author
Mr. (Edward) Jerningham
d. 1812
An elegant late-18th-century poet and dramatist, Edward Jerningham moved among London’s literary and theatrical circles while writing poems shaped by sentiment, religion, history, and the arts. His work ranges from reflective elegies to ambitious pieces such as The Shakspeare Gallery and The Rise and Fall of Scandinavian Poetry.
1 Audiobook
An elegy written among the ruins of an abbey
by Mr. (Edward) Jerningham
About the author
Edward Jerningham was born into the long-established Jerningham family of Costessey Hall in Norfolk. Educated at the English College at Douai and later in Paris, he became well versed in classical learning as well as French and Italian. Although raised Roman Catholic, he studied the differences between Catholicism and Protestantism and adopted Anglicanism in the 1790s.
Jerningham lived as a gentleman of independent means and took part in the literary and theatrical life of late-18th-century London. He was acquainted with figures including Horace Walpole and Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and his writing appeared in many forms, including elegies, narrative poems, dramatic works, translations, and theological essays.
His best-known publications include Poems and Plays, The Nun, The Deserter, Yarico to Inkle, The Shakspeare Gallery, Enthusiasm, and The Rise and Fall of Scandinavian Poetry. He died in London on November 17, 1812.