of which the chief were: 'Sophia's Letters to the B—r—n Ger—b [i.e, Geramb], or Whiskers in the Dumps, with old sighs set to new tunes' (1812); 'Suppressed Evidence on R—l Intriguing, being the History of a Courtship, Marriage, and Separation, exemplified in the fate of the Princess of ——, by P—— P——, Poet Laureat, Author of "R—l Stripes"' (1813) (suppressed), and 'The R—l First Born, or the Baby out of his Leading Strings, containing the Particulars of a P—y Confirmation by B—p of O—g, by P—— P——, Poet Laureat, Author of the suppressed poem,' 1814. Daniel next turned his attention to the poetasters and petty journalists of the day, and these he satirised with some venom in 'The Modern Dunciad, a satire, with notes biographical and critical,' 1814, 2nd edit. 1816. His denunciations are pointed and vigorous, but his applause of Byron, Crabbe, Cowper, and Southey, to whom in later editions he added Burns, showed little critical power. In 1819 he and J. R. Planché produced 'More Broad Grins, or Mirth versus Melancholy,' and in 1821 Daniel edited 'Chef d'Œuvres from French Authors, from Marot to Delille,' in two volumes.
In the 'Modern Dunciad' Daniel claims to live for 'old books, old wines, old customs, and old friends,' and his geniality and humorous conversation secured him a number of literary friends. He always lived at Islington, and in 1817 he made the acquaintance of Charles Lamb and of Robert Bloomfield, both of whom were his neighbours. Until Lamb's death in 1834 Daniel frequently spent the night in his society. Intercourse with actors Daniel also cultivated, and there is at the British Museum the white satin bill of the play which John Kemble on his last appearance on the stage presented to Daniel in the Covent Garden green-room, on the night of 23 June 1817. On 21 July 1818 a 'serio-comick-bombastick-operatick interlude' by Daniel, entitled 'Doctor Bolus,' was acted at the English Opera House (afterwards the Lyceum) with great success. The principal parts were filled by Miss Kelly, Harley, and Chatterley, and Harley was subsequently one of Daniel's most intimate friends. The piece was printed soon after its performance, and went through two editions. On 1 Dec. 1819 a musical farce, 'The Disagreeable Surprise,' by Daniel, was acted at Drury Lane, and in 1833 another of his farces, 'Sworn at Highgate,' was performed. Meanwhile he had undertaken the task of editing for John Cumberland, a publisher, his 'British Theatre, with Remarks Biographical and Critical, printed from the Acting Copies as performed at the Theatres Royal, London.' The first volume was issued in 1823, and the last (thirty-ninth) in 1831. For each of the plays of this edition, which numbered nearly three hundred, and included nearly all Shakespeare's works, and the whole eighteenth-century drama, Daniel, under the initial 'D———G,' wrote a preface. His remarks showed not only much literary taste and knowledge, but an intimate acquaintance with stage history, and an exceptional power of theatrical criticism. In 1831 and 1832 he prepared an appendix of fourteen volumes, which was known as Cumberland's 'Minor Theatre,' and in 1838 and later years these two series were republished consecutively in sixty-four volumes. Subsequently Daniel helped to edit portions of T. H. Lacy's 'Acting Edition of Plays' and Davison's 'Actable Drama, in continuation of Cumberland's Plays.' He was working at the latter series as late as 1862. His prefatory remarks never failed to interest, although little literary value attached to the pieces under consideration, and his sharpness of perception in theatrical matters was not blunted by age. He detected the talent of Miss Marie Wilton in 1862, when witnessing her performance of T. Morton's 'Great Russian Bear.' In 1838 he had commented in similar terms on Mrs. Stirling, when editing Mrs. Cornwell's 'Venus in Arms' for Cumberland. His appreciative remarks on Miss Mitford's 'Rienzi' in Cumberland's series were republished separately in 1828.
This large undertaking was Daniel's most considerable literary effort, but he found time to publish in 1829 a scurrilous attack on Charles Kean's domestic life, entitled 'Ophelia Kean, a dramatic legendary tale,' which was suppressed (cf. Daniel's manuscript notes in British Museum copy). In 1835 he collected and revised a few poems, 'The Modern Dunciad,' 'Virgil in London,' which had originally appeared in 1814, 'The Times,' and some short pieces. He also contributed to 'Bentley's Miscellany' a long series of gossiping papers on old books and customs, which he issued in two volumes in 1842, under the title of 'Merrie England in the Olden Time,' with illustrations by Leech and Cruikshank. This was followed by a religious poem, 'The Missionary,' in 1847, and by 'Democritus in London, with the Mad Pranks and Comical Conceits of Motley and Robin Goodfellow, to which are added Notes Festivous and the Stranger Guest,' in 1852. 'Democritus' is a continuation in verse of the 'Merrie England,' and the 'Stranger Guest' is another religious poem. His last published work was 'Love's Last Labour not Lost' (1863), and included his recollections of Charles Lamb and Robert Cruikshank, a reply
