Richard Paul Jodrell

Richard Paul Jodrell (13 November 1745 – 26 January 1831) was a classical scholar and playwright.

Jodrell was descended from an ancient family, originally of Derbyshire, and afterwards of Staffordshire. His great-grandfather, Paul Jodrell, who died in 1728, was for 43 years; Clerk of the House of Commons of Great Britain. His father, of the same name, was Solicitor General to Frederick Prince of Wales; and married Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Warner, of North Elmham, in Norfolk. They had three sons: the subject of this memoir; Sir Paul Jodrell, M. D., who was knighted in 1787, and having been physician to the Nabob of Arcot, died at Madras in 1803; and Henry Jodrell, a Commissioner of Bankrupts, and M. P., who died in 1814.

Jodrell was born 13 November 1745; and, having lost his father in 1751, had lived in possession of his paternal estates for nearly eighty years. He was educated at Eton and at Hertford College, Oxford; and his attachment to his classical studies was evinced by his compositions in the Musae Etonenses, and by subsequent more laborious publications. To the supplementary Notes of Potter's Aeschylus, printed in 1778, he was a contributor; in 1781 he published, in two volumes 8vo., Illustrations of Euripides, on the Ion and Bacchae; and in 1790 another volume, On the Akestis, the modern drama, also, as well as the ancient, shared Jotlrell's attention. A Widow and no Widow, a dramatic piece of three acts by biro, was acted at the Haymarket in 1779, and printed in 1780, 8vo. It appears, from The Monthly Review (vol. Ixv. p. 233.), that living characters were depicted among the dramatis persona: "the artist is a coarse painter, but commonly hits offa striking likeness". At the same theatre, in 1783, was performed with success his Seeing is Believing, in one act, printed in 1786. His tragedy, called "The Persian Heroine", having been rejected by the managers of the two great theatres (the particulars of which transactions are given in the Literary Anecdotes, vol. ix. p. 2.), was printed in 1786, 8vo. and 4 to. In the following year he published "Select Dramatic Pieces; some of which have been acted on provincial theatres, others have been written for private performance and country amusement"; and consisting of, Who's Afraid? a farce; the Boarding School Miss, a comedy; One and All, a farce; The Disguise, a comedy (It was the first stage-play in Bengali produced in Kolkata was by a Russian adventurer-cum-Indologist, Lebedev, in 1795); The Musico, a farce; and The Bulse, a dramatic piece. He also published in 4to. 1785, The Knight and Friars, an historic tale, from Heywood's Tuvelvcelov", - "the work of three mornings in the Christmas holidays."

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