Merchant of Dublin, The

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Historical Records

In Brief Lives, John Aubrey noted that John Ogilby "wrot a Play at Dublin called, The Merchant of Dublin--never printed" (Bennett 617; transcribed from Bodleian MS Aubrey 8, f. 47v). Aubrey's reference is the only known early source to discuss this play.

Theatrical Provenance

Wiggins, Catalogue (#2546) notes that this play could have been written from 1633–44 or 1662–66, the two periods that Ogilby was in Dublin.

Bentley, (iv.950-951), echoed by Wiggins, notes that during each of his periods in Dublin, Ogilby founded a theatre (Werburgh Street and Smock Alley, respectively). Wiggins adds that "It is also conceivable that he might have written it as a literary exercise before or after the years when the Werburgh Street Theatre was in operation (1635-41), without any immediate expectation that it would be produced."

Whether it was performed in the 1630s at the Werburgh St Theatre or the 1660s at Smock Alley, the company would have been Ogilby's Men; Harbage differentiates between I Ogilby's Men (Werburgh St) and II Ogilby's Men (Smock Alley).

Probable Genre(s)

Harbage lists the genre as "Unknown" (162-63).

Critical Commentary

Wiggins points out that an earlier date of composition (1635-36) would make sense because Werburgh St theatre would have needed additional plays to stage during this time. Wiggins notes that Bentley's inclusion of this play in the main catalogue "reflects a judgement that, on balance, it more probably belongs to the earlier period, but it is impossible altogether to rule out claims of the later."

While not ruling out the possibility of a later composition date, Alan John Fletcher notes that John Aubrey records "the location of Ogilby's theatre in Werburgh Street" (601n9), implying that Merchant of Dublin could date to Ogilby's time managing the Werburgh Street Theatre.

Harbage tentatively dates the play to 1662-1663, acknowledging the possibility of pre-Restoration composition.

Terry Clavin, in the Dictionary of Irish Biography, claims that Merchant of Dublin was staged by the Smock Alley Theatre in 1663; Clavin does not mention the possible earlier date of composition. Clavin's source is likely Stockwell La Tourette's Dublin Theatres and Theatre Customs (1637-1820), which more cautiously suggests that Merchant of Dublin "might have been performed" at Smock Alley in 1663 on the same day as Richard Head's Hic et Ubique, or the Humours of Dublin (30).

For What It's Worth

Dutton suggests that the Merchant of Dublin might be an alternative title for The Irish Gentleman (134).

Charles Withers notes that "it is probable" that Ogilby was admitted to Merchant Taylors' Company on 6 July 1629 (ODNB).

Merchant of Dublin is not Ogilby's only lost work. In an earlier (ODNB) entry, Gordon Goodwin explains that "He is known to have written two heroic poems called ' The Ephesian Matron' and 'The Roman Slave,' and an epic poem in twelve books entitle 'Carolies' in honour of Charles I, but the first two were never published, and the third was fortunately burnt in the fire of London" (1895, 17; see also Ogilby's preface to his atlas Africa). (Goodwin says "fortunately" because John Dryden lampooned Ogilby's poor poetry in "MacFlecknoe," 1684.)

S. C. Hughes suggests that Ogilby wrote a play titled The London Merchant to be performed at the Werburgh Street Theatre (2); this is likely an error conflating Ogilby's Merchant of Dublin with George Lillo's later play The London Merchant (1731).

Works Cited

Bennett, Kate, ed. Brief Lives with An Apparatus for the Lives of our English Mathematical Writers. By John Aubrey. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2015.

Clavin, Terry. "Ogilby, John." Dictionary of Irish Biography. 2009. https://doi.org/10.3318/dib.007103.v1

Dutton, Richard. “The St. Werburgh Street Theater, Dublin.” Localizing Caroline Drama: Politics and Economics of the Early Modern English Stage, 1625-1642. Ed. Adam Zucker and Alan B. Farmer. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.

Hughes, S[amuel] C[arlyle]. The Pre-Victorian Drama in Dublin. New York: Burt Franklin, 1970.

La Tourette, Stockwell. Dublin Theatres and Theatre Customs (1637-1820). Kingsport, Tennessee: Kingsport Press, 1938. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000449811.

Ogilby, John. Africa. EEBO-TCP, http://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo2/A70735.0001.001

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