Jephson, Robert, 1736-1803

Robert Jephson (1736-1803), playwright and parodist, was born in Dublin. His first play, Braganza, was performed in 1775, with an epilogue by Horace Walpole. His most commercially successful play, performed 37 times between 1781 and 1798, was The Count of Narbonne, based on Walpole's Castle of Otranto as well as Walpole's play, Mysterious Mother. In addition to other plays, Jephson also wrote numerous parodic pieces, including a series in the government newspaper The Mercury under the title "The Bachelor." He parodied the style of the printer George Faulkner and criticized Charles Townshend's enemies in An Epistle to Gorges Edmund Howard (1771); wrote Extempore Ludicrous Miltonic Verses(1788); and wrote a prose piece titled Confessions of James Baptiste Couteau (1794), a satirical parody of revolutionary politics.

From the description of A tour to Celbridge, by Dr. S. Johnson, circa 1776 / By Robert Jephson Esq. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 702188207

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