Richard Cumberland

British, 1732 - 1811

BiographyRichard Cumberland, a dramatist, was born on February 19, 1732, in Cambridge, the son of the Bishop of Clonfert and (later) of Kilmore. After leaving Trinity College, Cambridge, he became private secretary to the Earl of Halifax and subsequently held other government positions. The success of his sentimental comedy The Brothers (1769) was followed by acclaim for The West Indian (1771), first produced by David Garrick, and The Fashionable Lover (1772). Around 1768 Cumberland met Romney and became an ardent supporter of his career. His ode to the painter in the Public Advertiser (1770) was followed by an "Epistole to Romney" in 1775 and further tributes were published in 1776 and 1789. Cumberland evidently brought other writers into Romney's orbit; in February 1787 he read a new comedy before "a select company" at the painter's house. Apparently as tokens of friendship, Romney painted numerous portraits of Cumberland and his family. As his fame grew, the association of painter and writer became mutually advantageous, eliciting cynical remarks from a few contemporaries. Despite the popularity of his lighter works, Cumberland, like Romney, aspired to the grand style. He considered his early tragedy Tiberius in Capraea his masterpiece, although no management would produce it. Of subsequent efforts in this vein, only The Jew (1794) and The Wheel of Fortune (1795) fared well. Cumberland took great interest in the art of Spain while on a government mission in 1780, and he later published two books on the subject. His posthumous memoir of Romney appeared in the European Magazine in 1803. Cumberland died on May 7, 1811, in London.

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