Richard Cumberland

Richard Cumberland (19 February 1731/2 – 7 May 1811) was an English dramatist and civil servant. In 1771 his hit play The West Indian was first staged. During the American War of Independence he acted as a secret negotiator with Spain in an effort to secure a peace agreement between the two nations. He also edited a short-lived critical journal called The London Review (1809). His plays are often remembered for their sympathetic depiction of characters generally considered to be on the margins of society. Early life and education Richard Cumberland was born in the master's lodge of Trinity College, Cambridge on 19 February 1731/2. His father was a clergyman, Doctor Denison Cumberland, who became successively Bishop of Clonfert and Bishop of Kilmore, and through him his great-grandfather was Richard Cumberland, the philosopher and bishop of Peterborough. His mother was Johanna Bentley, youngest daughter of Joanna Bernard and the classical scholar Richard Bentley, longtime master at Trinity College. She was featured as the heroine of John Byrom's popular eclogue, Cohn and Phoebe. Cumberland's youngest sister Mary became recognized later as the poet Mary Alcock. A great-great grandfather was Oliver St John, the statesman. Cumberland was educated at the grammar school in Bury St Edmunds. He later related how, when the headmaster Arthur Kinsman told Bentley he would make his grandson an equally good scholar, Bentley retorted: "Pshaw, Arthur, how can that be, when I have forgot more than thou ever knewest?" In 1744 Cumberland was moved to the prestigious Westminster School, under Doctor Nicholl as headmaster. Among his contemporaries at Westminster were Warren Hastings, George Colman, Charles Churchill and William Cowper. At the age of fourteen, Cumberland went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where in 1750 he took his degree as tenth wrangler. In his beginning writing, he was influenced by Edmund Spenser; his first dramatic effort was modeled after William Mason's Elfrida and called Caractacus. Political and diplomatic career He had begun to read for his fellowship at Trinity when the Earl of Halifax who had been made President of the Board of Trade in the Duke of Newcastle's government offered him the post of private secretary. Cumberland's family persuaded him to accept, and he returned to the post after his election as fellow. It left him time for literary pursuits, which included a poem in blank verse about India.