John Cunningham

John Cunningham was born in Dublin, the son of a wine-cooper. He attended grammar school for a time, before, after some early success as a poet, abandoning his family to become a strolling player in England. His career as a provincial actor was centered in Edinburgh and Newcastle. Cunningham acquired reputation as a pastoral poet, and he corresponded for a time with William Shenstone.

TEXT RECORDS:

1760Damon and Phillis.
1761An Elegy on a Pile of Ruins.
1761Day: a Pastoral.
1761On May, wrote in April, 1761.
1763Content. A Pastoral.
1763Corydon: a Pastoral. To the Memory of William Shenstone, Esq.
1763Phyllis. A Pastoral.
1763Pomona. A Pastoral.
1765Fortune: an Apologue.
1766A Pastoral, (not published before).
1766Holyday Gown.
1769The Respite: a Pastoral.

PUBLICATIONS:

Love in a mist: a farce. 1747.
A poetical essay in the manner of elegy on the death of his Majesty. 1760.
Day and other pastorals. 1761.
An elegy on a pile of ruins. 1761.
The contemplatist: a night piece. 1762.
Fortune: an apologue. 1765.
Poems chiefly pastoral. 1766.
Poetical works. 1771.
Poetical works. 1795.
Poems of Goldsmith and Cunningham. 1807.
Poetical works. 1808.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

Irish
Catholic
Dissenter

Drogheda school

actor
poet
dramatist

Edinburgh Magazine
Universal Magazine
Newcastle Chronicle
St. James's Chronicle

David Garrick
William Julius Mickle
Joseph Ritson
William Shenstone

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL.

"Memoirs of the late Mr. John Cunningham" Morning Chronicle (14 October 1773); "Memoirs of the late Mr. Cunningham" London Magazine 42 (October 1773) 495-97 [from the Morning Chronicle, with the Garrick anecdotes censured]; "Memoirs of the late Mr. Cunningham" Weekly Miscellany [Sherborne] 1 (13 December 1773) 241-44 [from London Magazine]; Bell's Poets of Great Britain (1776-82) [portrait]; Life in Poetical Works (1795) [portrait]; Robert Anderson, British Poets (1795); William Mudford, "Critique on the Poetry of Cunningham" Universal Magazine NS 1 (May 1804) 488-91; Robert Southey, Specimens of Later English Poets (1807); "Criticism: Gray's Ode to Spring and Cunningham's Morning" Port Folio [Philadelphia] NS 6 (23 September 1808) 203-06; Samuel Jackson Pratt, Cabinet of Poetry (1808); Alexander Chalmers, English Poets (1810); Alexander Chalmers, General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17); Thomas Campbell, Specimens of the British Poets (1819); Richard Ryan, Biographia Hibernica (1819); Ezekiel Sanford, British Poets (1819); Sir Harris Nicholas, in Letters of Joseph Ritson (1833); Robert Chambers, Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Alfred Webb, Compendium of Irish Biography (1878); D. J. O'Donoghue, Poets of Ireland (1912); Eric Patridge, in Eighteenth-Century English Romantic Poetry (1924); John S. Crone, Concise Dictionary of Irish Biography (1928); E. J. Morley, "John Cunningham" in Essays by Divers Hands NS 19 (1942).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for John Cunningham:

