JEP peer, the Lord Lieutenant was convinced that Captain Jephson's talents would be useful; and he was elected, in October 1776, to fill Lord Massey's vacant seat of Old Leighlin, in the county of Carlow, a borough at the disposal of the Bishop of Leighlin and Ferns. However, Captain Jephson did not distinguish himself so much in the House as formerly, but frequently gave his silent vote. Having applied his mind to dramatic writing, he produced, 1. Braganza. T. 8vo. 1775. 2. The Law of Lombardy. T. 8vo. 1779. 3. Count of Narbonne. T. 8vo. 1781. 4. The Hotel. F. 8vo. 1783. 5. The Campaign. C. O. 1785. N. P. 6. Julia. T. Svo. 1787. 7. Love and War. M. E. 1787. N. P. 8. Two Strings to your Bow. F. 8vo. 1791. 9. The Conspiracy. T. 8vo. 1796. Mr. Jephson, Mr. Courtenay, the Rev. Mr. Boroughs, and others equally well qualified for the task, wrote a collection of essays during Lord Townshend's ever-meinorable viceroyalty in Ireland, called The Bachelor, which completely succeeded in putting down, and turning into ridicule, the enemies to his government, and enriched the world with a collection, which, for genuine wit and humour, has rarely been equalled, perhaps never excelled. Mr. Jephson also "published a poem, entitled Roman Portraits, 4to. 1794; and, in the same year, a well-meant, welltimed, and well-executed satire on the French revolution, called The Confession of James Baptiste Cou JEV teau, 2 vols. 12mo. Upon the whole, Mr. Jephson was a very useful labourer in the vineyard of literature; and his productions show him to have been a man of taste, judgment, and good sense. He died at his house, Black Rock, near Dublin, May 31, 1803. JERNINGHAM, EDWARD. An author now living. He is descended from an ancient family in the county of Norfolk, at the head of which is his brother Sir William, who holds the rank of baronet. He received the first elements of education at the English college at Douay, and completed his studies under the Rev. Dr. Howard, at Paris. He returned to England in 1762, and soon distinguished himself by some compositions of the elegiac kind, as, The Nunnery, The Magdalens, The Nun, Il Latte, &c. which bear the marks of sterling merit. Three volumes of his poems are in the possession of the public, and he is also the author of the following dramas: 1. Margaret of Anjou. Hist. Int. 1777. 2. The Siege of Berwick, T. 8vo. 1794. 3. The Welch Heiress. C. 8vo. 1795. 4. The Peckham Frolic. C. 8vo. 1799. JEVON, THOMAS. This author flourished in the reigns of King Charles II. and King James II. He was an actor and a dancingmaster, and attained great eminence in both those professions, especially the former, in which his general cast was that of low comedy. He did not, however, long enjoy the sunshine of popular applause; for he was taken off in the very prime of life, viz. at the age of thirty-six years, on the 20th of December 1688, and was written for private Performance interred in Hampstead church- and Country Amusement. 8vo. yard. 1787. He wrote one dramatic pièce, which even in its original form met with success, but has since undergone almost as many transformations as the Brahmins of the East Indies fable their deity Vishnou to have passed through. It is entitled JOHNS, WILLIAM, was the son of Nicholas Johns, of Matherne, in Monmouthshire. He became a chorister of All Souls College, Oxford, in Michaelmas Term 1663, at the age of nineteen years, or thereabouts, but left the university without a degree. He after The Devil of a Wife. F. 4to. wards became schoolmaster of 1686. JODRELL, PAUL, was second son of the Solicitor General to the Prince of Wales, and is descended of a Norfolk family, seated at Bayfield, near Holt. Mr. Jodrell is M. A. and, we believe, fellow of St. John's College, and has produced two dramatic pieces, viz. 1. A Widow and no Widow. Dr. Piece. 1779; 8vo. 1780. 2. Seeing is believing. Dr. Proverb. Svo. 1796. JODRELL, SIR RICHARD PAUL, Knt. and M. D. brother of the foregoing, was several years ago Physician Extraordinary to the Nabob of Arcot. He figured originally as a classical scholar and poet, and published Illustrations of Euripides, 8vo. 1781, &c. The Knight and Friars, an historic tale from Heywood's TuvaIxOy, 4to. 1785. He afterwards published, 1. The Persian Heroine. T. 4to. and 8vo. 1796. 