Walker's Hibernian Magazine

Walker's Hibernian Magazine, or Compendium of Entertaining Knowledge was a general-interest magazine published monthly in Dublin, Ireland, from February 1771 to July 1812.[1] Until 1785 it was called The Hibernian Magazine or Compendium of Entertaining Knowledge (Containing, the greatest variety of the most curious and useful subjects in every branch of polite literature). Tom Clyde called it "the pinnacle of eighteenth-century Irish literary magazines".[2]

"The Hibernian Magazine" redirects here. For other uses, see Hibernian Magazine.

Publishers

The founding publisher was James Potts of Dame Street, who had published the Dublin Courier from 1766.[3] From October 1772 until at least July 1773[n 1] Peter Seguin of St Stephen's Green published a rival version with differing format.[4][5] Potts ceded in March 1774[n 1] to Thomas Walker, also of Dame Street,[6] who added his surname to the magazine's title in May 1785.[7] There was some production overlap at this time with Exshaw's Magazine, since John Exshaw was selling out to Walker;[6] this has caused later confusion.[8] Thomas Walker retired from the publishing business in 1797, having ceded the Hibernian Magazine at the end of 1790 to his relative[n 2] Joseph Walker,[6] who died in 1805.[3][9]

Content
"Miss Adams in the character of Zulima" [from the ballet Zelico; or, The Rival Mexicans]. Engraving by John Martyn in the December 1803 issue.

The magazine had high production values,[2] with regular illustrations and sometimes sheet music.[8] It gave early encouragement to Thomas Moore. According to Tom Clyde, "very little of the creative writing is worth reading"; it often featured Orientalism and rarely Romanticism.[1] Much of the non-Irish material was reprinted from the European Magazine. In 1883 C. J. Hamilton wrote:

What the Gentleman's Magazine was to England, Walker's Hibernian Magazine was to Ireland during the latter half of the eighteenth century. It has, perhaps, a more marked individuality of character and a stronger flavour of provincialism than the Gentleman's, and for these causes suits the curiosity-monger even better. It was at once a newspaper and a monthly miscellany of useful and entertaining literature. It not only gave parliamentary debates and the latest births, deaths, and marriages, but also tit-bits of London and Dublin gossip, the newest outrages, the most thrilling sentimental tales à la Werther, along with scraps of poetry and tête-à-tête portraits of the leading fashionable belles and beaux of the day.

Up to about 1795, the magazine showed sympathy for women's rights[11] and Catholic emancipation.[4] Afterwards it became more reactionary in opposition to the United Irishmen.[12] With the onset of the Napoleonic Wars, news and patriotic coverage crowded out cultural and antiquarian content.[1]

It is a primary source for Irish history of the period; its unofficial report of the trial of Robert Emmet in September 1803 differs from the official trial transcript and includes the first version of his celebrated speech from the dock.[13] An index to marriages announced in its pages was compiled by Henry Farrar in the 1890s.[14]

References

Footnotes
  1. Clyde lists Peter Seguin as the publisher from October 1773, and Thomas Walker from June 1778.[1] This conflicts with Gargett and Sheridan[4] and Pollard.[5][6]
  2. John Thomas Gilbert says Joseph was Thomas Walker's son,[3] and Pollard says he "probably" was.[9] Louis D. Melnick says that Thomas died in 1817, unmarried but with sons named Thomas, George and Rev. Thomas Frederick.[10]

Sources
  • Clyde, Tom (2003). Irish Literary Magazines: An Outline History and Descriptive Bibliography. Irish Academic Press. ISBN 9780716527510 – via Internet Archive.
  • Gargett, Graham; Sheridan, Geraldine (1999). Ireland and French Enlightenment, 1700–1800. Springer. ISBN 9780230510159. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  • Hamilton, C. J. (March 1883). "The Old Bookstall: Walker's Hibernian Magazine". London Society. 43 (255): 301–304.
  • Pollard, Mary (2000). A Dictionary of Members of the Dublin Book Trade 1550-1800; based on the records of the Guild of St Luke the Evangelist, Dublin. London: Bibliographical Society. ISBN 9780948170119. Retrieved 15 November 2019.

Citations
  1. Clyde 2003 pp.67–68
  2. Clyde 2003 p.10
  3. Gilbert, John Thomas (1859). A History of the City of Dublin. II. McGlashan and Gill. p. 276. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  4. Gargett and Sheridan 1999 p.237
  5. Pollard 2000 p.512
  6. Pollard 2000 pp.583–584
  7. Compare April 1785 title page with May 1785 title page
  8. Lawrence, WJ (October 1911). "Eighteenth-Century Magazine Music". The Musical Antiquary. H.Frowde. 3: 18–39: 19 – via ProQuest.
  9. Pollard 2000 p.582
  10. Melnick, Louis D. (1993). "Walker". NGS Newsletter. National Genealogical Society. 19: 86.
  11. O'Dowd, Mary (2002). "The Political Writings and Public Voices of Women, c.1500–1850: Introduction". In Bourke, Angela; Kilfeather, Siobhán; Luddy, Maria; Mac Curtain, Margaret; Meaney, Gerardine; Ní Dhonnchadha, Mairín; O’Dowd, Mary; Wills, Clair (eds.). Irish Women's Writing and Traditions. The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing. 5. NYU Press. pp. 1–12: 12, fn.33. ISBN 9780814799079. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  12. Clyde 2003 p.13
  13. Vance, R. N. C. (1982). "Text and Tradition: Robert Emmet's Speech from the Dock". Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review. 71 (282): 185–191: 187. ISSN 0039-3495. JSTOR 30090428.; "Trial, for High Treason, of Robert Emmet, Esq. (Accompanied by a full Length Portrait of that unfortunate young Gentleman. Taken, as he appeared in Court.) Together with his Harangue, on being found Guilty, Some Account of his last Moments, &c., &c". Walker's Hibernian Magazine: 513–520, 570–576. September 1803. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  14. Farrar, Henry. Irish marriages, being an index to the marriages in Walker's Hibernian magazine, 1771 to 1812. With an appendix, from the notes of Sir Arthur Vicars, Ulster King of Arms, of the births, marriages, and deaths in the Anthologia Hibernica, 1793 and 1794. London: Phillimore. Vol. 1 (A–K; 1897) and Vol. 2 (L–Z and Appendix; 1898)


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