1.	1762  Anonymous, Review of Cunningham, The Contemplatist; St. James's Chronicle (30 October 1762).
2.	1764  James Woodhouse, in "The Lessowes, a Poem" Poems on Sundry Occasions (1764) 104.
3.	1765  T. O., "An Address to Mr. Cunningham, on the publication of his Pastoral Poems" Newcastle Chronicle (11 May 1765).
4.	1766  J. R., "To Mr. John Cunningham, on reading his Pastorals" St. James's Chronicle (15 April 1766).
5.	1766  C. B., M.D., "To Mr. John Cunningham, on reading his Book of Pastoral Poems" 1766; St. James's Chronicle (3 March 1767).
6.	1766  Author of the Cook's Tale, "To Mr. Cunningham, on his Pastorals" Public Advertiser (23 May 1766).
7.	1766  Anonymous, Review of Cunningham, Poems, chiefly Pastoral; Critical Review 21 (March 1766).
8.	1771  D., "On reading Mr. C—m's Pastoral Poems. By a Young Lady" Newcastle Chronicle (1 June 1771)
9.	1773  John Cunningham, "Written by Mr. Cunningham, about Three Weeks before his Death" Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser (16 October 1788).
10.	1773  Primrose, "To the Memory of the late Mr. Cunningham" Newcastle Chronicle (23 October 1773).
11.	1773  J. W., "On the Death of Mr. John Cunningham" Newcastle Chronicle (13 November 1773).
12.	1773  Anonymous, "On the Death of Mr. Cunningham" Newcastle Chronicle (2 October 1773).
13.	1773  W. K—x, jun., "A Pastoral Elegy on the Death of Mr. John Cunningham, an eminent Pastoral Poet" Town and Country Magazine 5 (December 1773) 670.
14.	1773  Robert Fergusson, A Poem to the Memory of John Cunningham (1773) 3-7.
15.	1774  Anonymous, "John Cunningham's Inscription" Newcastle Chronicle (19 March 1774).
16.	1774  Anonymous, "To the Memory of a late ingenious Pastoral Poet" Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser (2 September 1774).
17.	1774  H. W., "On the Death of a late Pastoral Poet" Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser (6 September 1774).
18.	1775  W. Holland, "Corydon and Phyllis. A Pastoral. To the Memory of Mr. J. Cunningham" Hibernian Magazine 5 (September 1775) 559.
19.	1776  William Hawkins, "Colin: a Pastoral. On the Death, and in imitation of Mr. John Cunningham" Middlesex Journal (23 May 1776).
20.	1778  William Hawkins, "The Plaintive Swain: to the Memory, and in Imitation of the late Mr. John Cunningham" Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser (9 October 1778).
21.	1781  Anonymous, "Pastoral, to the Memory of Mr. John Cunningham" Town and Country Magazine 13 (December 1781) 661.
22.	1783  Clio, "Extempore, on seeing Mr. Cunningham's Monument in St. John's Church yard, Newcastle" Newcastle Chronicle (1 November 1783).
23.	1789  Mr. Tyson, "Verses to the Memory of W. Cunningham, the Pastoral Poet" The Times (1 December 1789).
24.	1789  John Williams, in "Children of Thespis" Poems by Anthony Pasquin (1789) 2:210-11 &n.
25.	1790 ca.  Joseph Ritson, 1790 ca.; in Letters of Joseph Ritson (1833) 1:vi-viii.
26.	1802  George Saville Carey, "Verses on visiting the Tomb of Cunningham" Universal Magazine 111 (September 1802) 217-18.
27.	1802  David Carey, "Verses composed on visiting the Tomb of Cunningham" Daily Advertiser and Oracle (10 September 1802).
28.	1804  William Mudford, "Critique on the Poetry of Cunningham" Universal Magazine NS 1 (May 1804) 488-91.
29.	1809  Stephen George Kemble, "Cunningham, a Pastoral" Odes, Lyrical Ballads, and Poems (1809) 278-80.
30.	1824  Bryan Waller Procter, in Effigies Poeticae, or, the Portraits of the British Poets (1824) 89-90.
31.	1860  George Gilfillan, in Specimens with Memoirs of the less-known British Poets (1860) 3:205.
32.	1882  Epes Sargent, in Harper's Cyclopaedia of British and American Poetry (1882) 204.
33.	1922  Iolo Williams, in By-Ways around Helicon (1922) 33.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for John Cunningham:

1.	1773  Anonymous, Obituary Notice in Scots Magazine 35 (September 1773) 501.
2.	1773  Anonymous, "Memoirs of the late Mr. John Cunningham" Morning Chronicle (14 October 1773).
3.	1781  Anonymous, "Life of John Cunningham" in Bell's Poets of Great Britain (1781) v-xi.
4.	1782  Isaac Reed, in Biographia Dramatica; or, A Companion to the Playhouse (1782) 1:107-08.
5.	1808  Samuel Jackson Pratt, in Cabinet of Poetry (1808) 5:170-71.
6.	1810  Alexander Chalmers, in Works of the English Poets (1810) 14:425-27.
7.	1819  Thomas Campbell, in Specimens of the British Poets (1819; 1845) 516.
8.	1819  Richard Ryan, in Biographica Hibernica. A Biographical Dictionary of the Worthies of Ireland (1819) 2:44-49.
9.	1844  Robert Chambers, in Cyclopedia of English Literature (1844; 1850) 2:121.
10.	1878  Alfred Webb, in Compendium of Irish Biography (1878) 118.
11.	1912  D. J. O'Donoghue, in Poets of Ireland (1912) 93.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1763  William Shenstone:   John Cunningham, "Corydon: a Pastoral. To the Memory of William Shenstone, Esq." Poems, chiefly Pastoral (1766) 24-25.
2.	1764  Rev. Charles Churchill:   John Cunningham, "On Mr. Churchill's Death" 1764; Poems, chiefly Pastoral (1766) 227.
3.	1764  William Julius Mickle:   John Cunningham to William Julius Mickle, 15 April, 1764; Universal Magazine NS 10 (November 1808) 404.
4.	1766  David Hume:   John Cunningham, "On hearing David Hume, Esq. particularly admired in a Company of petit Maitres" 1764; Poems, chiefly Pastoral (1766) 229-30.
5.	1766  Rev. Jonathan Swift:   John Cunningham, "Epigraph for Dean Swift's Monument. Executed by Mr. P. Cunningham, Statuary in Dublin" 1764; Poems, chiefly Pastoral (1766) 231.
6.	1773  John Cunningham:   John Cunningham, "Written by Mr. Cunningham, about Three Weeks before his Death" Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser (16 October 1788).