Sir Richard Blackmore (22 January 1654 – 9 October 1729),
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...
and
physician
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
, is remembered primarily as the object of
satire
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...
and as an epic poet, but he was also a respected medical doctor and
theologian
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
.
Earlier years
He was born at Corsham, in
Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
, the son of a wealthy
attorney. He was educated briefly at
Westminster School
(God Gives the Increase)
, established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560
, type = Public school Independent day and boarding school
, religion = Church of England
, head_label = Hea ...
and entered
St Edmund Hall, Oxford
St Edmund Hall (sometimes known as The Hall or informally as Teddy Hall) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. The college claims to be "the oldest surviving academic society to house and educate undergraduates in any universit ...
, in 1669 at 15. He received his
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...
in 1674 and his
MA in 1676. He was a tutor at the college for a time, but in 1682 he received his inheritance from his father. He used the money to travel. He went to
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
,
Geneva
, neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier
, website = https://www.geneve.ch/
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...
, and various places in
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
. He stayed for a while in
Padua
Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...
and graduated in
medicine
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...
at
Padua
Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...
. Blackmore returned to England via
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
and
Holland
Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former province on the western coast of the Netherlands. From the 10th to the 16th c ...
, and then he set up as a physician. In 1685 he married Mary Adams, whose family connections aided him in winning a place in the
Royal College of Physicians
The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of physicians by examination. Founded by royal charter from King Henry VIII in 1 ...
in 1687. He had trouble with the College, being censured for taking leave without permission, and he strongly opposed the project for setting up a free
dispensary for the poor in London. This opposition would be satirised by Sir
Samuel Garth
Sir Samuel Garth FRS (1661 – 18 January 1719) was an English physician and poet.
Life
Garth was born in Bolam in County Durham and matriculated at Peterhouse, Cambridge in 1676, graduating B.A. in 1679 and M.A. in 1684. He took his M.D. an ...
in ''The Dispensary'' in 1699.
Blackmore the epic poet
Blackmore had a passion for writing
epics
The Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) is a set of software tools and applications used to develop and implement distributed control systems to operate devices such as particle accelerators, telescopes and other large sci ...
. ''Prince Arthur, an Heroick Poem in X Books'' appeared in 1695. He supported the
Glorious Revolution, and ''Prince Arthur'' was a celebration of
William III. The poem was based on the form of
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: th ...
's ''
The Aeneid
The ''Aeneid'' ( ; la, Aenē̆is or ) is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who fled the fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the ...
'' and the subject matter of
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth ( la, Galfridus Monemutensis, Galfridus Arturus, cy, Gruffudd ap Arthur, Sieffre o Fynwy; 1095 – 1155) was a British cleric from Monmouth, Wales and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography ...
's ''
Historia Regum Britanniae
''Historia regum Britanniae'' (''The History of the Kings of Britain''), originally called ''De gestis Britonum'' (''On the Deeds of the Britons''), is a pseudohistorical account of British history, written around 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. I ...
''. It told of the
Celtic King Arthur opposing the invading
Saxons
The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic
*
*
*
*
peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
and taking
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, which was a transparent encoding of William III opposing the "Saxon"
James II and taking London.
John Dennis John Dennis may refer to:
*John Dennis (dramatist) (1658–1734), English dramatist
* John Dennis (1771–1806), Maryland congressman
*John Dennis (1807–1859), his son, Maryland congressman
*John Stoughton Dennis (1820–1885), Canadian surveyor
...
derided the poem as being "servile" in its treatment of Geoffrey of Monmouth and having an inconsequential and fearful hero. Nevertheless, it went through three editions and William made Blackmore physician-in-ordinary (a position he would hold with
Queen Anne as well), gave him a gold medal, and knighted him in 1697. William also assigned Blackmore the task of writing the official treatment of the plot of Sir George Barclay, who sought to kill William (not appearing until 1723, as ''A true and impartial history of the conspiracy against the person and government of King William III, of glorious memory, in the year 1695''). In 1697, Blackmore followed that with ''King Arthur: an Heroic Poem in Twelve Books''. Like its predecessor, it was a treatment of current events in ancient garb, but, this time, the public and court were less interested and the matter less interesting. Additionally, Blackmore took
John Milton as his model, rather than Virgil, and he admitted in his preface that his previous book had been too adherent to the
Classical unities
The classical unities, Aristotelian unities, or three unities represent a prescriptive theory of dramatic tragedy that was introduced in Italy in the 16th century and was influential for three centuries. The three unities are:
#''unity of action' ...
