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Charles Robert Maturin, also known as C. R. Maturin (25 September 1782 – 30 October 1824), was an Irish Protestant clergyman (ordained in the Church of Ireland) and a writer of Gothic plays and novels. 〔Chris Morgan, "Maturin, Charles R(obert)." in ''St. James Guide to Horror, Gothic, and Ghost Writers'', ed. David Pringle. Detroit and New York: St. James Press, 1998. (396-97) ISBN 1558622063〕 His best known work is the novel ''Melmoth the Wanderer''. ==Biography and works== Maturin was descended from Huguenots who found shelter in Ireland, one of whom was Gabriel Jacques Maturin who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin after Jonathan Swift in 1745. Charles Robert Maturin was born in Dublin and attended Trinity College. Shortly after being ordained as curate of Loughrea, County Galway, in 1803, he moved back to Dublin as curate of St Peter's Church. He lived in York Street with his father William, a Post Office official, and his mother, Fedelia Watson, and married on 7 October 1804 the acclaimed singer Henrietta Kingsbury. His first three works were Gothic novels published under the pseudonym Dennis Jasper Murphy and were critical and commercial failures. They did, however, catch the attention of Sir Walter Scott, who recommended Maturin's work to Lord Byron. With their help, Maturin's play, ''Bertram'' was staged in 1816 at the Drury Lane for 22 nights, with Edmund Kean starring in the lead role as Bertram.〔Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 17, Cambridge 1911, p. 903〕 Financial success, however, eluded Maturin, as the play's run coincided with his father's unemployment and another relative's bankruptcy, both of them assisted by the fledgling writer. To make matters worse, Samuel Taylor Coleridge publicly denounced the play as dull and loathsome, and "melancholy proof of the depravation of the public mind",〔(Maturin, Melmoth the Wanderer (1820) ) from the course ''The Gothic Subject'' by David S. Miall, Department of English, University of Alberta, Autumn 2000〕 going nearly so far as to decry it as atheistic. The Church of Ireland took note of these and earlier criticisms and, having discovered the identity of ''Bertrams author (Maturin had shed his nom de plume to collect the profits from the play), subsequently barred Maturin's further clerical advancement. Forced to support his wife and four children by writing (his salary as curate was £80-90 per annum, compared to the £1000 he made for ''Bertram''), he switched back from playwright to novelist after a string of his plays met with failure. He produced several novels in addition to ''Melmoth the Wanderer'', including some on Irish subjects and ''The Albigenses'', a historical novel which features werewolves.〔 Various poems have also been ascribed to Maturin on dubious grounds and appear to be the work of others. The prize-winning "Lines on the Battle of Waterloo" was published in 1816 under the name of the university graduate John Shee. "The Universe" appeared with Maturin’s name on the title page in 1821 but is now thought to be almost completely the work of James Wills.〔’’The Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature: 1800-1900’’, 1999, (p.957 )〕 The exaggerated effectiveness of Maturin’s preaching can be gauged from the two series of sermons that he published. On the occasion of the death of Princess Charlotte, he declared: "Life is full of death; the steps of the living cannot press the earth without disturbing the ashes of the dead - we walk upon our ancestors - the globe itself is one vast churchyard." A contemporary account records that there had seldom been seen such crowds at St Peter’s. "Despite the severe weather, people of all persuasions flocked to the church and listened spellbound to this prince of preachers. In his obituary it was said that, ‘did he leave no other monument whereon to rest his fame, these sermons alone would be sufficient’."〔Maturin family history (online )〕 Maturin died in Dublin on 30 October 1824. A writer in the ''University Magazine'' was later to sum up his character as "eccentric almost to insanity and compounded of opposites — an insatiable reader of novels; an elegant preacher; an incessant dancer; a coxcomb in dress and manners."〔‘’A Compendium of Irish Biography’’, Dublin 1878, (the article on Charles Robert Maturin )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Charles Maturin」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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