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John Durant Breval

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John Durant Breval (?1680 - January 1738), was an English poet and miscellaneous writer.[1]

Mcdermott

John Durant Breval, McDermot; or, The Irish fortune hunter. London: E. Curll, 1717. Courtesy Forum Auctions.

Life[]

Youth and education[]

Breval was descended from a French refugee Protestant family, and was the son of Francis Durant de Breval, prebendary of Westminster, where he was probably born about 1680. Sir John Bramston, in his 'Autobiography,', describes the elder Breval in 1672 as "formerly a priest of the Romish church, and of the companie of those in Somerset House, but now a convert to the protestant religion and a preacher at the Savoy."[2] Bramston gives 1666 as the date of his conversion.[1]

The younger Breval was admitted a Queen's scholar of Westminster School 1693, was elected to Trinity College, Cambridge, 1697, and was among the Cambridge poets who celebrated in that year the return of William III after the peace of Ryswick. Breval earned a B.A. in 1700, and an M.A. in 1704. In 1702 he was made fellow of Trinity ("of my own electing," said Bentley).[1]

In 1708 Breval was involved in a private scandal, which led to his removal from the fellowship. He engaged in an intrigue with a married lady in Berkshire, and cudgelled her husband, who ill treated his wife. The husband brought an action against Breval, who was held to bail for the assault, "but, conceiving that there was an informality in the proceedings against him," did not appear at the assizes, and was outlawed. Thereupon Bentley took the matter up, and on 5 April 1708 expelled Breval from the college. Bentley admitted that Breval was "a man of good learning and excellent parts," but said his "crime was so notorious as to admit of no, evasion or palliation".[3] Breval, however, declared on oath that he was not guilty of immoral conduct in the matter, and bitterly resented the interposition of Bentley, who, he declared, had a private grudge both against his father and himself. His friends said "that the alleged offence rested on mere rumour and suspicion," and that the expelled fellow would have good grounds for an action against the college. Such an action, however, was never brought, probably on account of Breval's poverty. As Bentley wrote, "his father was just dead [in February 1707] in poor circumstances, and all his family were beggars."[1]

Early career[]

Breval, in want and with his character ruined, enlisted in despair as a volunteer in the British army in Flanders, where he soon rose to be an ensign. Here what Nichols calls "his exquisite pencil and genteel behaviour," as well as his skill in acquiring languages, attracted the attention of Marlborough. The general appointed him captain, and sent him on diplomatic missions to various German courts, which he accomplished very creditably.[1]

The peace of Utrecht closed the war in 1713, and a few years after found Breval busily writing for the London booksellers, chiefly under the name of Joseph Gay. He then wrote The Petticoat, a poem in 2 books (1716), of which the 3rd edition was published under the name of The Hoop Petticoat (1720); The Art of Dress, a poem (1717); Calpe or Gibraltar, a poem (1717); A Compleat Key to the Nonjuror (1718), in which he accuses Colley Cibber of stealing his characters, &c., from various sources, but chiefly from Moliere's 'Tartuffe,' for the revival of which Breval wrote a prologue; MacDermot, or the Irish Fortune Hunter, a poem (1719), a witty but extremely gross piece; and Ovid in Masquerade (1719). He also wrote a comedy, The Play is the Plot (1718), which was acted, though not very successfully, at Drury Lane. When altered and reprinted afterwards as a farce, called The Strollers (second impression 1727), it had better fortune.[1]

About 1720 Breval went abroad with George, Lord Viscount Malpas, as travelling tutor.[4] It was probably during this journey that he met with the romantic adventure that gave occasion for Pope's sneer about being "followed by a nun"[5] A nun confined against her will, in a convent at Milan, fell in love with and "escaped to him." The lady afterwards went to Rome, where, according to Horace Walpole, she "pleaded her cause and was acquitted there, and married Breval"; but she is not noticed in the account which Breval published of his travels, under the title of Remarks on several Parts of Europe (4 volsumes: vols. i/ii, 1726; vols. i/ii. 1738), though we have a somewhat elaborate description of Milan, and an account of "a Milanese Lady of great Beauty, who bequeathed her Skeleton to the Publick as a memento mori."[6]

Conflict with Pope[]

The cause of Pope's quarrel with Breval is to be sought elsewhere. The well-known poet John Gay, with the help of Pope and John Arbuthnot, produced the farce entitled Three Hours after Marriage, which was deservedly damned. At this time (1717) Breval, who was writing a good deal for Curll, wrote for him, under the pseudonym of "Joseph Gay," a farce called the 'Confederates,' in which "the late famous comedy" and its 3 authors were unsparingly ridiculed. Pope is described in the prologue as one

On whom Dame Nature nothing good bestowed:
In Form a Monkey; but for spite a Toad,

and he is represented (scene 1) as saying, "And from My Self my own Thersites drew," and then Thersites is explained as "A Character in Homer, of an Ill-natur'd, Deform'd Villain." In the same year Breval published, under similar auspices, Pope's Miscellany. The second part consisted of five brief coarse and worthless poems, in one of which especially, called the "Court Ballad," Pope is mercilessly ridiculed.[6]

