amiable man, and skilful physician, whose knowledge of literature was equalled by few),—cum inultis aliis quos nunc perscribere longton est. He entered Trinity College, Dublin, in his tenth year, and became a Doctor of Laws at the unprecedentedly early age of twenty-five. While at the University, he was the reputed author of a poem entitled Æneas Eunuchus, which excited much attention from the singularity of its theory,—sufficiently indicated by the title,—and the boldness of its thought.
If I am not mistaken, Maginn commenced his career in this country in the columns of the Literary Gazette, under the management of Jerdan. He first corresponded with Blackwood in 1819, in the November number of which year appeared his extraordinary Latin version of "Chevy Chase." In the June number for the same year will be found his continuation (Part iii.) of the "Christabel " of Coleridge, a poem which in weird fancy, and graceful imagery, is, perhaps, hardly inferior to the original. To the Literary Souvenir of 1828 he contributed his beautiful story of "The City of the Demons;" to the volume for 1829, "The Vision of Purgatory;" and he lent assistance, together with Thomas Keightley, to the Fairy Legends of Crofton Croker. In 1830 was started Fraser's Magazine, the early numbers of which were almost entirely written by the Doctor, and his friend, Mr. Hugh Fraser, after whom, and not after James Fraser, the publisher, the serial derived its name. Here in the well-known Regent Street back-parlour, were written the inimitable Fraser Papers: and here also were knocked off, currente calamo, and moistened by a ros purus, which, alas! was not of Castalia, the illustrative text to the Maclise portraits, "the most original and sparkling of the Doctor's productions;" and another evidence, when we think of the manner of their production, how meteoric was the intellect from which they emanated. In Fraser's Magazine, Nov., 1837, appeared a Shakespearian paper; and in vol. xx. (Sept., Oct. and Dec.) a series of three articles on the celebrated essay of Dr. Farmer, "On the Learning of Shakespeare." These, with all their faults,—they leave Farmer's essay, perhaps, where they found it,—are brilliant in treatment and discursive in illustration, showing the wide and unexpected extent and direction of the Doctor's reading, and I am at a loss to understand how it is that in these days of " reprints," it has not occurred to some adventurous publisher to collect and issue these Shakspeariana,—including old Farmer's prolusions,—in a substantive form. In No. lxiv. of Fraser, occurs the brilliant paper " The Fraserians," and in No. lxxiii., the libellous, and certainly unjustifiable, review of the novel, Berkeley Castle. This led to the personal and severe castigation, by the agency of a horsewhip, of Fraser, the publisher, by the Hon. Grantley Berkeley, the author of the novel; and the action at law, "Fraser v. Berkeley and Another," which was tried before Lord Abinger, in the Exchequer Court at Westminster, Dec. 3, 1836, resulting in damages for the plaintiff of £100; an amount which will not be thought excessive when we reflect that he never recovered from the shock, which was, indeed, the proximate cause of his death. There was also a cross action, " Berkeley v. Fraser," in which a verdict
literatures. His attainments in Science were also respectable. He was an early contributor to Blackwood, where his "Adventus Regis" (No. lvi.), and his "Rising of the North" (No. lxvii.), and other similar pieces, sufficiently exemplify his command over the Latin language. A short obituary notice of him will be found in that magazine, Feb., 1824, p. 250. (Appendix B.)
