A native of the banks of the Lake of Killarney, wrote “Thespis, a Poem;” “False Delicacy, a Comedy,” 1768, 8vo.; “A Word to the Wise, a Comedy,” 1770, 8vo., and other comedies; “Clementina, a Tragedy,” 1771, 8vo.; and some other compositions. A Collective ed. of his “Works,” with “Life,” was published in London, 1778.
Personal
It is recorded in Johnson’s “Works,” that when some one asked Johnson whether they should introduce Hugh Kelly to him, “No, Sir,” says he, “I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.”
It may be justly said of Kelly that no man ever profited more by a sudden change of fortune in his favour; prosperity caused an immediate and remarkable alteration in his conduct; from a low, petulant, absurd, and ill-bred censurer, he was transformed to the humane, affable, well-bred, good-natured man. His conversation in general was lively and agreeable, he had an uncommon stock of ready language, and though not deeply read, yet what he said was generally worthy of attention. He sometimes, indeed, from an attempt to assume uncommon politeness, and a superabundance of benevolence, became rather tiresome and luscious in his compliments.
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; and he exhibited his fat little person in “a flaming broad silver-laced waist-coat, bag-wig, and sword.” 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.
General
| This night presents a play, which publick rage, | |
| Or right or wrong, once hooted from the stage: | |
| From zeal or malice, now no more we dread, | |
| For English vengeance wars not with the dead. | |
| A generous foe regards with pitying eye | |
| The man whom Fate has laid where all must lie. | |
| To wit reviving from its author’s dust, | |
| Be kind, ye judges, or at least be just: | |
| Let no renewed hostilities invade | |
| Th’ obvious grave’s inviolable shade. | |
| Let one great payment every claim appease, | |
| And him who cannot hurt, allow to please; | |
| To please by scenes, unconscious to offence, | |
| By harmless merriment, or useful sense. | |
| Where aught of bright or fair the piece displays, | |
| Approve it only;—’tis too late to praise. | |
| If want of skill or want of care appear, | |
| Forbear to hiss;—the poet cannot hear. |
A most masterly critic of our time, William Hazlitt, has disposed of Steele’s pretensions as a comic dramatist; and poor Hugh Kelly, who has not survived to our time, must be disinterred to have his pretensions judged: yet the stage continues to suffer, even now, from the dregs of the sentimental school, and it would not greatly surprise me to see the comedy with which Kelly’s brief career of glory began, again lift up a sickly head amongst us. It is not an easy matter to describe that comedy. [“False Delicacy.”] One can hardly disentangle, from the maze of cant the make-believe in which all the people are involved, what it precisely is they drive at; but the main business seems to be, that there are three couples in search of themselves throughout the five acts, and enveloped in such a haze or mist of “False Delicacy” (the title of the piece), that they do not till the last succeed in finding themselves…. Examples need not be cited. Mr. Kelly’s style will never want admirers. While it saves great trouble both to actor and author, it exacts from an audience neither judgment nor discrimination; and, with an easy indolent indulgence of such productions, there will always be mixed up a sort of secret satisfaction in their mouthing morals and lip-professions of humanity.
Hugh Kelly, the author of “The School for Wives,” and some other second-rate dramas, produced during this interval a series of papers in a flashy, juvenile style under the title of “The Babbler.”