.
Having used his epics to fight political battles, albeit safe ones at first, Blackmore was opposed by wits of the other camp, especially as time went on. William Garth attacked Blackmore's stance on the dispensary, only to be answered by Blackmore with ''A Satyr against Wit'' (1700).
Tom Brown led a consortium of wits in ''Commendatory Verses, on the Author of the Two Arthurs, and a Satyr against Wit'' (1700). Blackmore had not only been explicitly partisan in his epics, but he had announced that epic was necessary to counter the degeneracy of poetry written by wits. Having answered Garth in 1700, he did not answer Brown. However,
John Dryden
''
John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate.
He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the per ...
accused Blackmore of plagiarizing the idea of an epic on Arthur from him and called him a "Pedant, Canting Preacher, and a Quack" whose poetry had the rhythm of wagon wheels because Blackmore wrote in
hackney cab
A hackney or hackney carriage (also called a cab, black cab, hack or London taxi) is a carriage or car for hire. A hackney of a more expensive or high class was called a remise. A symbol of London and Britain, the black taxi is a common s ...
s on his way between patients (prologue to ''The Pilgrim'' (1700)).
In 1705, with Anne on the throne and William dead, Blackmore wrote another epic, ''Eliza: an Epic Poem in Ten Books'', on the plot by
Rodrigo Lopez, the
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
physician, against
Queen Elizabeth. Once more, the "epic" was current events, as it meant to denounce
John Radcliffe, a
Jacobite physician who was out of favor with Anne. Anne did not appear to take sufficient notice of the epic, but
Sarah Churchill did. Two occasional pieces followed: ''An advice to the poets: a poem occasioned by the wonderful success of her majesty's arms, under the conduct of the duke of Marlborough in Flanders'' (1706) and ''Instructions to Vander Beck'' (1709). These courted favor with the
Duke of Marlborough
General John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, 1st Prince of Mindelheim, 1st Count of Nellenburg, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, (26 May 1650 – 16 June 1722 O.S.) was an English soldier and statesman whose career spanned the reign ...
with some success.
In 1711, Blackmore produced ''The Nature of Man,'' a physiological/
theological
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the s ...
poem on climate and character (with the English climate being the best). This was a tune up for ''Creation: A Philosophical Poem'' in 1712, which was praised by John Dennis,
Joseph Addison
Joseph Addison (1 May 1672 – 17 June 1719) was an English essayist, poet, playwright and politician. He was the eldest son of The Reverend Lancelot Addison. His name is usually remembered alongside that of his long-standing friend Richar ...
, and, later,
Samuel Johnson, for its Miltonic tone. It ran to 16 editions, and of all his epics it was best received. Its design was to refute the
atheism of
Vanini,
Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes ( ; 5/15 April 1588 – 4/14 December 1679) was an English philosopher, considered to be one of the founders of modern political philosophy. Hobbes is best known for his 1651 book ''Leviathan'', in which he expounds an influe ...
and (supposedly)
Spinoza
Baruch (de) Spinoza (born Bento de Espinosa; later as an author and a correspondent ''Benedictus de Spinoza'', anglicized to ''Benedict de Spinoza''; 24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, ...
, and to unfold the intellectual philosophy of
Locke. Johnson thought that it would be the sole memory of Blackmore, and Dennis said that it was the English ''
De Rerum Natura,'' but with infinitely better reasoning.
