Rev. George Croly

The son of a physician, George Croly attended Trinity College Dublin (B.A. 1800, M.A. 1804, LL.D. 1831); he held a curacy in Ireland before coming to London in 1810. Croly contributed to Blackwood's and a variety Tory papers; after moderate success as a poet he achieved popular success with his novel Salathiel (1828). Preferment came late in life and from an unexpected source: in 1835 Lord Brougham secured him a London parish, St. Stephens Church, Walbrook.

TEXT RECORDS:

1817Paris in 1815. A Poem.
1818A Sketch from the Life.
1818James, Giles, and Luke. A Parochial Eclogue. Addressed to the Reformers.
1818Nelson's Pillar. Written on the Beach at Yarmouth on a stormy Evening.
1818On a fine Portrait, by Masquerier, of a Lady (since dead) standing before a Glass.
1818On J. P. Davis's admirable Picture of Mrs. Barker, in the Somerset House Exhibition.
1818The Artist's Chamber. A Sketch on the Spot.
1819From Ossian.
1819Jacob's Dream. A Picture by Allston, in the Royal Academy.
1819The Thirteenth of February.
1819To Romance.
1820A Vision.
1820Ode from Horace.
1820Rebellion.
1820The Angel of the World.
1820The Entry into Jerusalem. (Mr. Haydon's great Picture.)
1820The Funeral.
1821Evening. A free Translation from the Greek of Alcaeus.
1821Fragment, from Theocritus. — a free Translation. Id. 11.
1821Morning.
1821Paris in 1815. Part the Second.
1821Rebellion.
1821Remarks on Shelley's Adonais.
1821The Hermit. A Fragment from an unpublished Poem.
1821Titania.
1821Virgil's Tomb.
1822A Woman contemplating a Household God.
1822Castor and Pollux.
1822Cupid carrying Provisions.
1822Diana.
1822The Education of Bacchus.
1822The Winter's Evening. From the Greek.
1822Venus clipping the Wings of Cupid.
1823Aulae Sacrae.
1823Bellator Moriens.
1825A Passage from St. Augustine.
1825A Story of Archbishop Usher.
1825The Guardian Angels.
1827The Monument.
1828The Beauties of the British Poets: Introductory Observations.

PUBLICATIONS:

Paris in 1815: a poem. 1817.
Lines on the death of Princess Charlotte. 1818.
The angel of the world: an Arabian tale; Sebastian, a Spanish tale, with other poems. 1820.
The coronation. Observations on the public life of the King. 1821.
Gems principally from the antique, drawn by Richard Dagley, with illustrations in verse by George Croly. 1822.
Cataline: a tragedy, with other poems. 1822.
Popery and the Popish question. 1825.
The Apocalypse of St John, a new interpretation. 1827.
May Fair, in four cantos. 1827.
The beauties of the British poets, with a few introductory observations. 1828.
The Englishman's polar star!! Or, a deeply interesting and highly important view of unquestioned historical facts, as connected with the honour and safety of the British empire. 1828.
Salathiel: a story of the past, the present, and the future. 3 vols. 1828.
Tales of the Great St. Bernard. 3 vols, 1828.
The life and times of his late majesty George IV. 1830.
Poetical works. 2 vols, 1830.
The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in foreign Parts. A sermon. 1831.
The years of liberation. 2 vols, 1832.
Divine providence; or the three cycles of Revelation. 1834.
The spread of the Gospel the safeguard of England! A sermon. 1835.
The works of Alexander Pope [ed. Croly]. 1835.
The Reformation a direct gift of divine providence. 1838.
Memoir of the political life of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke. 1840.
Historical sketches, speeches, and characters. 1842.
The universal kingdom. A sermon. 1843.
The modern Orlando. Cantos 1-7 [all pbd.] 1846.
Marston: or the soldier and statesman. 3 vols, 1846.
The claims of Jews incompatible with the national profession of Christianity. 1848.
The divine origin and obligation of marriage. A sermon. 1848.
National diseases, divine judgments.... A sermon. 1848.
Papal Rome ... A sermon. 1848.
Popery the Antichrist ... A sermon. 1848.
Sermons preached ... in 1847. 1848.
The years of revolutions. 1849.
Infant regeneration ... A Sermon. 1850.
National knowledge, national power; an address. 1850.
The Popish primacy; two sermons. 1850.
The theory of baptism. 1850.
Scenes from scripture, with other poems. 1851.
The theory of the Lord's supper. 1851.
The miracles of scripture contrasted with the fictions of Popery. 1852.
Public worship a divine obligation. A sermon. 1852.
A sermon on the death of the Duke of Wellington. 1852.
National defence essential to national safety ... A sermon. 1853.
England, Turkey, and Russia. A sermon. 1854.
Psalms and hymns for public worship. 1854.
The Book of Job, with a memoir by F. W. Croly. 1863.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