Revenge for these was taken in the Dunciad, and Breval's name occurs twice in the 2nd book (1728). In the notes (1729) affixed to the earlier passage Pope says that some account must be given of Breval owing to his obscurity, and declares that Curll put "Joseph Gay" on such pamphlets that they might pass for John Gay's. In 1742, when Breval had been dead 4 years, the 4th book of the Dunciad was published. In line 272 a "lac'd Governor from France" is introduced with his pupil, and their adventures abroad are narrated at some length (273–336). Pope, though, as he states, giving him no particular name, chiefly had Breval in his mind when he wrote the lines.[7] [6]

Later life[]

After the publication of his Travels,[8] Breval was probably again engaged as travelling governor to young gentlemen of position. In the account of Paris given in the second volume of his Remarks, he says that he has collected the information "in ten several tours thither".[9]

In the latter period of his life he wrote The Harlot's Progress, an illustrated poem in 6 cantos, suggested by Hogarth's well-known prints, and said by Ambrose Philips, in a prefatory letter, to be "a true Key and lively Explanation of the Painter's Hieroglyphicks" (1732); The History of the most Illustrious House of Nassau, with regard to that branch of it more particularly that came into the succession of Orange (1734); and The Rape of Helen: A mock opera, acted at Covent Garden, (1737).[6]

Shortly after the publication of this last piece Breval died at Paris, "universally beloved".[10]

Publications[]

Poetry[]

  • Calpe; or, Gibraltar: A poem. London: R. Burleigh, 1708.
  • The Art of Dress: A poem. 1717. 2nd edition, London: E. Curll, 1739.
  • Mac-Dermot, or the Irish Fortune-hunter: A poem in six cantos. London: E. Curll, 1717.
  • The Church-scuffle; or, News from St. Andrew's: A ballad. London: E. Curll, 1719.
  • Henry and Minerva. A poem. 1729.
  • The Lure of Venus; or, A harlot's progress: An heroi-comical poem, in six cantos (as "Joseph Gay"). London: 1733.
  • Morality in Vice: An heroi-comic poem. London: 1733.
  • The Rake's Progress; or, The humours of Drury Lane: A poem, in eight canto's, in Hudibrastick verse. London: J. Chettwood, 1735.

Plays[]

  • The Confederates: A farce (as "Joseph Gay"). London: R. Burleigh, 1717.
  • The Play is the Plot: A comedy. London: Jacob Tonson, 1718.
  • Ovid in Masquerade: Being a burlesque (as "Joseph Gay"). London: E. Curll, 1719.
  • The Strollers: A farce. London: 1727.
  • The Rape of Helen: A mock opera. London: J. Wilford, 1737.

Non-fiction[]

  • A Compleat Key to 'The Non-juror' (as "Joseph Gay"). London: E. Curll, 1718.
  • Remarks on Several Parts of Europe. (2 volumes), London: Bernard Lintot, 1723; (4 volumes), London: Bernard Lintot, 1726.
  • The History of the House of Nassau. London: R. Montague & J. Brindley, 1734.


Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[11]

See also[]

References[]

  •  Watt, Francis (1886) "Breval, John Durant" in Stephen, Leslie Dictionary of National Biography 6 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 289-290 

Notes[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Watt, 289.
  2. ↑ p. 157
  3. ↑ State of Trinity College, p. 29 et seq. 1710.
  4. ↑ Alicia M. Canto, "Los viajes del caballero inglés John Breval a España y Portugal: Novedades arqueológicas y epigráficas de 1726", Revista Portuguesa de Arqueologia 7/2, 2004, 265-364 + 24 láms., including some biographical novelties about Breval (in Spanish).
  5. ↑ Dunciad, iv. 327).
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Watt, 290.
  7. ↑ Horace Walpole, Notes to Pope, p. 101, contributed by Sir W. Fraser, 1876.
  8. ↑ J.D. Breval, Remarks on Several Parts of Europe: Relating chiefly to the History, Antiquities and Geography, of those countries through which the author has travel’d; as France, the Low Countries, Lorrain, Alsatia, Germany, Savoy, Tirol, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and Portugal. illustrated with several maps, plans, and above forty copper plates, London, B. Lintot, vol. i-ii 1723-1726 (in Google Books).
  9. ↑ J.D. Breval, Remarks on several parts of Europe: relating chiefly to their Antiquities and History, collected upon the Spot in several Tours since the year 1723 and illustrated by upwards of forty copper plates... among which are the Ruins of several Temples, Theatres, Amphitheatres, Triumphal Arches and other unpublished Monuments of the Greek and Roman Times, in Sicily and the South of France, London, H. Lintot, vol. i-ii, 1738, dedicated this time to "Charles, Duke of Richmond, Lenox and Aubigni" (sic), grandson of King Charles II (who was protector of his father) (in Google Books) (p. 262).
  10. ↑ Obituary in The London Magazine VII, 1738, p. 49; cf. J. Nichols, Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, etc., London, Nichols, Son, and Bentley (reed. Fontwell, Sx.: Centaur Press, 1967), Canto, 2004, 271-272 and fn. 47; and V. Rumbold, "Breval, John Durant", in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford: University Press, 2004, s.v.: "Nichols’ account suggests a considerable recuperation of reputation over the years: ‘the celebrated traveller’ who died ‘universally beloved’ stands in striking contrast with the scandals of Breval’s former life".
  11. ↑ Search results = au:John Durant Breval, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, May 3, 2016.

External links[]

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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen & Sidney Lee). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: "Breval, John Durant"

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