Richard Cumberland (dramatist) - Early Life and Education

Early Life and Education

Richard Cumberland was born in the master's lodge of Trinity College, Cambridge on 19 February 1732. His father was a clergyman, Doctor Denison Cumberland, who became successively Bishop of Clonfert and Bishop of Kilmore. His mother was Johanna Bentley, youngest daughter of Joanna Bernard and the classical scholar Richard Bentley, longtime master at Trinity College. She was featured as the heroine of John Byrom's popular eclogue, Cohn and Phoebe. Cumberland's youngest sister Mary became recognized later as the poet Mary Alcock. One great-grandfather was the bishop of Peterborough. A great-great grandfather was Oliver St John, the statesman.

Cumberland was educated at the grammar school in Bury St Edmunds. He later releated how, when the headmaster Arthur Kinsman told Bentley he would make his grandson an equally good scholar, Bentley retorted: "Pshaw, Arthur, how can that be, when I have forgot more than thou ever knewest?" In 1744 Cumberland was moved to the prestigious Westminster School, under Doctorr Nicholls as headmaster. Among his contemporaries at Westminster were Warren Hastings, George Colman, Charles Churchill and William Cowper. At the age of fourteen, Cumberland went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where in 1750 he took his degree as tenth wrangler. In his beginning writing, he was influenced by Edmund Spenser; his first dramatic effort was modeled after William Mason's Elfrida and called Caractacus.

Read more about this topic:  Richard Cumberland (dramatist)

Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or education:

    ... business training in early life should not be regarded solely as insurance against destitution in the case of an emergency. For from business experience women can gain, too, knowledge of the world and of human beings, which should be of immeasurable value to their marriage careers. Self-discipline, co-operation, adaptability, efficiency, economic management,—if she learns these in her business life she is liable for many less heartbreaks and disappointments in her married life.
    Hortense Odlum (1892–?)

    If anything characterizes the cultural life of the seventies in America, it is an insistence on preventing failures of communication.
    Richard Dean Rosen (b. 1949)

    The proper aim of education is to promote significant learning. Significant learning entails development. Development means successively asking broader and deeper questions of the relationship between oneself and the world. This is as true for first graders as graduate students, for fledging artists as graying accountants.
    Laurent A. Daloz (20th century)