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The Hilliad
''The Hilliad'' was Christopher Smart's Mock-heroic, mock epic poem written as a literary attack upon John Hill (author), John Hill on 1 February 1753. The title is a play on Alexander Pope's ''The Dunciad'' with a substitution of Hill's name, which represents Smart's debt to Pope for the form and style of ''The Hilliad'' as well as a punning reference to the ''Iliad''. In "Book the First" of ''The Hilliad'', Hillario is seduced by a Sibyl to give up his career as an apothecary and instead becomes a writer. However, his fortune quickly descends with Hillario ultimately turning into the "arch-dunce". The origins of the work come from a dispute between Hill and Henry Fielding; a "paper war" that involved a widespread literary dispute, Hill turned his attention to Smart and published attacks upon Smart's ''Poems on Several Occasions''. In response, Smart wrote ''The Hilliad'', claiming it as the "balance due" on Hill's treatment towards his person and poetry. The work was responded ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tobias Smollett
Tobias George Smollett (baptised 19 March 1721 – 17 September 1771) was a Scottish poet and author. He was best known for picaresque novels such as ''The Adventures of Roderick Random'' (1748), ''The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle'' (1751) and ''The Expedition of Humphry Clinker'' (1771), which influenced later novelists, including Charles Dickens. His novels were liberally altered by contemporary printers; an authoritative edition of each was edited by Dr O. M. Brack Jr and others. Early life and family Smollett was born at Dalquhurn, now part of Renton in present-day West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, and baptised on 19 March 1721 (his birth date is estimated as 3 days previously). He was the fourth son of Archibald Smollett of Bonhill, a judge and landowner, laird of Bonhill, living at Dalquhurn on the River Leven, who died about 1726, when Smollett was just five years old. His mother Barbara Smollett née Cunningham brought the family up there, until she died about 1766. He ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1753 Poems
Events January–March * January 3 – King Binnya Dala of the Hanthawaddy Kingdom orders the burning of Ava, the former capital of the Kingdom of Burma. * January 29 – After a month's absence, Elizabeth Canning returns to her mother's home in London and claims that she was abducted; the following criminal trial causes an uproar. * February 17 – The concept of electrical telegraphy is first published in the form of a letter to ''Scots' Magazine'' from a writer who identifies himself only as "C.M.". Titled "An Expeditious Method of Conveying Intelligence", C.M. suggests that static electricity (generated by 1753 from "frictional machines") could send electric signals across wires to a receiver. Rather than the dot and dash system later used by Samuel F.B. Morse, C.M. proposes that "a set of wires equal in number to the letters of the alphabet, be extended horizontally between two given places" and that on the receiving side, "Let a ball be suspended ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jesse Foot
Jesse Foot (1744 – 26 October 1826) was an English surgeon and biographer. Life Foot was born at Charlton, Wiltshire in 1744. He received a medical education in London, becoming a member of the Surgeons' Company, and about 1766 went to the West Indies, where he practised for three years in the island of Nevis, returning in 1769. After this he went to St. Petersburg, where he became a practitioner of the College of St. Petersburg, as he afterwards described himself. Returning to England, Foot was appointed house-surgeon to the Middlesex Hospital, and on the conclusion of his term of office began practice in London, in Salisbury Street, Strand, later moving to Dean Street, Soho. He died at Ilfracombe on 27 October 1826. Works Foot wrote a slanted ''Life'' of John Hunter. He was also the biographer of Andrew Robinson Stoney (Bowes) and his wife, Mary Eleanor Bowes, Countess of Strathmore, who were his patients; and of Arthur Murphy, a friend. He was an anti-abolitionist, in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paper War Of 1752–1753
In 1752, Henry Fielding started a "paper war", a long-term dispute with constant publication of pamphlets attacking other writers, between the various authors on London's Grub Street. Although it began as a dispute between Fielding and John Hill (author), John Hill, other authors, such as Christopher Smart, Bonnell Thornton, William Kenrick (writer), William Kenrick, Arthur Murphy (writer), Arthur Murphy and Tobias Smollett, were soon dedicating their works to aid various sides of the conflict. The dispute lasted until 1753 and involved many of London's periodicals. It eventually resulted in countless essays, poems, and even a series of mock epic poems starting with Smart's ''The Hilliad''. Although it is unknown what actually started the dispute, it resulted in a divide of authors who either supported Fielding or supported Hill, and few in between. Background Fielding started a "paper war" in the first issue of ''The Covent-Garden Journal'' (4 January 1752) by declaring