# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kelly, Hugh

​KELLY, HUGH (1739–1777), miscellaneous writer, born in 1739 at Killarney, was the son of a Dublin tavern-keeper. After receiving a scanty education he was bound apprentice to a staymaker. He became a great favourite with the actors who frequented his father's house. His leisure was devoted to the theatre, plays, reading, and literary composition. By the advice of some English actors he went to London in the spring of 1760 to try literature. He prudently announced himself first as a staymaker. His theatrical friends procured some business for him, which he lost by his bad workmanship. He afterwards served for a few months as copying-clerk to an attorney, and contributed occasionally to the newspapers. His smart style obtained for him in 1761 permanent employment on one of the daily papers, and the editorship of the ‘Court Magazine’ and of the ‘Ladies' Museum.’ He also wrote several political pamphlets for a bookseller named Pottinger, of which one, ‘A Vindication of Mr. Pitt's Administration,’ was praised by Lord Chesterfield (Letters, ed. 1774, ii. 505). About 1761 he made a happy marriage with a needlewoman whose virtues he has celebrated in a sonnet under the name of ‘Myra.’ He now took chambers in Middle Temple Lane, where he laboured untiringly as literary hack. He began a series of essays in ‘Owen's Weekly Chronicle,’ a selection from which he published anonymously in 1767 in two pocket volumes called ‘The Babler.’ During the same year he wrote a successful novel entitled ‘Memoirs of a Magdalen, or the History of Louisa Mildmay,’ 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1767 (a French version of which by A. Colleville appeared in 1800 as ‘Les Dangers d'un Tête-à-tête’), and about the same time John Newbery [q. v.] appointed him editor of the ‘Public Ledger.’
Kelly obtained some reputation as a theatrical critic, and in 1766 published anonymously ‘Thespis; or, a Critical Examination into the Merits of all the principal Performers belonging to Drury Lane Theatre,’ in imitation of the ‘Rosciad.’ He called Mrs. Dancer a ‘moon-eyed ideot;’ talked of ‘Clive's weak head and execrable heart,’ and kept his praises for his boon companions. He soon repented and tried to atone for what he termed his ‘ruffian cruelty’ in the second edition. In 1767 he published under his own name a second book, criticising the actors of Covent Garden less scurrilously (Genest, Account of the Stage, v. 266). He had taken care in the first book to extol Garrick, who saw him and encouraged him to write for the stage.
Kelly sat down to write his first comedy, which he afterwards called ‘False Delicacy,’ on Easter Monday 1768, and prepared it for Garrick's perusal in the beginning of September. At this time he was acquainted with Goldsmith and Bickerstaffe, both of whom treated him with contempt. Garrick now took up Kelly in avowed rivalry to Goldsmith, who was about to bring out ‘The Good-Natured Man.’ The town talk some weeks before either performance turned upon the reported competition. Kelly's play was of the sentimental school, and, as Johnson observed, ‘totally void of character’ (Boswell, Life of Johnson, ed. G. B. Hill, ii. 48), but it had every advantage in its production. Garrick wrote a prologue and epilogue, touched up (it is said) the old bachelor played by King, and induced Mrs. Dancer to forgive the abuse in ‘Thespis’ and act the widow. Produced at Drury Lane on 23 Jan. 1768—six days before ‘The Good-Natured Man’ was brought out at Covent Garden—‘False Delicacy’ was received with singular favour. The management was under a solemn pledge ‘not for the future to run any new piece nine nights successively,’ but it was played eight nights successively, and in the course of the season repeated more than twenty times. The publisher announced the morning after it was printed that three thousand copies had been sold before two o'clock. Ten thousand copies were bought before the season closed; Kelly received a public breakfast at the Chapter Coffee-house, and the publisher expended 20l. upon a piece of plate as a tribute to his genius. The profits brought Kelly above 700l. In the summer it became the rage at most of the country towns in Great Britain and Ireland. It was translated into German, and (by order of the Marquis de Pombal) into Portuguese, while its French version by Garrick's friend, Madame Riccoboni, achieved success in Paris. Both at Lisbon and Paris it was acted before crowded houses.