Blackmore ceased writing epics for a time after ''Creation.'' In 1722 he continued his religious themes with ''Redemption,'' an epic on the divinity of
Jesus Christ
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
designed to oppose and confute the
Arians
Arianism ( grc-x-koine, Ἀρειανισμός, ) is a Christological doctrine first attributed to Arius (), a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt. Arian theology holds that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who was begotten by God t ...
(as he called the
Unitarians). The next year, he released another long epic, ''Alfred''. The poem was ostensibly about King
Alfred the Great, but like his earlier Arthurian epics, this one was political. It was dedicated to
Prince Frederick, the eldest son of King
George II George II or 2 may refer to:
People
* George II of Antioch (seventh century AD)
* George II of Armenia (late ninth century)
* George II of Abkhazia (916–960)
* Patriarch George II of Alexandria (1021–1051)
* George II of Georgia (1072–1089) ...
, but the poem vanished without causing any comment from court or town.
While others approached the epic as a celebration of national origins (Dryden, for example) or sought in it the most lofty subject matter possible (as
Edmund Spenser and John Milton had done), Blackmore argued that the form of the epic would "reform" poetry, that it would cease the cavils of wits and the sexuality of
rakes. Further, while proclaiming his intention of reforming poetry itself, he used his epics quite often to achieve political, and personal, goals.
Non-epic writing
Blackmore was a religious author when he was not a political author. In 1713 he and his friend John Hughes began a periodical modelled on ''
The Spectator
''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world.
It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...
'' entitled ''The Lay Monk.'' It only ran from 13 November 1713 to 15 February 1714 and appeared once every three weeks during that period. All the same, Blackmore had its issues collected and published as ''The Lay Monastery'' in the year the journal foundered.
In 1716, he became censor as well as a director of the College of Physicians, but the
Hanoverians
The House of Hanover (german: Haus Hannover), whose members are known as Hanoverians, is a European royal house of German origin that ruled Hanover, Great Britain, and Ireland at various times during the 17th to 20th centuries. The house orig ...
were not as taken with Blackmore as William or Anne had been. In that year, he had two volumes of ''Essays upon Several Subjects'' published, with an attack on
Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, ...
in the second volume. In 1718, he again went to press with ''A Collection of Poems on Various Subjects,'' which collected shorter poems that had already been published.
Blackmore was very concerned with
Protestantism
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
. He joined the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in America in 1704. He wrote ''Just Prejudices against the Arian Hypothesis,'' putatively against
Deism and Unitarianism in 1721 and then, to help matters, wrote ''Modern Arians Unmasked'' in the same year. He also produced ''A New Version of the Psalms of David'' in 1721 and tried to get the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...
to accept them as canonical translations. The next year, he resigned his governing position in the College of Physicians, and he also continued his campaign against supposed Arians with ''Redemption.'' In 1724, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel was set to publish Blackmore's Psalms as official for America, but the
Bishop of London
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
,
Edmund Gibson
Edmund Gibson (16696 September 1748) was a British divine who served as Bishop of Lincoln and Bishop of London, jurist, and antiquary.
Early life and career
He was born in Bampton, Westmorland. In 1686 he was entered a scholar at Queen's Col ...
(a conservative, but a
Whig), opposed the project and kept it from coming to fruition.
Finally, Blackmore attempted to answer Deism again with ''Natural Theology, or, Moral Duties Consider'd apart from Positive'' in 1728. In 1731, his last work, ''The Accomplished Preacher,'' was published posthumously.
As a physician
Blackmore has come down, largely through the verse of Alexander Pope, as one avatar of
Dulness
Dulness is the goddess who presides over Alexander Pope's ''The Dunciad''. She is the central character, introduced at the start of the work.
Dulness is the daughter of Chaos and "eternal Night", and her mission is to convert all the world to st ...
