# John Delap > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/John_Delap > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/John_Delap.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Delap > Source revision: 1337466276 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{short description|British writer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2015}} {{Use British English|date=June 2015}} '''John Delap''' (1725–1812) was an English churchman and academic, known as a poet and [dramatist](/source/Playwright). ==Life== The son of John Delap, of [Spilsby](/source/Spilsby) in [Lincolnshire](/source/Lincolnshire), he entered [Trinity College, Cambridge](/source/Trinity_College%2C_Cambridge), but migrated to [Magdalene College](/source/Magdalene_College), and was admitted pensioner on 15 March 1743. He took the degrees of B.A. in 1747, M.A. in 1750, and D.D. in 1762, and was described on the last occasion as of Trinity College. On 30 December 1748 he was elected to a fellowship at Magdalene.{{cite DNB|wstitle=Delap, John|volume=14}}{{acad|id=DLP743J|name=Delap, John}} Delap was ordained in the [Church of England](/source/Church_of_England), and was once curate to [William Mason](/source/William_Mason_(poet)). The united livings of [Iford](/source/Iford%2C_East_Sussex) and [Kingston near Lewes](/source/Kingston_near_Lewes) in [Sussex](/source/Sussex) were conferred on him in 1765, and he became rector of [Woollavington](/source/Woollavington) in 1774. But he lived at South Street, [Lewes](/source/Lewes), where he died in 1812, aged 87. Delap used to visit [Henry](/source/Henry_Thrale) and [Hester Thrale](/source/Hester_Thrale) in [Brighton](/source/Brighton) or Tunbridge Wells, so knew [Samuel Johnson](/source/Samuel_Johnson) and [Fanny Burney](/source/Fanny_Burney), who found his conversation onerous- Johnson for Delap's obsession with his health, and Burney for the manner in which, despite being "commonly and naturally grave, silent, and absent", Delap would "work... threadbare" any subject raised in conversation on which he had anything to say. ==Works== Delap's first work was ''Marcellus, a Monody'', 1751, inspired by the death of [Frederick, Prince of Wales](/source/Frederick%2C_Prince_of_Wales), inscribed to his widow. It was succeeded by a number of elegies (1760); two which may have been among those were in George Pearch's ''Collection of Poems''. His thesis for his divinity degree (12 April 1762) was published in 1763, ''Mundi perpetuus administrator Christus''. The tragedy ''Hecuba'' by Delap was produced at Drury Lane Theatre on 11 December 1761, when the prologue, written by [Robert Lloyd](/source/Robert_Lloyd_(poet)), was spoken by [David Garrick](/source/David_Garrick), who also wrote the epilogue. It was printed anonymously in 1762. Delap wanted Garrick to produce of a tragedy entitled ''Panthea'', in vain. Delap addressed a long letter to him in 1762 in favour of a new composition, ''[The Royal Suppliants](/source/The_Royal_Suppliants)''; it was accepted, but not acted until 17 Feb. 1781, when it ran for ten nights at Drury Lane, and was published with a dedication to [Henry Temple, 2nd Viscount Palmerston](/source/Henry_Temple%2C_2nd_Viscount_Palmerston). In 1774 Garrick refused the ''Royal Exiles''. A tragedy ''[The Captives](/source/The_Captives_(Delap_play))'' by Delap, was staged at Drury Lane on 9 March 1786, was acted three times, and was published in the same year. An unacted play ''Gunilda'' was published in 1786. Delap wrote further verse: * ''An Elegy on the Death of the Duke of Rutland'', 1788; * ''Sedition, an Ode occasioned by his Majesty's late Proclamation'', 1792; and * ''The Lord of Nile, an Elegy'', 1799. Four unacted plays in one volume of ''Dramatic Poems: Gunilda, Usurper, Matilda, and Abdalla'', then appeared in 1803. ==Notes== {{reflist}} ==External links== * [http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/authors/pers00169.shtml John Delap] at the [http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/ Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)] ;Attribution {{DNB|wstitle=Delap, John|volume=14}} {{authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Delap, John}} Category:1725 births Category:1812 deaths Category:18th-century English Anglican priests Category:English dramatists and playwrights Category:Fellows of Magdalene College, Cambridge Category:English male dramatists and playwrights Category:English male poets --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [John Delap](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Delap) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Delap?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.