Irish
English
Anglican

Trinity College Dublin
Bachelor of Arts
Master of Arts
Doctor of Laws

poet
historian
novelist
journalist
clergyman

The Literary Gazette
St. James's Chronicle
The New Times
New Monthly Magazine
London Magazine
Blackwood's Magazine
Forget-Me-Not
Friendship's Offering
The Amulet

William Harrison Ainsworth
John Wilson Croker
William Jerdan
John Gibson Lockhart
William Maginn
Bryan Waller Procter
William Read
Alaric Alexander Watts

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL; CBEL (3rd ed).

"Quacks of the Day: The Rev. George Croly" The Wasp 1 (28 October 1826) 65-67; Living Poets of England: Specimens of the Living British Poets (1827); "The Rev. George Croly" in La Belle Assemblee S3 8 (July 1828) 2-10; "Contemporary Poetry: Mr. Croly" New England Galaxy [Boston] 12 (23 October 1829); George B. Cheever, Studies in Poetry ... Elegant Extracts (1830); Allan Cunningham, "Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum No. 318 (30 November 1833) 812; S. C. Hall, in The Book of Gems (1838); Illustrated London News 4 (1844) 248 [portrait]; Robert Chambers, Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844); George Gilfallan, in Second Gallery of Literary Portraits (1850); David Macbeth Moir, Poetical Literature of the Past Half-Century (1851; 1856) 185-87; William Jerdan, in Autobiography (1852-53); Illustrated London News 24 (1854) 401 [portrait]; Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Tresham D. Gregg, The Christian Hero Triumphant in his Fall. A Funeral Sermon on Croly (1861); Richard Herring, A Few Personal Recollections of the late Rev. George Croly, with extracts from his Speeches and Writings (1861); memoir by Croly's son in The Book of Job (1863); obituary in Gentleman's Magazine NS 10 (January 1861); Alfred Webb, Compendium of Irish Biography (1878); Frederic Boase, Modern English Biography (1892-1921); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05); D. J. O'Donoghue, Poets of Ireland (1912); Samuel C. Chew, "Byron and Croly" Modern Language Notes 28 (1913) 201 ff; Alumni Dublinenses (1924); John S. Crone, Concise Dictionary of Irish Biography (1928); Bryan Waller Procter, Literary Recollections, ed. Armour (1936) 28-32; Alan Lang Strout, "George Croly and Blackwood's Magazine" TLS (6 October 1950) 636; Donald H. Reiman, introduction to Paris in 1815, etc (1977); Chadwyck-Healey English Poetry Database (1995).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Rev. George Croly:

