Cuthbert Shaw
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Cuthbert Shaw (1738/9–1771) was an English poet and actor.


Life

Shaw was born in
Ravensworth Ravensworth is a village and civil parish in the Holmedale valley, in the county of North Yorkshire, England. It is approximately north-west of Richmond, North Yorkshire, Richmond and from Darlington. The parish has a population of 255, acc ...
in the
North Riding of Yorkshire The North Riding of Yorkshire was a subdivision of Yorkshire, England, alongside York, the East Riding and West Riding. The riding's highest point was at Mickle Fell at . From the Restoration it was used as a lieutenancy area, having b ...
; his father Cuthbert Shaw was a shoemaker. He attended the local
grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...
at Kirby Hill where he paid his way by serving as an usher. He then was usher at then at Darlington grammar school. Shaw joined a company of actors in the eastern counties. In 1760, under the name of Smith, he appeared in
Samuel Foote Samuel Foote (January 1720 – 21 October 1777) was a Cornish dramatist, actor and Actor-manager, theatre manager. He was known for his comedic acting and writing, and for turning the loss of a leg in a riding accident in 1766 to comedic oppor ...
's comedy of ''The Minor'', relying on his good looks, which were prematurely dulled by his excesses. On 19 October 1761 he was Osman in ''Zara'' at
Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist sit ...
, and on 14 May 1762 Pierre in ''
Venice Preserv'd ''Venice Preserv'd'' is an English Restoration play written by Thomas Otway, and the most significant tragedy of the English stage in the 1680s. It was first staged in 1682, with Thomas Betterton as Jaffeir and Elizabeth Barry as Belvidera. ...
'', for his own benefit. This seems to have been his last appearance on the stage. Shaw puffed a quack medicine, the ''Beaume de Vie'', in which he was made a partner. He married, and was next, for a short time, tutor to the young
Philip Stanhope Philip Stanhope may refer to: * Philip Stanhope (Royalist officer) (died 1645), English Civil War Royalist colonel * Philip Stanhope, 1st Earl of Chesterfield (1584–1656), English peer * Philip Stanhope, 2nd Earl of Chesterfield (1634&ndash ...
in succession to the notorious William Dodd. His young wife died in 1768. He himself died, amid many troubles, at his house in Titchfield Street, Oxford Market, on 1 September 1771.


Works

Shaw published his first poem, ''Liberty'', inscribed to the
Earl of Darlington Earl of Darlington is a title that has been created twice, each time in the Peerage of Great Britain. Baroness von Kielmansegg, half-sister of King George I, was made countess of Darlington in 1722. This creation was for life only, and so the t ...
(1756). In 1760 at
Bury St. Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as ''Bury,'' is a cathedral as well as market town and civil parish in the West Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St. Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: . P ...
he published, under the pseudonym of W. Seymour, ''Odes on the Four Seasons''. Shaw made a verbal assault on the satirist Charles Churchill, by whose work he was influenced, with Robert Lloyd, George Colman and
William Shirley William Shirley (2 December 1694 – 24 March 1771) was a British colonial administrator who served as the governor of the British American colonies of Massachusetts Bay and the Bahamas. He is best known for his role in organizing the succ ...
, in ''The Four Farthing Candles'' (London, 1762). It was followed by ''The Race. By Mercurius Spur, esq.'' (1766), in which living poets contend for pre-eminence in fame by running, with a portrait of
Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson ( – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, literary critic, sermonist, biographer, editor, and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...
(republished in ''The Repository'', 1790, ii. 227; and quoted in
James Boswell James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck (; 29 October 1740 ( N.S.) – 19 May 1795), was a Scottish biographer, diarist, and lawyer, born in Edinburgh. He is best known for his biography of the English writer Samuel Johnson, '' Life of Samuel ...
's ''Life of Johnson''). He published a ''Monody to the Memory of a Young Lady who died in Childbed, with a poetical dedication to Lord Lyttelton'', (1768) after his wife's death. It caught the taste of the day, and of which a fourth edition appeared (London, 1779). Next year he found utterance in ''Corruption, a Satire'', inscribed to Richard Grenville, Earl Temple, and subsequently (1770) in ''An Elegy on the Death of Charles Yorke, the Lord Chancellor'', which was generally tho thought have been suppressed by the family making a payment to the author. During the final years of his life Shaw contributed to '' The Freeholder's Magazine'' and other periodicals, with caustic comments on persons and current events. A selection of his work was printed in Robert Anderson's ''British Poets'' (1794, xi. 557), and in
Thomas Park Thomas Park (1759–1834) was an English antiquary and bibliographer, also known as a literary editor. Life He was the son of parents who lived at East Acton, Middlesex. When ten years old he was sent to a grammar school at Heighington, County ...
's ''British Poets'' (1808, xxxiii.),
Charles Whittingham Charles Whittingham (16 June 1767 – 5 January 1840) was an English printer. Biography He was born at Caludon or Calledon, Warwickshire, the son of a farmer, and was apprenticed to a Coventry printer and bookseller. In 1789 he set up a smal ...
's ''British Poets'' (1822, lxiv. 47, with memoir by Richard Alfred Davenport), and Ezekiel Sandford's ''British Poets'' (1822, xxxi. 233).
Eric Partridge Eric Honeywood Partridge (6 February 1894 – 1 June 1979) was a New Zealand–United Kingdom, British lexicography, lexicographer of the English language, particularly of its slang. His writing career was interrupted only by his service in the ...
published ''Poems of Cuthbert Shaw and Thomas Russell'' (1925).


See also

*
List of 18th-century British working-class writers This list focuses on published authors whose working-class status or background was part of their literary reputation. These were, in the main, writers without access to formal education, so they were either autodidacts or had mentors or patro ...


References


External links


Cuthbert Shaw
at th
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)
;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Shaw, Cuthbert English male stage actors 1730s births 1771 deaths People from Ravensworth 18th-century English male actors English male poets