Samuel Crisp (1707 – 24 April 1783) was an English dramatist. He is known for the play ''Virginia'', produced at Drury Lane in 1754.

Life

He was baptised on 14 November 1707. His father Samuel Crisp, a London merchant, was a grandson of the theologian

Tobias Crisp Tobias Crisp D.D. (1600–1643) was an English clergyman and reputed antinomian. In the end he proved a divisive figure for English Calvinists, with a serious controversy arising from the republication of his works in the 1690s. Life In 1600, Tob ...

; his mother was Florence, daughter of Charles Williams. Crisp was educated at

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...

. By the age of thirteen he had lost both his parents; he was a residuary legatee and he is not known to have followed a profession. He led the life of a dilettante. He lived in Italy for a few years, studying art and music, returning in 1740. In England he knew

Fulke Greville Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke, ''de jure'' 13th Baron Latimer and 5th Baron Willoughby de Broke KB PC (; 3 October 1554 – 30 September 1628), known before 1621 as Sir Fulke Greville, was an Elizabethan poet, dramatist, and statesman wh ...

and the music historian Charles Burney. At the request of the Countess of Coventry he wrote the play ''

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

'', a tragedy based on the story of Appius and

Verginia Verginia, or Virginia (c. 465 BC449 BC), was the subject of a story of ancient Rome, related in Livy's ''Ab Urbe Condita''.Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology > v. 3, page 1267 /ref> The story of Verginia In 451 BC ...

. The play was reluctantly accepted by David Garrick, who contributed prologue and epilogue, and in February 1754 it was produced at Drury Lane, where it ran for eleven nights. Although there was little open censure, it was felt that an experiment had been made on the patience of the public which would not bear repetition. When a few weeks later ''Virginia'' appeared in print, the critics, particularly in the '' Monthly Review'', condemned plot, characters, and diction. Crisp, however, devoted himself to the task of revision, in the hope of being completely successful in the following year; but Garrick showed little disposition to bring the amended tragedy on the stage, and at length was obliged to return a decided refusal. Crisp was bitterly disappointed. "He became," wrote Macaulay, "a cynic and a hater of mankind". He sought retirement with his friend Christopher Hamilton at the latter's country-house, Chessington Hall. He remained after Hamilton's death in 1759, as a boarder of Hamilton's unmarried sister Sarah. Crisp was frequently visited by his sister, Mrs Sophia Gast of Burford, Oxfordshire, by his old friend and protégé Charles Burney, and by Burney's family; he was a close friend of Burney's daughter, the writer

Frances Burney Frances Burney (13 June 1752 – 6 January 1840), also known as Fanny Burney and later Madame d'Arblay, was an English satirical novelist, diarist and playwright. In 1786–1790 she held the post as "Keeper of the Robes" to Charlotte of Mecklen ...

, and advised her on her writing. He died at Chessington on 24 April 1783, aged 76, and was buried in the parish church. A marble tablet was erected to his memory bearing lines by Burney. He was unmarried.

References

Attribution * {{DEFAULTSORT:Crisp, Samuel 1707 births 1783 deaths People educated at Eton College 18th-century English dramatists and playwrights