1.	1813  Henry Crabb Robinson 5 April 1813; Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence (1870; 1872) 1:216.
2.	1816  John Wilson Croker to George Croly, 28 Novmber 1816; The Croker Papers, ed. Louis J. Jennings (1884) 1:87-90.
3.	1817  Lord Byron to John Murray, 4 September 1817; Letters and Journals, ed. Rowland E. Prothero (1898-1901) 4:164.
4.	1817  John Wilson Croker, Review of Croly, Paris in 1815; Quarterly Review 17 (April 1817) 218-29.
5.	1820  Lord Byron, in Don Juan Canto 11 (1820); Poetical Works, ed. Coleridge (1898-1904) 6:444.
6.	1820  Alaric Alexander Watts to Zilla Wiffen Watts, 1820; in Alaric Alfred Watts, Alaric Watts, a Narrative of his Life, by his Son (1884) 1:103.
7.	1821  G., "On Reading the Poem of 'Paris,' by the Rev. George Croly, A.M." The Sun (1 November 1821).
8.	1822  Paddy, in "Metricum Symposium Ambrosianum" Blackwood's Magazine 12 (July 1822) 81.
9.	1822 ca.  John Gibson Lockhart to William Blackwood, 1822 ca.; Margaret Oliphant, William Blackwood and his Sons (1897) 1:207-08.
10.	1822  Robert Pearse Gillies, 1822; Memoirs of a Literary Veteran (1851) 3:71.
11.	1822  Alaric Alexander Watts, "Written in The Angel of the World" Poetical Sketches (1823) 88-90.
12.	1822  James Harley, in The Press, or Literary Chit-Chat. A Satire (1822) 28-29.
13.	1826  J. R. P., in "Wine, a New Song to an Old Tune" The Literary Chronicle 8 (1 April 1826) 205-06.
14.	1827 ca.  George Canning, 1827 ca,; in William Jerdan, Autobiography of William Jerdan (1852-53) 4:171.
15.	1827  John Wilson, et. al., in Blackwood's Magazine (July 1827); Noctes Ambrosianae, ed. Mackenzie (1854) 2:431.
16.	1827  Charles Lamb to Bernard Barton, 1827; Letters, ed. Lucas (1935) 3:84.
17.	1827  B. M., "George Croly, a Literary and Biographical Sketch" Living Poets of England: Specimens of the Living British Poets (1827) 2:471-72.
18.	1828  H., "The Rev. George Croly, A.M." in La Belle Assemblee S3 8 (July 1828) 2-10.
19.	1830  Anonymous, Review of Croly, Poetical Works; Gentleman's Magazine 100 (June 1830) 524-25.
20.	1830  Nathaniel Parker Willis, in "The Editor's Table" American Monthly Magazine [Boston] 2 (October 1830) 486-91.
21.	1830  William Maginn, in "The Election of Editor for Fraser's Magazine" Fraser's Magazine 1 (May 1830) 498-503.
22.	1830  Anonymous, "To the Rev. George Croly, on observing the moral, intellectual, brick and mortar, and other Improvements, which his Writings have effected at Brompton" Fraser's Magazine 1 (July 1830) 713.
23.	1833  Allan Cunningham, in "Biographical and Critical History of the Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum (30 November 1833) 812.
24.	1835  John Wilson Croker to Lord Lyndhurst, 3 February 1835; The Croker Papers, ed. Louis J. Jennings (1884) 2:60-61.
25.	1845  George Gilfillan, in Gallery of Literary Portraits (1845) 209.
26.	1850  George Gilfillan, in Second Gallery of Literary Characters (1850) 145-60.
27.	1851  David Macbeth Moir, in Sketches of the Poetical Literature of the Past Half-Century (1851; 1852) 185-87.
28.	1852  William Jerdan, in Autobiography of William Jerdan (1852-53) 3:268-69.
29.	1854  Robert Shelton Mackenzie, Note in Noctes Ambrosianae, ed. Mackenzie (1854) 1:221n.
30.	1871  S. C. Hall, "The Rev. George Croly" in A Book of Memories: Great Men and Women of the Age, from personal Acquaintance (1871) 231-32.
31.	1877  Bryan Waller Procter, in Procter: An Autobiographical Fragment (1877) 132-36.
32.	1882  Epes Sargent, in Harper's Cyclopaedia of British and American Poetry (1882) 356.
33.	1883  Samuel Carter Hall, in Retrospect of a Long Life (1883) 385.
34.	1897  Margaret Oliphant, in William Blackwood and his Sons (1897) 1:479-80.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Rev. George Croly:

1.	1838  S. C. Hall, in The Book of Gems. The Modern Poets and Artists of Great Britain (1838) 186.
2.	1844  Robert Chambers, in Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844; 1850) 2:448.
3.	1848  Rufus Griswold, in Sacred Poets (1848; 1866) 424.
4.	1861  Anonymous, Obituary in Gentleman's Magazine 210 (January 1861) 104-07.
5.	1878  Alfred Webb, in Compendium of Irish Biography (1878) 105-06.
6.	1892  Frederic Boase, Modern English Biography (1892-1921) 1:766.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1819  Washington Allston:   George Croly, "Jacob's Dream. A Picture by Allston, in the Royal Academy" The Literary Gazette (19 June 1819) 396.
2.	1823  Alaric Alexander Watts:   George Croly to Alaric Alexander Watts, 28 February 1823; in Alaric Alfred Watts, Alaric Watts, a Narrative of his Life, by his Son (1884) 1:164-65.
3.	1828  Lord Byron:   George Croly, in Beauties of the British Poets (1828) xiii-xiv.