I.
[1] Henry A. Beers, A History of English Romanticism in the Eighteenth Century, London 1899, p. 222.
[2] William Monck Mason, The History and Antiquities of the Collegiate and Cathedral Church of St. Patrick, Dublin 1820, note p. 445.
[3] Registers of the French Conformed Churches of St. Patrick and St. Mary, Dublin, edited by J. J. Digges La Touche, Dublin 1893 (Publications of the Huguenot Society of London, vol. VII).
[4] Mason, p. 445; Henry Cotton, Fasti Ecclesiae Hibernicae, Dublin 1848, vol. II p. 105.
[5] Two Centuries of Irish History 1691-1870, edited by R. Barry O’Brien, London 1907, p. 98.
[6] In all notes and biographies the year of Maturin’s birth is given as 1782, which is probably founded upon an indirect statement made by himself in the preface to his first romance Montorio, dated December 15, 1806, where he says that he is twenty-four years of age. Yet in the Matriculation Book of Trinity College, as may still be seen, his entrance is marked in 1795 and his age given as fifteen, whence it would appear that he was born in 1780. It has also been communicated to me that in a pedigree of the family, issued by Sir William Betham, Ulster King-at-Arms, in 1845, it is stated that C. R. M. was born in 1780.
[7] New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal 1827, vol. XIX pp. 401, 570; vol. XX pp. 146, 370.
[8] According to a family pedigree, particulars of which have kindly been communicated to me by Miss Sybil Maturin, he had two brothers: William and Henry, and three sisters: Fidelia, Emma, and Alicia.—It is said in an article in Douglas Jerrold’s Shilling Magazine (1846, vol. III p. 125), with reference to Maturin’s early love of the stage, that ‘no similar abilities, however, were shown by his brothers, whose lots in life were very different;’ whereas the writer in the New Monthly Magazine 1827, who also claims to have been an intimate friend of Charles Robert Maturin, maintains that the latter was the ‘only child of many who lived beyond the term of boyhood’—which goes to show that the information furnished by the Magazines is, in general, to be taken with some reserve.
[9] New Monthly Magazine 1827.
[10] British Review 1818, vol. XI p. 37; an article written by Maturin.
[11] ibid.
[12] New Monthly Magazine, or Universal Register 1819, vol. XI p. 165; an article, on Maturin, by Alaric Watts.
[13] ‘W,’ Ireland Sixty Years ago, Dublin 1851, p. 86 (3:rd ed.).
[14] The Life of William Carleton: being his autobiography and letters; and an account of his life and writings, from the point at which the autobiography breaks off, by D. J. O’Donoghue, Dublin 1896, p. 194.
[15] Irish Quarterly Review, March 1852, p. 140; New Monthly Magazine 1827.
[16] ‘License was granted — — — to solemnize marriage between the Revd Charles Robert Maturin of Camden Street — — — & Henrietta Kingsberry — — — dated October the 7:th 1803.’
[17] Cumberland’s British Theatre, with remarks, biographical and critical, by D.-G., London 18(?), vol. XLIII; cf. also Charles A. Read, The Cabinet of Irish Literature (new edition by Katharine Tynan Hinkson), London 1909, vol. II p. 44.
[18] Letter in the British Museum MS collections.
[19] That Maturin’s stay in Loughrea was but of short duration is proved by the absence of all references to him in the parish register—a fact of which I have kindly been informed by the Rev. Canon Eccles.
[20] Douglas Jerrold’s Shilling Magazine 1846; the writer adds that Maturin ‘was an enthusiastic lover of antiquity, and had a strange passion for exploring old and desolate houses; in so much so, that when I have been walking with him through some decayed parts of the city, if any house particularly attracted him, about which he imagined some history to attach, or fancied it had an air of mystery, he would knock at the door, and find some excuse for examining the interior.’
[21] ibid.
[22] In the Irish Quarterly Review 1852, and elsewhere, Maturin’s residence is given as 41 York Street; but in all letters of Maturin which I have seen and where he mentions the number at all, he writes 37 York Street.