Author: Mushet, Daniel
Biography:
MUSHET, Daniel (fl 1827)
Alma and Brione, a Poem. Cantos I. and II. The Return of Theseus, a Dramatic Poem was published by an eminent London firm but without the author’s name. Although there is an authorial preface reflecting on the nature of poetry, internal evidence provides no clue to his identity. The review in MR was scathing: “a slender, genteel, and elegantly printed volume of verse” with neither style nor substance, and with not a single “gleam of true poetic feeling.” The work is more or less confidently attributed in library catalogues to “Daniel Mushet,” but the origin of the attribution is untraced (it was not HL) and it could be erroneous. Nothing is known of such a person: no publications appear under his authorship, he is not named in newspapers, and although there are several Mushet families in contemporary British records, none of those families appears to have baptised a Daniel or have sent him to university. He might however have come from a nonconformist background or been in some other way out of the public eye. (MR n.s. 4 [1827], 322-3; ancestry.com 30 July 2023; findmypast.com 30 July 2023) HJ