# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brooke, Henry (1703?-1783)

​BROOKE, HENRY (1703?–1783), author, was son of the Rev. William Brooke, a protestant clergyman, by his wife, whose name was Digby. William Brooke, who appears to have been related to the family of Sir Basil Brooke, an 'undertaker' in the plantation of Ulster, possessed lands at Rantavan in Cavan, and was rector of Killinkere and Mullagh in that county. He married Lettice, second daughter of Simon Digby, bishop of Elphin. Henry Brooke, the elder of two sons, was born about 1703, and is said to have been educated by Swift's friend, Sheridan. The register of Trinity College, Dublin, shows that he was entered 7 Feb. 1720, 'in his seventeenth year,' from the school of Dr. Jones. He afterwards entered the Temple, London. On his return to Ireland Brooke married a youthful cousin, Catherine Meares of Meares Court, Westmeath, whose guardianship had been entrusted to him. In 1735 he published at London a poem entitled 'Universal Beauty,' which is stated to have been revised and approved of by Pope. This production was supposed to have furnished the foundation for the 'Botanic Garden' by Darwin. Swift is said to have entertained a favourable opinion of Brooke's talents, but to have counselled him against devoting himself solely to literature. In ​Brooke was treated with much consideration by Lord Lyttelton, and by Pope, near to whose house at Twickenham he took a temporary residence. A rranslation by Brooke of the first and second books of Tasso's 'Jerusalem Delivered' was issued in 1738. This version was much commended by Hoole, who subsequently translated the entire poem. Brooke received many attentions from Frederick, prince of Wales, to whom he was introduced by Pitt, and with whose political adherents he became identified, in opposition to George II. In 1739 Brooke produced a tragedy founded on a portion of the history of Sweden, and entitled 'Gustavus Vasa, the Deliverer of his Country.' The play was, after five weeks' rehearsal, announced for performance at Drury Lane. Many hundred tickets had been disposed of, when the performance was unexpectedly prohibited by the lord chamberlain. This was ascribed to Sir Robert Walpole, who, it was supposed, was intended to be represented in the character of Trollis, vicegerent of Christiern, king of Denmark and Norway. Nearly one thousand persons subscribed for the publication of 'Gustavus Vasa,' and Brooke, in his prefatory dedication of it to them, stated that patriotism was the single moral which he had in view throughout his play. Under the name of 'The Patriot,' the tragedy was produced with success at Dublin, where some of the sentiments expressed in it relative to Sweden were construed as applicable to Ireland. In connection with the prohibition of the performance at London, Samuel Johnson wrote a satire entitled 'A Complete Vindication of the Licensers of the Stage.' Brooke left London and returned to Ireland owing to the importunities of his wife, who apprehended disastrous results from his imprudent zeal in the cause of the Prince of Wales. To Ogle's modernised version of Chaucer, Brooke in 1741 contributed 'Constantia, or the Man of Law's Tale.' His 'Betrayer of his Country' was successfully acted at Dublin in the same year. Garrick, during his visit to Dublin, recited at the theatre a prologue and epilogue composed for him by Brooke. In 1743 Brooke issued at Dublin a prospectus of a work he described as follows: 'Ogygian Tales; or a curious collection of Irish Fables, Allegories, and Histories, from the relations of Fintane the aged, for the entertainment of Cathal Crove Darg, during that Prince's abode in the island of O Brazil.' Brooke proposed in 1744 to print a history of Ireland from the earliest times, 'interspersed and illustrated with traditionary digressions and the private and affecting histories of the most celebrated of the natives.' The publication was to be comprised in four octavo volumes, each to contain about two hundred pages. To his prospectus he appended a preface addressed 'to the most noble and illustrious descendants of the Milesian line.' These projected publications were abandoned in consequence of misunderstandings as to the ownership of the materials of which Brooke had intended to avail himself. To his studies in this direction may be ascribed the fragment which he named 'Conrade,' the scene of which was laid at Emania, the fortress of ancient kings of Ulster. The style of this production closely resembled that adopted by Macpherson in his 'Ossian.' Brooke contributed some of the best pieces in the 'Fables for the Female Sex' published in 1744 by Edward Moore, author of the 'Gamester.' During the Jacobite movement in 1745 Brooke issued the 'Farmer's Letters to the Protestants of Ireland.' These letters were written in the character of a protestant farmer in Ireland, with the avowed object of rousing his co-religionists there to make preparations against the Jacobite invasion. The peaceable demeanour of the Irish catholics at the time was compared by Brooke to the attitude of the crocodile, which 'seems to sleep when the prey approaches.' The post of barrackmaster, worth about 400l. annually, was conferred at this time on Brooke by Lord Chesterfield, in consideration, it was supposed, of these writings, which were highly commended in verse by Garrick. In 1745 'The Earl of Westmoreland,' a tragedy by Brooke, was produced at Dublin, and in 1748 his operatic satire styled 'Jack the Giant-Queller' was performed there. The dramatis personæ consisted of the giants of Wealth, Power, Violence, and Wrong, and 'the family of the Goods,' comprising John, Dorothy, Grace, and the Princess Justice. The repetition of the performance was prohibited by the government on the ground of political allusions which it was alleged to contain. The songs in it were printed in separate form and had a large circulation. In relation to 'Jack the Giant-Queller,' Brooke composed a piece in scriptural style under the title of 'The Last Speech of John Good, vulgarly called Jack the Giant-Queller, who was condemned on the first of April 1745, and executed on the third of May following,' The 'Earl of Essex,' a tragedy by Brooke, was in 1749 produced at Dublin, and subsequently at London. The tragedy originally contained the passage,
Who rule o'er freemen should themselves be free,
which elicited Johnson's parody,
Who drives fat oxen should himself be fat.
[Dublin journals, 1744; unpublished letters of Henry Brooke; letters by Benjamin Victor, 1776; Anthologia Hibernica, 1794; Memoirs of C. O'Conor (1797); Manuscripts of C. O'Conor; D'Olier's Memoirs of Henry Brooke, 1816; Seymour's Memoirs of Miss Brooke, 1816; Private Correspondence of David Garrick, 1831; Hist. of Dublin, 1856; Reports of Hist. MSS. Commission, 1884; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ii. 215-6; Notes and Queries, 5th ser. iv. 131.]
J. T. G.