Moore (THOMAS an Irish poet born)

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

THOMAS, an Irish poet; born in Dublin, Ireland, May 28, 1779. He was the son of a Catholic grocer. From the school where Sheridan had been educated, he passed in 1794 to Trinity College, and thence, after taking his B. A., A., in 1799, to the Middle Temple, London. His translation of Anacreon came out in 1800. It proved a great hit. In 1801 followed the "Poetical Works of the late Thomas Little." In 1803, through Lord Moira's influence, he was appointed registrar of the Admiralty court at Bermuda. For his " Odes and Epistles " (1806) he was sharply taken to task in the "Edinburgh." The bulletless duel with Jeffrey was the consequence, but which left the non-combatants fast friends for life. In 1811 he married an actress, Bessy Dyke (1793-1865). Meanwhile he had published the earlier of the "Irish Melodies" (10 parts, 1807-1834), and "The Twopenny Post-bag" (1812). In 1817 "Lalla Rookh" appeared. Longmans paid him $15,000; the "Irish Melodies" brought in $2,500 a year; and about this time his Bermuda deputy embezzled $30,000. Moore's liability was ultimately paid by his pen; but in 1819, to avoid arrest, he went to Italy. He settled in Paris, where he wrote "The Loves of the Angels" (1823) and a prose romance, "The Epicurean" (1827). He returned in 1822, producing in the succeeding years "Memoirs of Captain Rock" (1824), the "History of Ireland" (1827), "Lives" of Sheridan (1825), Byron (1830), and Lord Edward Fitzgerald (1831). In 1835 he received a pension of $1,500, but his last days were clouded by sorrow and suffering-the loss of his two sons, and the decay of his mental faculties. He died near Devizes, England, Feb. 25, 1852.