Count Anthony Hamilton

Hamilton, Count Anthony, was born in Ireland about 1646. In childhood his family passed over to France as followers of the fortunes of Charles II. He died at St. Germain's, in 1720, aged 74. Rose says: "He was an elegant and accomplished character, and was for many years the delight and ornament of the most splendid circles of society, by his wit, his taste, and above all by his writings." "The Memoirs of Grammont, by Count Hamilton," says Hallam, "scarcely challenge a place as historical; but we are now looking more at the style than the intrinsic importance of books. Every one is aware of the peculiar felicity and fascinating gaiety which they display." The Athenaeum says of his fairy tales: "These tales appear to us cumbrous and entangled, their satire insipid, and their meaning rather unmeaning. Measured against Voltaire's philosophical stories, or Dean Swift's bitter caricatures, they are pigmies indeed; and their popularity with him who loved to quote them [Horace Walpole] is but another proof of the factitious value with which genius can invest that which is essentially mediocre, at once giving to trifles the importance, and turning them to the use, of treasures."

Sources

16. Authors, Dictionary of British and American: S. Austin Allibone. 3 vols. Philadelphia, 1859-'71.

42. Biographical Dictionary: Rev. Hugh J. Rose. 12 vols. London, 1850.

34. Biographie Générale. 46 vols. Paris, 1855-'66. An interleaved copy, copiously noted by the late Dr. Thomas Fisher, Assistant Librarian of Trinity College, Dublin.