Samuel Lover

Samuel Lover (24 February 1797 – 6 July 1868), also known as “Ben Trovato” (“well invented”), was an Irish songwriter, composer and novelist, and a portrait painter, chiefly in miniatures. He was the grandfather of Victor Herbert. Life Lover was born at No. 60 Grafton Street, Dublin and went to school at Samuel Whyte’s at No. 79, which now houses Bewley’s Café. By 1830 he was Secretary of the Royal Hibernian Academy and living at No. 9 D’Olier Street. In 1835 he moved to London and began composing music for a series of comic stage works. For some, like the operetta Il Paddy Whack in Italia (1841), he contributed libretto and music, for others just a few songs. Before committing himself to a literary career, he enjoyed considerable success as a miniature painter. Lover produced many Irish songs, of which several, such as The Angel’s Whisper, Molly Bawn, and The Four-leaved Shamrock, gained popularity. He also wrote novels, of which Rory O’Moore (in its first form a ballad) and Handy Andy are best known, and short Irish sketches, which with his songs he combined into a popular entertainment called Irish Nights or Irish Evenings, with which he toured North America in 1846–1848. He joi