In 1773 Samuel Pratt abandoned a clerical career to ascend the boards in Dublin as "Courtney Melmouth." Failing at Covent Garden in 1774, he became a bookseller at Bath and a sentimental poet and novelist. A most prolific writer, Pratt's works were obviously written with an eye towards income. His dubious moral character did little to recommend the literature of sensibility to his more sober-minded contemporaries, though in later years he obtained some respectability as a man of letters.
TEXT RECORDS:
1774The Deserted Town.
1774The Tears of Genius. Occasioned by the Death of Dr. Goldsmith.
1779The Shadows of Shakespeare: a Monody, occasioned by the Death of Mr. Garrick.
1782Time's Answer to the Lady of Norwich.
PUBLICATIONS:
The prediction: or, the history of Miss Lucy Maxwell. By a lady. 1770.
The precipitate choice: or, the history of Lord Ossory and Miss Rivers. By a lady. 2 vols, 1772.
The tears of genius. Occasioned by the death of Dr. Goldsmith. 1774.
Liberal opinions or the history of Benignus. 6 vols, 1775-77.
The progress of painting. 1775.
Garrick's looking glass, or the art of rising on the stage: a poem. 1776.
The pupil of pleasure. 2 vols, 1776.
Travels for the heart, written in France. 2 vols, 1777.
An apology for the life of Hume. 1777.
Supplement to the life of Hume. 1777.
The shadows of Shakespeare. 1780.
Shenstone-green: or the new Paradise lost. 3 vols, 1779.
The tutor of truth. 3 vols, 1779.
Emma Corbett: or the miseries of civil war. 1780.
Sympathy: or a sketch of the social passion. 1781.
The fair Circassian: a tragedy. 1781.
Landscapes in verse. 1785.
Miscellanies. 4 vols, 1785.
The triumph of benevolence. 1786.
Humanity, or the rights of nature: a poem. 1788.
Ode on his Majesty's recovery. 1789.
The new cosmetic, or the triumph of beauty: a comedy. 1790.
Gleanings through Wales, Holland, and Wesphalia. 4 vols, 1795.
Letter to the old tars of England. 1797.
Family secrets, literary and domestic. 5 vols, 1797.
Letter to the British soldiers. 1797.
Our good old castle on the rock. 1797.
Pity's gift. 1798.
Cottage pictures or the poor: a poem. 1801.
Gleanings in England. 2 vols, 1801.
The paternal present: being a sequel to pity's gift. 1802.
Bread: or the poor. 1802.
John and Dame: or the loyal cottagers. 1803.
Harvest-home. 3 vols, 1805.
Classical poetry, for the use of schools. 1807.
The cabinet of poetry. 6 vols, 1808.
The contrast: a poem. 1808.
The sorrows of Werther: a new translation. 1809.
The lower world: a poem. 1810.
PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:
English
Anglican
education not known
clergyman
editor
actor
book trade
poet
novelist
dramatist
The Morning Chronicle
European Magazine
Monthly Magazine
Weekly Magazine or Edinburgh Amusement
James Beattie
John Britton
George Colman
George Colman the Younger
Edward Gibbon
Rev. Richard Graves
John Hawkesworth
Edward Jerningham
Samuel Johnson
William Meyler
Lady Miller
John Morfitt
David Parkes
Rev. Robert Potter
Clara Reeve
Mary Robinson
Anna Seward
John Taylor Esq.
Dr. John Wolcot
REFERENCE:
DNB; NCBEL; DLB.
Pearch, Supplement to Dodsley's Collection (1768-83); A Letter to Courtney Melmoth, Esq; with some Remarks on two Books, called Liberal Opinions, and the Pupil of Pleasure (1777); "Anecdotes of the Author" in European Magazine 1 (January 1782) 53-54; Catalogue of five hundred Celebrated Authors (1788); Lounger's Common-Place Book (1792; 1796) 2:96-99; David Rivers, Literary Memoirs of Living Authors (1798); "Mr. Pratt" Monthly Mirror 15-16 (June-August 1803) 363-66, 9-12, 81-85 [portrait]; "Biographical Sketches: Mr. Pratt" Flowers of Literature for 1803 (1804) 35-40 [portrait]; [Portrait in Pratt, Harvest Home (1805)]; "Mr. Pratt" Scourge and Satirist 1 (March-April 1811) 216-34, 295-300; Alexander Chalmers, General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17); Biographia Dramatica (1812); John Nichols, Literary Anecdotes (1812-15); obituary in Gentleman's Magazine 84 (October 1814) 398-99; obituary in European Magazine 66 (November 1814) 412-13; obituary in Monthly Magazine 38 (November 1814) 387; Annual Register for 1814 (1814) 139; Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Butt, OHEL (1979); C. R. Johnson, Provincial Poetry 1789-1839) (1992); Chadwyck-Healey English Poetry Database (1995).
COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Samuel Jackson Pratt:
BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Samuel Jackson Pratt:
AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
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AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
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