2. Who's afraid? F. Evesham, in Worcestershire, where he continued several years with great approbation. He at last took orders, and was living in 1691 minister of a church near the aforésaid place. He wrote The Traytor to himself; or, Man's Heart his greatest Enemy. Mor. Int. 4to. 1678. JOHNSON, Whether this gentleman is either of those of the same name hereafter mentioned we are unable to say. It is, however, subjoined in the Gentleman's Magazine, May 1735, to a translation of the following play from Voltaire, published in that month, viz. Zara. T. 8vo. 1735. JOHNSON, CHARLES, was originally bred to the law, and was a member of the Middle Temple; but being a great admirer of the Muses, and finding in himself a strong propensity to dramatic writing, he quitted the studious labour of the one, for the more spirited amusements of the other; and, by contracting an intimacy with Mr. 3. The Boarding-school Miss. C. Wilks, found means, through 4. One and All. F. 5. The Disguise. C. 6. The Musico. F. 7. The Bulse. Dr. Piece. The last six are printed in a collection, entitled Select Dramatic Pieces, some of which have been acted in provincial Theatres, others 2 that gentleman's interest, to get his plays on the stage without much difficulty. Some of them met with very good success; and by being a constant frequenter of those grand rendezvous of the wits of that time, Will's and Button's Coffee-houses, he, by a polite and JOH modest behaviour, formed so extensive an acquaintance and intimacy, as constantly ensured him great emoluments on his benefitnight; by which means, being a man of economy, he was enabled to subsist very genteelly. He at length married a young widow, with a tolerable fortune; on which he set up a tavern in Bow Street, Covent Garden, but quitted business at his wife's death, and lived privately on an easy competence which he had saved. He was born in 1679. His first play was acted in 1702, and his latest is dated in 1733; but he did not die till March 11, 1748. As a dramatic writer, he is far from deserving to be placed in the lowest class; for though his plots are seldom original, yet he has given them so many additions of his own, and has clothed the designs of others in so pleasing a dress, that à great share of the merit they possess ought to be attributed to him. The language of his comedies, which are greatly superior to his tragedies, is easy, and the dialogue natural and sprightly; and one of them, viz. The Country Lasses, continued, until a few years past, on the list of acting plays. Though he was a man of a very inoffensive behaviour in general, yet he imprudently, by a few lines in the prologue to The Sultaness, drew on himself the resentment of Mr. Pope, who has immortalized him in The Dunciad; and in one of the notes to the poem is quoted from another piece, called The Characters of the Times, the following account of our author: " "Charles Johnson, famous for writing a play every year, and being at Button's Coffee-house "every day. He had probably " VOL. I. JOH "thriven better in his vocation, "had he been a small matter "leaner; he may be justly called a martyr to obesity, and be said "to have fallen a victim to the "rotundity of his parts." We do not repeat this quotation by any means with a view to reflect on Mr. Johnson; but think, on the contrary, that it should rather turn to his honour; since that man's character must be extremely unexceptionable, on whom his enemies can fix no greater imputation than the defects of his person; but rather to point out how low resentment may sometimes plunge even the most brilliant geniuses, when it can lead them to encourage scurrility without wit, and mere personal reflection without even the shadow of humour. Neither is the assertion that he wrote "a play every year" a truth; as it will appear, that from the first (in 1702) to the last (in 1733) he was occupied thirty-one years in writing nineteen plays. But Pope would sometimes sacrifice truth to point. Pope, indeed, has affected to disclaim the notes on The Dunciad; in a letter to Aaron Hill, he says, "I am weary of telling a great truth; which is, "that I am not the author of " them." This is, however, a sorry and unmanly excuse; he must have consented to the writing of those notes; he must have read and approved them; and his suffering them to make a part of his works was giving them the most complete sanction. The dramatic pieces which this author produced, notwithstand. ing he appears to have quitted writing for the stage for some years before his death, are numerous, and will be seen in the following list: DD JOH 1. The Gentleman Cully. C. 4to. 1702. JOH Mr. Johnson was elected F.S.A. Aug. 31, 1720; and in 1730 com 2. Fortune in her Wits. C. 4to. municated an account of the body. 1705. 3. Love and Liberty. T. 4to. 1709. 4. The Force of Friendship. T. 5. Love in a Chest. F. 4to. 1710. These two are printed to gether. 6. The Wife's Relief; or, The Husband's Cure. C. 4to. 1712. 7. The Successful Pirate. Play. 4to. 1713. 8. The Generous Husband; or, The Coffee-house Politician. C. 4to. N. D. [1713.] 9. The Victim. T. 12mo. 1714. 10. The Country Lasses; or, The Custom of the Manor. C. 12mo. 1715. 11. The Cobler of Preston. Svo. 1716. F. 12. The Sultaness. T. 8vo. 1717. 13. The Masquerade. C. 8vo. N. D. [1719.] 14. Love in a Forest. C. Svo. 1723. 15. The Female Fortuneteller. C. 8vo. 1726. 16. The Village Opera. 8vo. 1729. 17. Medea. T. 8vo. 1731. 18. The Ephesian Matron. F. 1732. 