George Monck Berkeley

George Monck Berkeley (1763–1793) was an English playwright and author, now remembered as a biographer of Jonathan Swift. He is usually called Monck Berkeley

He was the son of Eliza Berkeley née Frinsham, and her husband the Rev. George Berkeley, a son of George Berkeley the philosopher, born on 8 February 1763 at Bray, Berkshire. A precocious youth, he went to King's School, Canterbury, and then at age 12 to Eton College. From 16 he was tutored for two years by his father; then went to the University of St Andrews, and was elected at age of 19 a corresponding member of the Edinburgh Society of Antiquaries. He was admitted a student of the Inner Temple in 1783, and matriculated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford in 1786.

In October 1787 Berkeley spoke his own prologue, at the opening of the playhouse at Blenheim Palace. In 1789 he visited Ireland, and was made LL.B. of Trinity College, Dublin. While he was staying in Dublin he found Richard Brenan, the servant who attended Jonathan Swift in his last days, and settled a small pension on him.

In poor health, Berkeley went for the benefit of the sea breezes to Dover. He moved on to Cheltenham, where he died on 26 January 1793.

In 1787 Berkeley published Nina, a comedy in two acts, translated from the French in six hours. His next drama was Love and Nature,' a musical piece in one act written in blank verse, performed 1789 in Dublin, and published in 1797. It was based on Matthew Prior's Emma and Henry, itself a modernisation of the ballad The Nut-Brown Maid.

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