Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Morgan, Macnamara
MORGAN, MACNAMARA (d. 1762), dramatist, born in Dublin, was called to the bar, though not from Lincoln's Inn as has been wrongly stated, and practised at Dublin. Through the influence of his friend Spranger Barry the actor, Morgan's tragedy, entitled 'Philoclea,' founded on a part of Sir Philip Sidney's 'Arcadia,' was brought out at Covent Garden on 20 or 22 Jan. 1754, and by the exertions of Barry and Miss Nossiter ran for nine nights, though both plot and diction are full of absurdities (Genest, Hist. of the Stage, iv. 395). It was published at London the same year in 8vo. From Shakespeare's 'Winter's Tale' Morgan constructed a foolish farce called 'Florizel and Perdita, or the Sheepshearing,' first performed in Dublin, but soon after (25 March 1754) at Covent Garden, for the benefit of Barry, and it was frequently represented with success (ib. iv. 398). It was printed at London in 1754, 8vo, and again at Dublin in 1767, 12mo, as a 'pastoral comedy,' with a transposition of title.
There is reason for crediting Morgan with 'The Causidicade,' a satire on the appointment of William Murray, afterwards earl of Mansfield [q. v.], to the solicitor-generalship in November 1742 (included in 'Poems on various Subjects,' 8vo, Glasgow, 1756), and of another attack on Murray, called 'The Processionade,' 1746 (Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. iv. 94). Both, according to the title-page, are included in 'Remarkable Satires by Porcupinus Pelagius,' 8vo, London, 1760, but neither appears there. Copies of this work in contemporary binding are frequently found with the lettering 'Morgan's Satires.' 'The Pasquinade,' which is given in it, was written by William Kenrick, LL.D. [q.v.]
Morgan died in 1762.
[Baker's Biog. Dram. 1812.]