he got again into trouble, ‘being accused by several officers for illegal practices on his regiment.’ A court-martial, however, acquitted him (ib. iv. 227, 254). In June 1698 his regiment was ordered for Ireland (ib. iv. 392). Grenville accepted in May 1702 the governorship of Barbadoes, with a salary of 2,000l. a year, but did not sail for the colony until March 1703 (ib. v. 175, 198, 278). He had scarcely settled, when he fell dangerously ill of a fever then epidemic in the island (ib. v. 351). Some of the planters complained to the privy council of his tyranny and extortion. After a full hearing, 20 July 1705, Grenville was ‘honourably acquitted;’ but it was deemed politic to recall him in the following year (ib. v. 575, vi. 92). He died at sea on his passage home in September or October 1706 (ib. vi. 105). He was unmarried. By his will, dated 16 Jan. 1701-2, and proved at London on 6 Nov.1706 (P.C.C.234, Eedes), he left his estate to his brother, George Granville or Grenville, afterwards Lord Lansdowne (1667-1734) [q. v.] He wrote his name ‘Granville.’
[Parochial Hist. of Cornwall, ii. 380; Cal. State Papers, Treas. 1697-1 707.]
GRANVILLE or GRENVILLE, GEORGE, Lord Lansdowne (1667–1735), verse-writer and dramatic author, born in 1667, was the second son of Bernard Grenville or Granville, by his wife, Anne, daughter and heiress of Cuthbert Morley of Hornby, Yorkshire. Bernard Grenville or Granville, the second son of Sir Bevil Grenville, the royalist [see Grenville, Sir Bevil, 1596-1643], was intrusted by Monck with the last despatches inviting Charles II to England (Guizot, Monk, Engl. transl., p. 97; G. Granville, Works (1732), i. 481), was M.P. for Liskeard in 1661, groom of the bedchamber to Charles II, and died 14 June 1701. The name was variously spelt ‘Grenville’ and ‘Granville,’ more often the latter. The spelling ‘Greenvil’ is incorrect (Granville, Works, i. 508, note). George Granville was educated in France by Sir William Ellis, a pupil of Busby, and in 1677 entered Trinity College, Cambridge. Before he was twelve he recited some of his own English verses to the Duchess of York on her visit to the university, and for some other youthful verses obtained the praise of Waller. He was admitted to the degree of M.A. in 1679 (Cantabrig. Grad.) He in vain petitioned his father for leave to join the royal forces against Monmouth, and in 1688 (Letter to Bernard Granville, 6 Oct.) being now ‘older by three years,’ and thinking it ‘glorious at any age to die for one's country,’ begged to be presented to James II as a defender of his sacred person. During the reign of William III ‘he is supposed to have lived in litterary retirement’ (Johnson, Life of Granville), addressing amorous verses to ‘Myra’ or ‘Mira’ (Frances Brudenell, countess of Newburgh), and writing his plays, which are as follows:
- ‘She Gallants,’ a comedy, first acted at Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1696 (also Drury Lane 13 March and 5 April 1746), and published in 1696, 4to, and later editions. Granville (Works, 1732, ii.) revised it and changed the name to ‘Once a Lover and always a Lover.’ Downes says that the play was ‘extraordinary witty and well-acted,’ but offended some ladies ‘who set up for chastity, and it made its exit’ (see Genest, ii. 88, 89).
- ‘Heroick Love,’ a tragedy, first acted at Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1698 (also Drury Lane 19 March 1712; 21 Oct. 1725; 18 March 1766), and published London 1698, 4to. Downes says ‘the play was well acted and mightily pleased the Court and City’ (Genest, ii. 150). Dryden wrote his verses ‘To Mr. Granville on his excellent tragedy called Heroic Love.’
- ‘The Jew of Venice,’ a poor adaptation of Shakespeare's ‘Merchant of Venice’ (for details see Genest, ii. 243-5), first acted at Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1701 (afterwards at Drury Lane 3 Feb. 1710, Lincoln's Inn Fields 16 May 1717, Covent Garden 11 Feb. 1735), and published 1701, 4to. The profits of the representation were given to Dryden's son. Granville wrote a short masque called ‘Peleus and Thetis,’ to accompany the play.
- ‘The British Enchanters,’ an opera, first acted at the Haymarket 21 Feb. 1706 (afterwards at Haymarket 22 March 1707: Genest, ii. 350), and published 1710, 8vo. According to Granville, Betterton having seen it by chance ‘begg'd it for the stage,’ and it had ‘an uninterrupted run of at least forty days.’ The epilogue was by Addison.
At the accession of Queen Anne (1702) Granville entered public life. In 1702 he became M.P. for Fowey, and about this time his fortune, previously very small, was increased by bequests from his father and his uncle, the Earl of Bath, and (in 1706) by the inheritance of his elder brother, Sir Bevil Granville, governor of Barbados [q. v.] About 1702 he translated the second and third ‘Olynthian Orations,’ with the design (says Johnson) of ‘turning the thunder of Demosthenes upon the head of Lewis [the French king],’ (See ‘Several Orations englished by several hands,’ 1702, 12mo; ‘Several Orations of Demosthenes,’ 1744, 12mo; and Granville's Works, ed. 1732, vol. i). In 1710 he was elected for the borough of Helston and for