, but, as a physician, he was quite forward thinking. He agreed with Sir
Thomas Sydenham
Thomas Sydenham (10 September 1624 – 29 December 1689) was an English physician. He was the author of ''Observationes Medicae'' which became a standard textbook of medicine for two centuries so that he became known as 'The English Hippocrate ...
that observation and the physician's experience should take precedence over any
Aristotelian ideals or hypothetical laws. He rejected
Galen
Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus ( el, Κλαύδιος Γαληνός; September 129 – c. AD 216), often Anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher in the Roman Empire. Considered to be one ...
's
humour theory as well. He wrote on
plague
Plague or The Plague may refer to:
Agriculture, fauna, and medicine
*Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis''
* An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural)
* A pandemic caused by such a disease
* A swarm of pe ...
in 1720,
smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
in 1722, and
consumption
Consumption may refer to:
*Resource consumption
*Tuberculosis, an infectious disease, historically
* Consumption (ecology), receipt of energy by consuming other organisms
* Consumption (economics), the purchasing of newly produced goods for curren ...
in 1727.
He died in
Boxted,
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...
and was buried in his local parish church, where a monument was constructed.
As a butt of satire
Blackmore's fame today rests with his enemies. Garth's ''The Dispensary'' made him out to be a greedy fool with delusions, but Pope's criticisms would be the most lasting, and Pope hits Blackmore over and over again on his stupidity and delusions of grandeur. The
Scriblerus Club
The Scriblerus Club was an informal association of authors, based in London, that came together in the early 18th century. They were prominent figures in the Augustan Age of English letters. The nucleus of the club included the satirists Jonathan ...
(Pope,
John Gay,
John Arbuthnot,
Robert Harley,
Henry St. John,
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dubl ...
, and
Thomas Parnell
Thomas Parnell (11 September 1679 – 24 October 1718) was an Anglo-Irish poet and clergyman who was a friend of both Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift.
He was born in Dublin, the eldest son of Thomas Parnell (died 1685) of Maryborough, Queen' ...
) attacked Blackmore in 1717's ''
Three Hours after Marriage.'' Pope further picked out Blackmore's foolish lines in ''Peri Bathos'' (1727) and gives a devastating characterization of "Neverending Blackmore" in ''
The Dunciad
''The Dunciad'' is a landmark, mock-heroic, narrative poem by Alexander Pope published in three different versions at different times from 1728 to 1743. The poem celebrates a goddess Dulness and the progress of her chosen agents as they bri ...
'' (1728), where Blackmore's poetry is so awful that it can even put lawyers to sleep. These attacks were on top of Tom Brown's previous attacks, as well as Dryden's.
Blackmore's poetry is leaden. What further qualified him as a 'dunce' was his willingness to use poetry for the purposes of self-advancement. The self-interest involved in ''King Arthur'' was apparent to contemporaries, and the desperation of ''Alfred'' was similarly offensive to other poets. In addition, Blackmore used his poetry to vilify fellow poets, especially (but not exclusively) Tory poets, and that made him vulnerable to counter-attacks that he could not survive. Nevertheless, in his own time, he enjoyed the "approbation of
Locke, and the admiration of Molineux."
His poetry was also praised by
Watts
Watts is plural for ''watt'', the unit of power.
Watts may also refer to:
People
*Watts (surname), list of people with the surname Watts Fictional characters
*Watts, main character in the film '' Some Kind of Wonderful''
*Watts family, six chara ...
and
Matthew Henry, who frequently quoted Blackmore's poems in his ''Commentary on the Whole Bible''.
Notes
References
*Matthew, H.C.G. and Brian Harrison, eds. ''The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.'' vol. 6, 1–3. London: Oxford UP, 2004.
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blackmore, Richard
1654 births
1729 deaths
17th-century English medical doctors
18th-century English medical doctors
18th-century English writers
18th-century English male writers
18th-century English poets
Epic poets
People from Corsham
Physicians-in-Ordinary
Writers of Arthurian literature
English male poets
17th-century English poets
17th-century male writers
Knights Bachelor
People from Boxted, Essex
Burials in Essex