Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 1.djvu/110

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BICKERSTAFF. Bernard, lieutenant of the 9th Lighi Dragoons, who died in Portugal, in the service of his country, the 24th of January,; 1813, in the 24th year of his age; and the Honourable Henry Boyle Bernard, cornet of the King's Dragoon Guards, who gloriously fell in the battle of Waterloo, on the 18th of. June, 1815, in the 18th year of his age. ers ISAAC BICKERSTAFF A DRAMATIST of much ingenuity, was born in Dablin about the year 1782. His father held the situation of groom porter in the Castle, which place was abolished during the lord-lieutenancy of Lord Chesterfield in 1745. The services of the father, however, were rewarded with a pension, and the son Isaac was made a page. After the departure of the Earl of Chesterfield, Bickerstaff got a commission in a marine corps, which it is said hie left in disgrace. Notwithstanding, he continued to write for the stage for several years, when in all probability the charge was renewed by his enemies, which drove him at last into banishment. He was known to be living in obscurity in London in 1811, but he is supposed to have died towards the elose of the year 1816. Bickerstaff's "Love in a Village," and “Lionel and Clarissa," aided by the delightful music of Doctor Arne, still keep possession of the stage; but the most popular of his productions is his alteration from the Nonjuror of Cibber, an imitation of the Tartuffe "of Molière, enti- tled "The Hypocrite." This comedy, from the admirable situations it affords for the actors, independent of the sar- castic humour that runs throughout it against the preten- ders to religion, has been, and ever will be, a distinguished favourite with the public. As a song writer, Bickerstaff cannot be allowed to rank