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Fraser's Magazine - Book Web |
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Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country was a general and literary journal, which initially took a strong Tory line in politics. It was founded by Hugh Fraser and William Maginn in 1830 and loosely directed by Maginn (and later Francis Mahony) under the name Oliver Yorke until about 1840. In its early years the publisher James Fraser (no relation to Hugh) played a role in soliciting contributors and preparing the magazine for the press. After James Fraser's death in 1841 the magazine was acquired by George William Nickisson, and in 1847 by John William Parker. It's last notable editor was James Anthony Froude (1860-1874). Among the contributors were Robert Southey, Thomas Carlyle, William Makepeace Thackeray, James Hogg, and John Stuart Mill. It circulated until 1882.
William Maginn
William Maginn (1794 - 1842), journalist and miscellaneous writer, born at Cork, became a contributor to Blackwood's Magazine, and after moving to London in 1824 became for a few months the Paris correspondent to The Representative, a paper started by J. Murray, the publisher. When its short career was run, he helped to found the ultra Tory "Standard," a newspaper which he edited along with a fellow graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, Stanley Lees Giffard, and he also wrote for the more scandalous Sunday paper, "The Age." In 1830 he instigated and became one of the leading supporters of Fraser's Magazine. His Homeric Ballads, much praised by contemporary critics, were published in Fraser's between 1839 and 1842.
In 1836, he fought a duel with Grantley Berkeley, a member of Parliament. Three rounds of shots were fired, but no one was struck. Berkeley had brutally assaulted magazine publisher James Fraser over a review Maginn wrote of Berkeley's novel "Berkeley Castle," and Maginn had called him out. One of the most brilliant periodical writers of his time, he has left no permanent work behind him. In his later years, 1842, his intemperate habits landed him in debtor's prison, and when he emerged through the grace of the Insolvent Debtor's Act he was in an advanced stage of tuberculosis. He wrote until the end, including in the first volume of "Punch," but he died in extreme poverty in Walton-on-Thames in August of 1842, survived by his wife Ellen, and daughters Annie and Ellen, and son John.
Francis Sylvester Mahony
Francis Sylvester Mahony (Father Prout) (1804 - 1866), humorist, born at Cork, and educated at the Jesuit College at Clongoweswood, Co. Kildare, at Amiens, and at Rome, becoming a member of the society, was Professor of Rhetoric at Clongoweswood, but was soon after expelled from the order. He then came to London, and became a leading contributor to Fraser's Magazine, under the signature of "Father Prout." He was witty and learned in many languages. One form which his humour took was the professed discovery of the originals in Latin, Greek, or mediaeval French of popular modern poems and songs. Many of these jeux d'esprit were collected as Reliques of Father Prout. He wittily described himself as "an Irish potato seasoned with Attic salt." Latterly he acted as foreign correspondent to various newspapers, and died at Paris reconciled to the Church.
In his native Cork he is best remembered for his poem "The Bells of Shandon" and his pen-name is synonymous with the city and the church of St. Ann's, Shandon:-
The Bells of Shandon With deep affection and recollection I oft times think of those Shandon bells, Whose sound so wild would in the days of childhood, Fling round my cradle their magic spells, On this I ponder when'eer I wander and thus grow fonder sweet Cork of thee, With thy bells of Shandon that sound so grand on, The pleasant waters of the river Lee. I've heard bells chiming, full many a chime in, Tolling sublime in Cathedral shrine, While at a glib rate, brass tongues would vibrate, But all their music spoke naught like thine; For memory dwelling on each proud swelling, Of the belfry knelling its bold notes free, Made the bells of Shandon sound far more grand on, The pleasant waters of the river Lee. I've heard bells tolling Old "Adrian's Mole" in their thunder rolling from the Vatican, And cymbals glorious, swinging uproarious In the gorgeus turrets of Notre Dame, But thy sounds were sweeter than the dome of Peter, Flings o'er the Tiber, peelingly solemnly, O, the bells of Shandon sound far more grand on, The pleasant waters of the river Lee. There's a bell in Moscow, while on tower and kiosk o! In Saint Sophia the Turkman gets, And loud in air calls men to prayer, From the tapering summit of tall minarets. Such empty phantom, I freely grant them, But there is an anthem more dear to me, 'Tis the bells of Shandon that sound so grand on, The pleasant waters of the river Lee.'
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