war agai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish Satire, satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whig (British political party), Whigs, then for the Tories (British political party), Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean (Christianity), Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, hence his common sobriquet, "Dean Swift". Swift is remembered for works such as ''A Tale of a Tub'' (1704), ''An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity'' (1712), ''Gulliver's Travels'' (1726), and ''A Modest Proposal'' (1729). He is regarded by the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' as the foremost prose satirist in the English language, and is less well known for his poetry. He originally published all of his works under pseudonyms—such as Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, M. B. Drapier—or anonymously. He was a master of two styles of satire, the Satire#Classifications, Horatian and Juvenalian styles. His deadpan, ironic writing style, partic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Garrick
David Garrick (19 February 1717 – 20 January 1779) was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of European theatrical practice throughout the 18th century, and was a pupil and friend of Samuel Johnson. He appeared in a number of amateur theatricals, and with his appearance in the title role of Shakespeare's '' Richard III'', audiences and managers began to take notice. Impressed by his portrayals of Richard III and a number of other roles, Charles Fleetwood engaged Garrick for a season at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in the West End. He remained with the Drury Lane company for the next five years and purchased a share of the theatre with James Lacy. This purchase inaugurated 29 years of Garrick's management of the Drury Lane, during which time it rose to prominence as one of the leading theatres in Europe. At his death, three years after his retirement from Drury Lane and the stage, he was given a lavish public funeral ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Hogarth
William Hogarth (; 10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764) was an English painter, engraver, pictorial satirist, social critic, editorial cartoonist and occasional writer on art. His work ranges from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects", and he is perhaps best known for his series ''A Harlot's Progress'', ''A Rake's Progress'' and '' Marriage A-la-Mode''. Knowledge of his work is so pervasive that satirical political illustrations in this style are often referred to as "Hogarthian". Hogarth was born in London to a lower-middle-class family. In his youth he took up an apprenticeship with an engraver, but did not complete the apprenticeship. His father underwent periods of mixed fortune, and was at one time imprisoned in lieu of outstanding debts, an event that is thought to have informed William's paintings and prints with a hard edge. Influenced by French and Italian painting and engraving, Hogarth's works are mostly sat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Boyce (composer)
William Boyce (baptised 11 September 1711 – 7 February 1779) was an English composer and organist. Like Beethoven later on, he became deaf but continued to compose. He knew Handel, Arne, Gluck, Bach, Abel, and a very young Mozart all of whom respected his work. Life Boyce was born in London, at Joiners Hall, then in Lower Thames Street, to John Boyce, at the time a joiner and cabinet-maker, and beadle of the Worshipful Company of Joiners and Ceilers, and his wife Elizabeth Cordwell. He was baptised on 11 September 1711 and was admitted by his father as a choirboy at St Paul's Cathedral in 1719. After his voice broke in 1727, he studied music with Maurice Greene.Bruce (2005) His first professional appointment came in 1734 when he was employed as an organist at the Oxford Chapel in central London. He went on to take a number of similar posts before being appointed Master of the King's Musick in 1757 (he had applied for the post on the death of Maurice Greene in 1755) and beco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samuel Derrick
Samuel Derrick (1724–1769) was an Irish author. He became known as a hack writer in London, where he gained wide literary connections. Life Born in Dublin, Derrick served an apprenticeship with a linen draper, and after that failed as an actor. He then turned to writing. Derrick knew Samuel Johnson, who had a soft spot for him, and he helped Johnson in researching John Dryden's life. He also knew James Boswell in his early days in London. He was supported by Tobias Smollett, who gave him employment as amanuensis and on ''The Critical Review''. He is thought to have been the original compiler of ''Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies'', an annual directory of London prostitutes beginning in 1757. Two years after the death of Beau Nash in 1761, Derrick was appointed master of the ceremonies at Bath. He was employed there, and in a similar position in Tunbridge Wells, until his death on 28 March 1769. There was no lack of criticism, with James Quin in particular (who had wan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