Kelly heard exaggerated reports of Goldsmith's sneers at his comedy. When Goldsmith congratulated him one night in the Covent Garden green-room, Kelly retorted that he ‘could not thank him because he could not believe him.’ They never spoke again (European Mag. xxiv. 170–1), and Kelly withdrew from the Wednesday Club. He was noted, however, for unconsciously imitating Goldsmith. He was so fond of displaying plate on his sideboard that he added to it his silver spurs (Boswell, vi. 407 n. 4); and he exhibited his fat little person in ‘a flaming broad silver-laced waistcoat, bag-wig, and sword’ (European Mag. xxiv. 421). It was reported, however, that he had done Goldsmith, who admired Mrs. ​Kelly's amiability, the service of dissuading him from marrying Mrs. Kelly's bad-tempered sister (ib. xxiv. 339).
Kelly now obtained lucrative employment as newspaper hack for the ministry, and is said to have eventually received from Lord North a pension of 200l. (Forster, Life of Goldsmith, ed. 1888, ii. 211). When his second comedy, ‘A Word to the Wise,’ was produced at Drury Lane on 3 March 1770, the theatre was for two nights distracted by riots between Kelly's friends and the Wilkites. With great difficulty ‘False Delicacy’ was allowed to be performed on the third night for the author's benefit (Genest, v. 263). Kelly complained bitterly in a long ‘Address to the Public’ prefixed to the printed copies of ‘A Word to the Wise’ (8vo, London, 1770; other editions in 1773 and 1775). He cleared, however, 800l. by subscriptions, besides the profits of the sale after the general subscription was full. Though even more insipid than ‘False Delicacy,’ the comedy was well received in the provinces.
Kelly next produced a blank-verse tragedy, ‘Clementina,’ at Covent Garden on 23 Feb. 1771. It was called the first production of a ‘young American clergyman not yet arrived in England.’ The admirable acting of Mrs. Bates kept it afloat for nine nights, and then it was heard of no more (ib. v. 308). Through Colman's interest Kelly obtained 200l. for the copy (Baker, Biog. Dram. ed. 1812, ii. 107), and it was printed anonymously.
On 11 Dec. 1773, with the assistance of Major (afterwards Sir William) Addington, who lent his name to the piece, Kelly produced at Drury Lane a comedy called ‘A School for Wives’ (Genest, v. 399). It was performed twenty-one times during the season, and it passed through five large editions in 1774 and 1775. A German adaptation by J. C. Bock was printed in vol. iii. of F. L. Schroeder's ‘Hamburgisches Theater,’ 1776, &c. Addington, after the ninth night of its performance, explained why he had assumed the authorship in a public letter to Kelly, and was thereupon bitterly assailed by Wilkes's faction.
A less successful after-piece in two acts, called ‘The Romance of an Hour,’ was performed for the first time at Covent Garden on 2 Dec. 1774 (ib. v. 457). Two editions were printed. The plot is borrowed from Marmontel's tale, ‘L'Amitié à l'Epreuve’ (Baker, iii. 220).
Kelly attended Goldsmith's funeral (9 April 1774), and was seen standing weeping at the grave as the other mourners moved away. His fifth comedy, ‘The Man of Reason,’ was played at Covent Garden on 9 Feb. 1776, was damned at once (Genest, v. 517), and was not printed. Kelly determined to give up play-writing. He was called to the bar from the Middle Temple in 1774, and threw up his literary engagements in order to practise at the Old Bailey and Middlesex Sessions (Hawkins, Life of Johnson, p. 518). He failed at the bar, got into debt, resorted to drink, and died in Gough Square, Fleet Street, on 3 Feb. 1777, leaving a widow and five children. For their benefit ‘A Word to the Wise’ was revived at Covent Garden on the following 29 May (Genest, v. 569). Johnson, who though he recognized Kelly's weakness, had, it is said, a ‘real friendship’ for him, contributed a prologue, which was heard with respectful attention (Murphy, Life of Garrick, p. 302). An edition of Kelly's ‘Works,’ with a life, and a portrait by Hugh Hamilton, was published in 1778, 4to. A translation from the French, entitled ‘L'Amour à-la-mode: or Love à-la-mode. A farce in three acts,’ 8vo, London, 1760, is also ascribed to Kelly (Baker, ii. 26); it was published at the time when Macklin's ‘Love à la Mode’ was at the height of its success.
G. G.