublin university, where he ultimately took the degree of B.A. Before entering the university he had written verses for a Dublin magazine; and while there lie translated the Odes of Anacreon, in the hope of olitainim; a classical premium, in which, however, he was disappointed. In Dublin he acquired Dalian and French, and being fond of music, he learned to play on the piano—an accomplishment which was of service to him in his future career.
In 1793. with his translation of Anacreon in his pocket, be came to London to study law. and entered himself in the Middle Temple. In 1800 he published his translations, dedicated to George IV., then prince of Wales. In 1802 he produced his Poetical Works of the Late Thomas .volume of sweet:but licentious verse, which was a good dell blamed, and very widely read. In 1803, through the influence of lord Moira, he was appointed to a government post at Bermuda., He arrived there in Jan., 1804; but his situation disagreeable, he committed his duties into the hands of adeptly, and traveled in America previous to his return to England. His transatlantic experience seems to have cured him of the democratic ideas which he had imbibed in Dublin. On his return to England, he published Odes and Epistles, for which he was sharply taken to task in the Edinburgh Review. A duel betWeen himself and Jeffrey was the consequence— over which Byron made so much mirth—and which resulted in the combatants becoming the most excellent friends. In 1807 he engaged with Mr. Power to produce the Irish Melodies, and on this, work he was engaged at intervals up till 1834. In 1811 he married, and shortly after lie went to reside in Derbyshire, where in 1813 he produced The Twopenny Post-bag, full of brilliant fancy—in which the tropes not only glittered but stung.
As up to this time he had produced nothing but fugitive pieces he became anxious to emulate his brethren, who wrote long poems, and published in quartos. Ile fixed on an oriental subject, and the Messrs. Longman agreed to purchase the poem for 8,000 guineas. In 1817 the long-expected Lalla Rook% appeared—brilliant as a fire-fly, and the whole English world applauded. After the publication he went to Paris, where be
wrote The Fudge Family, which appeared in 1818. At this time he learned that his deputy in Bermuda had misconducted himself, and that he had become liable for a large sums, which was afterwards, however, considerably reduced. Lord Lansdowne paid the claim, and Moore repaid his lordship afterwards.
In 1819 Moore went to Paris with lord John Russell, and extended his tour to Italy, and saw lord Byron at Venice. He returned to Paris, where he brought his family, and fixed his residence till 1822. Here he wrote The Loves of the Angels, which appeared in 1823, and The Epicurean, a prose romance, was not published till 1827. On his return to England he fixed his abode at Sloperton cottage, near Bowood, and issued the Memoirs ef Captain Rock in 1824, and the Life of Sheridan in 1825.
Byron had handed over to Moore, for his own especial benefit, a manuscript auto biography, on the condition that it should not see the light till after its author's death. Byron died in 1824, and as, at the request of his lordship's relatives, the manuscript was destroyed, Moore then entered into arrangements with Murray to produce a life of the deceased poet. The Life of Lord Byron was published in 1830, in two volumes. Next year he published the Life of Lord Edward Fitzgerald. His last important work was a litstory of Ireland, published in Lardner's Cyclopedia. A pension of £300 per annum was conferred on him in 1835. In 1841 he brought out an edition of his entire poetical works. For the three years preceding his death, he was afflicted with softening, of the brain. He died Feb. 25, 1852. His friend, lord John Russell, published his Memoirs, Journal, and Correspondence, in 8 vols. (1852-56).
Despite his popularity during his lifetime, Moore can hardly be placed in the rank of great poets. His muse is a spangled dancing-girl—light, airy, graceful, bnt nothing more. His most ambitious work, The Loves of the Angels, is far beneath the Ai Mollie, or -even the Byronic standard. Lalla Rookh is brilliant, but fatiguing. Ile is most, suc cessful in polished satire and the lighter sentiments; and his reputation will ultimately rest on The Twopenny Post-bag and the Irish Melodies.