Author: Hyde, George
Biography:
HYDE, George (fl 1825)
A talented writer who had a brief success in London but then vanished from sight. George Hyde put his name to the title-page of two plays, both published in 1825 and both with Spanish subjects, Alphonzus, a Tragedy and a comedy, Love’s Victory, or, The School for Pride. The first was written for publication, not for performance, but it received favourable notices from reviewers who observed that it was stageworthy. Hyde promptly offered his comedy to Covent Garden, where it was accepted and staged with considerable success. He then published the text with the cuts that had been demanded by the Licenser restored. Reviews again were more than respectful, so it is surprising that he is not known to have published any further work. A few clues as to his identity emerge from the reviews and from the texts themselves. He presents himself as a young man and a novice in the publishing world. His poems display a knowledge of modern languages—Spanish and German particularly—but the author was not a university graduate. Alphonzus was dedicated to his friend and mentor Eugenius Roche (q.v.), an editor at the Morning Post at the time; Hyde wrote for the newspaper and appears to have been a protégé. He was the son of a Somersetshire solicitor, J. Hyde: portraits of both were drawn by William Home Clift (1803-32), another friend of Roche. No birth or death records have been found to make a reliable match for him: the closest is a birth record of 1784 for the son of Ann and James Hyde in Milborne Port, Somerset, but that would make him slightly older than Roche at the time of their association. (findmypast.com 26 Jan. 2023; L. Binyon, Catalogue of Drawings by British Artists [1898-1907]; London Courier 24 Aug. 1825; MR 107 [Aug. 1825], 06-11; Literary Gazette 3 Dec. 1825; La Belle Assemblée 2:9 [1825], 127-8)