obtained temporary popularity; he wrote two pieces in conjunction with Miles Peter Andrews [q. v.] His play, ‘The Caravan, or the Driver and his Dog,’ was performed at Drury Lane, with the introduction of a live dog that was trained to save a child from drowning by leaping from a rock and plunging into real water. It is still remembered through a jest of Sheridan, who burst into the greenroom, when the success of the play was established, with the shout of inquiry, ‘Where is he, my guardian angel?’ The answer was made, ‘The author has just retired,’ but Sheridan replied, ‘Pooh! I mean the dog-actor, author and preserver of Drury Lane Theatre.’
From 1814 to 1822 Reynolds was permanently engaged at Covent Garden Theatre as ‘thinker’ for the management, and after the lapse of a year he discharged the same duties for Elliston at Drury Lane. In 1831 appeared a novel by him, ‘A Playwright's Adventures,’ published as the first volume of the ‘Dramatic Annual.’ His last work was the pantomime produced at the Adelphi Theatre, London, at Christmas 1840. He died on 16 April 1841. He married, on 16 March 1799, Miss Mansel, a young lady from South Wales, who had taken to the stage and was then engaged at the Covent Garden Theatre. His eldest son, Frederic Mansel Reynolds [q. v.], is separately noticed.
Reynolds's plays were slight, and are described as having been ‘aimed at the modes and follies of the moment.’ Byron, in ‘English Bards and Scotch Reviewers,’ refers to the degradation of the drama:
While Reynolds vents his ‘dammes, poohs, and zounds’
And common-place and common sense confounds.
Reynolds brought out in 1826, in two autobiographical volumes, ‘The Life and Times of Frederic Reynolds, written by himself’ (second edit. 1827). The adventures of his earlier life are narrated with spirit. The frontispiece is his portrait, drawn by G. H. Harlow in 1841, and engraved by H. Meyer (Lowe, English Theatrical Lit. p. 277). His portrait was also painted by Raphael Smith, and engraved by George T. Doo, 1826. A third engraving of him was made by Ridley, from a miniature by W. Nash.
[Athenæum, 24 April 1841, p. 324; Gent. Mag. 1799, i. 251; Mathias's Pursuits of Lit. p. 79; Gifford's Baviad and Mæviad.]
REYNOLDS, FREDERIC MANSEL (d. 1850), author, was the eldest son of Frederic Reynolds [q. v.] the dramatist. Having received a good education, he drifted into a quasi-literary occupation, editing ‘The Keepsake’ from 1828 to 1835, and 1838–9. This annual, in which the engravings usually atoned for the general feebleness of the literary contributions, was produced with lavish expense, and was probably the best of its class.
Wordsworth contributed to Reynolds's ‘Keepsake’ a sonnet on the mysterious gravestone in Worcester Cathedral which bears on it the simple word ‘Miserrimus.’ Neither Wordsworth nor Reynolds was aware that the person commemorated was Thomas Morris (1660–1748) [q. v.] In ignorance of this circumstance, Reynolds composed a narrative of the crimes of a supposititious Miserrimus, told in the first person, under the title ‘Miserrimus: a Tale.’ It was originally printed for private circulation in 1832; was published anonymously in 1833, with a dedication to William Godwin, and reprinted in the same year. By most of the critics it was pronounced ‘impassioned,’ but it was denounced in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ as a libel on an innocent and helpless person. Jekyll, who called it ‘Young Reynolds's extravaganza,’ implied that it was the result of a nightmare (Correspondence, p. 311). In 1836 Reynolds brought out a companion novel entitled ‘The Parricide, a domestic Romance,’ but it did not meet with equal success. ‘The creation of a smile’ was his sole object in writing his novel, ‘The Coquette’ (1834, 3 vols.).
In his later years Reynolds suffered much from a nervous disorder, and resided mostly abroad. After a long illness he died at Fontainebleau, on his way to Italy, 7 June 1850. He left behind him a young wife ‘whom he had known from her childhood, and whose education he had superintended.’
Reynolds was a well-informed man, with a good taste in painting and music. His versification was graceful, but his prose style was forced and artificial.
[Gent. Mag. 1850, ii. 231; Madden's Countess of Blessington, iii. 252–5; cf. Morris, Thomas, (1660–1748).]
REYNOLDS, GEORGE NUGENT (1770?–1802), Irish poet, son of George Nugent Reynolds, a landowner of Letterfyan, co. Leitrim, was born there about 1770. His father frequently entertained O'Carolan the bard [see O'Carolan or Carolan, Turlough]. The elder Reynolds was murdered on 16 Oct. 1786 by an attorney named Robert Keon, who was executed for the crime (see Report of the Trial of Robert Keon, 1788, 8vo). Soon after 1790 the son began to
