WILLIAM

See also:

• WILLIAM MAGINN (1793–1842)

MAGINN (1793–1842)  , Irish poet and journalist, was born at Cork on the loth of July 1793 . The son of a schoolmaster, he graduated at Trinity College, Dublin, in 1811, and after his father's death in 1813 succeeded him in the school . In 1819 he began to contribute to the Literary Gazette and to Blackwood's Magazine, writing as " R . T . Scott " and " Morgan O'Doherty." He first made his mark as a parodist and a writer of humorous Latin verse . In 1821 he visited Edinburgh, where he made acquaintance with the Blackwood circle . He is credited with having originated the idea of the Noctes ambrosianae, of which some of the most brilliant chapters were his . Hisconnexion with Blackwood lasted, with a short interval, almost to the end of his life . His best story was " Bob Burke's Duel with Ensign Brady." In 1823 he removed to London . He was employed by John Murray on the short-lived Representative, and was for a short time joint-editor of the Standard . But his intemperate habits and his imperfect journalistic morality pre-vented any permanent success . In connexion with Hugh Fraser he established Fraser's Magazine (1830), in which appeared his " Homeric Ballads." Maginn was the original of Captain Shandon in Pendennis .

In spite of his inexhaustible wit and brilliant scholarship, most of his

friends were eventually alienated by his obvious failings,and his persistent insolvency . He died at Walton-on-Thames on the 21St of August 1842 . His Miscellanies were edited (5 vols., New York, 1855–1857) by R . Shelton Mackenzie and (2 vols., London, 1885) by R . W . Montagu [Johnson] .