have spent much of his time at the ‘tables of dissipation’ (cf. Notes and Queries, i. xi. 365), Nokes retired from the stage with money enough to purchase an estate at Totteridge, near Barnet, worth 400l. a year, which he left to his nephew. Here he is supposed to have died. According to Colley Cibber, Nokes, Mountfort, and Leigh all died in the same year—1692.
Nokes was an excellent comedian, to whose merit Cibber bears ungrudging testimony. His person was of middle size, his voice clear and audible, his natural countenance grave and sober, but the moment he spoke ‘the settled seriousness of his features was utterly discharged, and a dry drollery, or laughing levity took … full possession of him. … In some of his low characters he had a shuffling shamble in his gait, with so contented an ignorance in his aspect, and an awkward absurdity in his gesture, that, had you not known him, you could not have believed that, naturally, he could have had a grain of commonsense’ (Cibber, Apology, ed. Lowe, i. 145). Cibber also says that the general conversation of Nokes conveyed the idea that he was rehearsing a play, and adds that, though he has in his memory the sound of every line Nokes spoke, he essayed in vain to mimic him. To tell how he acted parts such as Sir Martin Mar-all, Sir Nicholas Cully, Barnaby Brittle, Sir Davy Dunce, Sosia, &c., is beyond the reach of criticism. On his first entrance he produced general laughter. ‘Yet the louder the laugh the graver was his look. … In the ludicrous dulness which, by the laws of comedy, folly is often involved in, he sunk into such a mixture of piteous pusillanimity, and a consternation so ruefully ridiculous and inconsolable, that, when he had shook you to a fatigue of laughter, it became a moot point whether you ought not to have pitied him. When he debated any matter by himself, he would shut up his mouth with a dumb, studious powt, and roll his eyes into such a vacant amazement—such a palpable ignorance of what to think of it, that his silent perplexity (which would sometimes hold him several minutes) gave your imagination as full content as anything he could say upon it’ (ib. i. 141 et seq.). After a parallel with Leigh, Cibber gave Nokes the preference. Davies conjectures that Nokes, ‘whose face was a comedy,’ played the Fool to Betterton's Lear (Dram. Misc. ii. 267). Tom Brown also praises Nokes's comic gifts. In Lord Orrery's ‘Mr. Antony,’ Nokes, armed with a blunderbuss, fought a comic duel with Angel, armed with a bow and arrow. In his elegy on the death of Philips, Edmund Smith, quoted by Davies, bears tribute to Nokes's burlesque gifts. No portrait is known.
[Works cited; Genest's Account of the Stage; Betterton or Oldys's History of the English Stage.]
NOLAN, FREDERICK (1784–1864), divine, born at Old Rathmines Castle, co. Dublin, the seat of his grandfather, on 9 Feb. 1784, was third son of Edward Nolan of St. Peter's, Dublin, by his wife Florinda. In 1796 he entered Trinity College, Dublin, but did not graduate, and on 19 Nov. 1803 matriculated at Oxford as a gentleman commoner of Exeter College, chiefly in order to study at the Bodleian and other libraries. He passed his examination for the degree of B.C.L. in 1805, but he did not take it until 1828, when he proceeded D.C.L. at the same time (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886, iii. 1026). He was ordained in August 1806, and after serving curacies at Woodford, Hackney, and St. Benet Fink, London, he was presented, on 25 Oct. 1822, to the vicarage of Prittlewell, Essex. In 1814 he was appointed to preach the Boyle lecture, in 1833 the Bampton lecture at Oxford, and during 1833–6 the Warburtonian lecture, being the only clergyman who had hitherto been selected to deliver these three great lectures in succession.
Nolan enjoyed in his day considerable reputation as a theologian and linguist. His religious views were evangelical, and he was strongly opposed to the Oxford movement. He was a fellow of the Royal Society in 1832. Some of his works were printed at a press which he set up at Prittlewell. He died at Geraldstown House, co. Navan, on 16 Sept. 1864, and was buried in the ancestral vault in Navan churchyard. He was married, but left no issue, and with him the family became extinct.
His chief works were: 1. ‘The Romantick Mythology, in two parts. To which is subjoined a Letter illustrating the origin of the marvellous Imagery, particularly as it appears to be derived from Gothick Mythology,’ 4to, London, 1809. 2. ‘An Inquiry into the nature and extent of Poetick Licence,’ 8vo, London 1810; published under the pseudonym of ‘N. A. Vigors, jun., Esq.’ 3. ‘The Operations of the Holy Ghost, illustrated and confirmed by Scriptural Authorities, in a series of sermons evincing the wisdom … of the Economy of Grace,’ 8vo, London, 1813. 4. ‘An Inquiry into the Integrity of the Greek Vulgate, or Received Text of the New Testament, etc.’ 8vo, London, 1815 (a ‘Supplement’ followed in 1830). 5. ‘Fragments of a civick feast: being a Key to Mr. Volney's