19. Cælia; or, The Perjured Lover. P. 8vo. 1733. JOHNSON, HENRY. These names are put to one translation from the French, The person to whom they belonged, it is believed, was a gentleman of Berkhampstead, in Hertfordshire, who, in the early period of his life, had resided some time at Buenos Ayres, in the service of the South Sea Company. He was a man of fortune, and died in the year 1760, having published Romulus. T. translated from La Motte. 8vo. 1724. of a pigmy, found in Peru, with 400,000 dollars. 1 JOHNSON, SAMUEL. This gentleman, though namesake to the next mentioned writer, must not be confounded with him. He was the author of the following dramatic pieces; one of which, at the time of its first appearance, greatly attracted the notice of the public, viz. 1. Hurlothrumbo; or, The Supernatural. Svo. 1729. 2. Cheshire Comics. C. 1730. N. P. 3. The Blazing Comet; The Mad Lovers; or, The Beauties of the Poets. Play. 8vo. 1732. 4. All Alive and Merry. C. 1737. N. P. 5. A Fool made Wise. Com. 1741. N. P. Op. 6. Sir John Falstaff in Musquerade. F. 1741. N. P. Three of these pieces were represented at the theatre in the Haymarket; but the first, in particular, took an amazing run; owing to the whimsical maduess and extravagance which ran through the whole piece, and its author, who himself performed a principal character in it called Lord Flame; into which he had thrown such a mixture of fine thoughts and unintelligible fustian, that no one could possibly understand what he was aiming at; and if at any time this unintelligibleness was objected to him as a fault in his piece, his constant reply was, that the fault did not lie in. that, but in the audience, who did not take the proper method for attaining a knowledge of his meaning; that no one could possibly understand an author perfectly, unless JOH be examined his works in the same situation and state of mind as they were written; and therefore, as he himself never sate down to write without a fiddle in his hand, it was impossible for any to comprehend the sense of what he wrote without an instrument of the very same kind to quicken their understandings.. But, in order in some measure to remedy this deficiency in the audience, he used to act his part of Lord Flame in a manner equally extravagant with the rest of the affair; viz. with a violin in his hand, which he occasionally played upon, and sometimes walking in high stilts. His dress on this occasion was such as he commonly wore, viz. a suit of black velvet, with a long white flowing periwig. It is said, that Sir Robert Walpole promoted the success of his piece as far as lay in his power, making it serve to divert the attention of the public from some state designs of his own, which were at that time ready to be put into execution. Soon after the exhibition of this whimsical drama, was formed a meeting, called the Hurlothrumbo Society. A list of its members was printed, with a frontispiece representing the monster described in the first lines of Horace's Art of Poetry. Mr. Johnson was a native of Cheshire, and was bred to and followed the profession of a dancingmaster; yet, from what has been above related, it is apparent that he must have been infected with a strong tincture of insanity; in consequence of which, it is probable, that not many persons would be willing to intrust their children in his hands; yet, as his madness did not take any danger JOH ous or mischievous turn, and as it was accompanied with flights of wit and humour that rendered him, though an extraordinary, yet far from a disagreeable companion, his acquaintance was sought by most of the gentlemen of fortune in that country, at whose houses he used to reside alternately for a considerable time, in such mannet as to render the pursuit of business unnecessary to him. He lived long after he quitted writing for the stage; as that original oddity which the world ran mad in admiration of, only because they did not understand it, at length grew tiresome, and became as universally decried as at first it had been universally followed. The fol lowing humorous anecdote may serve to give the reader some idea of Mr. Johnson's general turn, and unconcerned manner. Our author having been invited to pass some months at the country-house of a gentleman who had a great regard for him, but whom he had never visited before, he accepted the invitation, and was for some time treated with the utmost hospitality and kindness. But at length, having shown in some of his expressions and actions that wild and unaccountable extravagance and oddity which runs through his compositions, the lady of the house, who happened to en joy but a very indifferent state of health, which rendered her hippish and low-spirited, and being moreover naturally of a timorous disposition, began to be extremely alarmed at his behaviour, and apprehensive that at some time or other he might do mischief either, to himself or others. On this she repeatedly remonstrated to her husband, entreating him to find some |