Hugh Kelly
Hugh Kelly was an Irish playwright and journalist born in Dublin in 1739, whose early life was marked by limited education and an apprenticeship as a staymaker. He moved to London in 1760, where he pursued a career in writing, contributing to various magazines and eventually editing notable publications. Kelly’s notable work in theater began with his first play, *False Delicacy*, which, despite receiving mixed reviews, enjoyed significant popularity and established his reputation. His later works, including *A Word to the Wise* and *Clementina*, saw varied critical reception, often overshadowed by controversy and challenges in the theater community.
Despite initial success, Kelly faced difficulties, particularly due to his journalistic pursuits, which sometimes put him at odds with public sentiment. His most successful comedy, *The School for Wives*, enjoyed a favorable run, yet Kelly's career was marred by financial struggles and criticism of his theatrical style. He eventually turned to law but did not find success in that field either, leading to his death in poverty at age 38. Kelly's legacy primarily rests on his sentimental comedies, which, while popular in his time, secured him a minor position in the broader landscape of English drama.
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Hugh Kelly
Dramatist
- Born: 1739
- Birthplace: Dublin, Ireland
- Died: February 3, 1777
- Place of death: London, England
Biography
Hugh Kelly was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1739 to a tavern keeper. He had little education but after apprenticing as a staymaker, he went to London in 1760 to work his trade and seek a writing career. He soon found work freelancing for The Gazeteer, and then selling pieces to Court Magazine and The Ladies Museum, magazines he eventually edited. He also wrote political pamphlets. Kelly married a seamstress, Elizabeth (surname unknown) around 1761, and had five children; the family lived in London until his death.
By 1766, he was writing drama criticism, and in one satirical work, Thespis: Or, A Critical Examination into the Merits of all the Principal Performers Belonging to the Drury-Lane Theatre, he praised the theater’s actor-manager, David Garrick, which helped him get his first play, False Delicacy, onto the Drury Lane stage. The play, a sentimental comedy, centers on a young widow, Lady Lambton, who is in love with Lord Wintworth but has a sense of “delicacy” about widows marrying, so she pushes his suit of another woman, starting a chain of romantic mishaps and misunderstandings. Critics called the play “plotless” and, in the words of Kelly’s friend, writer Samuel Johnson, “totally void of character.” Nevertheless, it was a hit with theatergoers, selling thirteen thousand copies the first year, and it was translated into German, Portuguese, Italian, and French. Kelly was at the right place at the right time. A new class of theatergoers favored easy entertainment over wit and intellect and Kelly’s sentimental comedies, though trite, were more popular at the time than the plays of his friend, Oliver Goldsmith. (Goldsmith’s response to being outdone was to call Kelly a “blockhead,” and their friendship took a bad turn.)
Kelly’s journalistic life ultimately hurt his theatrical career. Writing about a popular rapscallion, John Wilkes, who opposed British King George III, Kelly was accused of being a tool for the government. When his comedy A Word to the Wise opened in 1770, a resentful group of “yawners and laughers” was organized to disrupt performances. The theater substituted a performance of his earlier play to thwart the demonstrators, but they continued their disruption, and the run ended. The play would likely have died its own natural death; as with False Delicacy, Kelly wrote A Word to the Wise to evoke competing sentiments but unlike the first, this play was condemned by critics for its over-moralizing against libertines. After his double humiliation, Kelly moved his drama to Covent Garden and staged his tragedy, Clementina under a false name, claiming the play was written by an anonymous America. Clementina, a love story heavy in political ideology, made money but as with his last play, critics were not kind, saying the American should be thankful for English charity in allowing the play’s production.
Kelly left playwriting for two years, then produced his most successful comedy, The School for Wives. Kelly again used a false name, but after early success, revealed his authorship. Typical of Kelly’s comedies, the play combines sappy sentiment and humor in a tale of a controlling father, a spirited young daughter, and a scheming libertine. Reviews were mixed, some complimentary, many complaining of a lack of brilliance and originality; nevertheless, the play had good run and went into five printings.
Kelly wrote two more less successful sentimental comedies, but in 1774 he entered the practice of law at the Old Bailey and Middlesex. He was not a successful barrister and at age thirty-eight he died in poverty, leaving his wife and, according to Thomas Cooke, who wrote a biographical essay of Kelly in 1793, “a family of five or six children.” Kelly’s friends, including Johnson, raised money for the family by publishing his works as subscriptions, and Johnson composed a prologue to Word to the Wise. Kelly—novelist, journalist, pamphleteer, lawyer, and playwright—is remembered today mainly for sentimental comedies that were popular enough in their day but left him but a minor place in English drama.