Murphy, ARTHUR, dramatic and miscellaneous writer, was born in Roscommon, Ireland, in 1727. Intended by his father for business, he was placed in a London bank, but having, during his education at the college at St Omer, in France, made extraordinary proficiency in Greek and Latin, he contracted literary and dramatic tastes. In 1752-74 he published the Gray's Inn Journal, a weekly paper which obtained him the acquaintance of Dr Johnson. Being disappointed of some expectations and already in debt, he went on the stage, and made his first appearance as Othello. In one season he paid his debts, and then left the stage with £400 in his pocket; and, determining to study law, he entered Lincoln's Inn in 1757. In 1758 he produced his first play, The Upholsterer, a successful farce; in 1762 he was called to the bar, but with so poor a result that in 1788 he retired. He continued to write comedies and other plays for the stage, and is said to have produced more stock pieces than any man of his time. His translation of Tacitus (1793) is excellent; but his Essay on
Johnson and Life of Garrick did not add to his fame. His dramatic works fill 8 vols. Late in life he became a Commissioner of Bankrupts, and enjoyed a pension of £200 a year. He died in 1805. See his Life by Jesse Foot (1811).