Critic and essayist, born in Maidstone, of Irish descent; began life as an artist, but abandoned art for letters, and contributed to the reviews; wrote on the English poets and dramatists, the "Characters of Shakespeare's Plays," "The Spirit of the Age," a "Life of Napoleon," etc.; criticism was his forte, and he ranks among the foremost devoted to that art; his life was not well regulated, his health gave way, and he died in poverty (1778-1830).