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BLACKMORE.

Born at Corsham, in Wiltshire

1658?-1729.

Educated at Westminster and Oxford Becomes a Fellow of the College of Physicians His first work an Heroic Poem-'Prince Arthur' - 'King Arthur'-Attacked by Dennis - His Satire against Wit' and Quarrel with Dryden - His other Poems - His Religious Life Death and Burial at Boxted, in Essex Works and Character.

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SIR RICHARD BLACKMORE is one of those men whose writings have attracted much notice, but of whose life and manners very little has been communicated, and whose lot it has been to be much oftener mentioned by enemies than by friends.

He was the son of Robert Blackmore, of Corsham, in Wiltshire, styled by Wood gentleman,' and supposed to have been an attorney. Having been for some time educated in a country school, he was sent at thirteen to Westminster; and in 1668 was entered at Edmund Hall, in Oxford, where he took the degree of M.A., June 3, 1676, and resided thirteen years-a much longer time than it is usual to spend at the university, and which he seems to have passed with very little attention to the business of the place; for, in his poems, the ancient names of nations or places which he often introduces are pronounced by chance. He afterwards travelled: at Padua he was made Doctor of Physic; and, after having wandered about a year and a half on the Continent, returned home.

In some part of his life, it is not known when, his indigence compelled him to teach a school-an humiliation with which, though it certainly lasted but a little while, his enemies did not forget to reproach him when he became conspicuous enough to excite malevolence; and let it be remembered for his honour, that to have been once a schoolmaster is the only reproach

I Wood's Ath. Ox. by Bliss, iv. 791.

which all the perspicacity of malice, animated by wit, has ever fixed upon his private life.

When he first engaged in' the study of physic, he inquired, as he says, of Dr. Sydenham what authors he should read, and was directed by Sydenham to Don Quixote,' "which," said he, "is a very good book; I read it still." The perverseness of mankind makes it often mischievous in men of eminence to give way to merriment; the idle and the illiterate will long shelter themselves under this foolish apophthegm.

Whether he rested satisfied with this direction or sought for better, he commenced physician, and obtained high eminence and extensive practice. He became Fellow of the College of Physicians, April 12, 1687, being one of the thirty which, by the new charter of King James, were added to the former Fellows. His residence was in Cheapside, and his friends were chiefly in the city. In the early part of Blackmore's time a citizen was a term of reproach; and his place of abode was another topic to which his adversaries had recourse in the penury of scandal.

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Blackmore, therefore, was made a poet not by necessity but inclination, and wrote not for a livelihood but for fame; or, if he may tell his own motives, for a nobler purpose, to engage poetry in the cause of virtue.

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I believe it is peculiar to him, that his first public work was an heroic poem. He was not known as a maker of verses till he published (in 1695) Prince Arthur,' in ten books, written, as he relates, "by such catches and starts, and in such occasional uncertain hours as his profession afforded, and for the greatest part in coffee-houses, or in passing up and down the streets." For the latter part of this apology he was accused of

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2 At Sadler's Hall. See Cunningham's Handbook of London,' art. 'Sadler's Hall.'

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3 Preface to King Arthur,' 1697. Johnson has confounded two prefaces : one to Prince Arthur,' in 1695; and one to 'King Arthur,' in 1697. His Preface to his second epic is a Defence of his former one, and what he himself admits to be its "provoking preface."

4 Such as Dick's and Batson's. See Edmund Smith's Poem on the Death of John Philips.'

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He had

writing "to the rumbling of his chariot-wheels." read, he says, "but little poetry throughout his whole life; and for fifteen years before had not written an hundred verses, except one copy of Latin verses in praise of a friend's book."

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He thinks, and with some reason, that from such a performance perfection cannot be expected; but he finds another reason for the severity of his censurers, which he expresses in language such as Cheapside easily furnished. "I am not free of the Poets' Company, having never kissed their governor's hands, nor made the least court to the committee that sits in Covent-Garden [Will's Coffee-house]; mine is, therefore, not so much as a permission-poem, but a pure, downright interloper. Those gentlemen who carry on their poetical trade in a jointstock would certainly do what they could to sink and ruin an unlicensed adventurer, notwithstanding I disturbed none of their factories, nor imported any goods they had ever dealt in." He had lived in the city till he had learned its note.

That'Prince Arthur' found many readers is certain; for in two years it had three editions—a very uncommon instance of favourable reception, at a time when literary curiosity was yet confined to particular classes of the nation. Such success naturally raised animosity; and Dennis attacked it [1696] by a formal criticism, more tedious and disgusting than the work which he condemns. To this censure may be opposed the

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5 Writes to the rumbling of his coach's wheels.

DRYDEN: Prologue to The Pilgrim.

At my first arrival I received the melancholy news of my father's death, and ever since have been engaged in so much noise and company that it was impossible for me to think of rhyming in it, unless I had been possest of such a Muse as Dr. Blackmore's, that could make a couple of heroic poems in a hackneycoach and a coffeehouse.-ADDISON to Mr. Wyche. AIKIN'S Addison, ii. 161.

I remember [said Lintot] Dr. King would write verses in a tavern three hours after he could not speak; and there 's Sir Richard, in that rumbling old chariot of his, between Fleet Ditch and St. Giles's Pound, shall make you half a Job.-POPE to the Earl of Burlington.

Dennis attacks him about the coach in the Prologue spoken by Joe Haines before A Plot and No Plot,' 1697.

6 Preface to King Arthur,' 1697.

7 Compare vol. i. p. 124. The edition of 'Prince Arthur' in 12mo. appeared in 1714.

8 Remarks on a Book entituled Prince Arthur, an Heroick Poem, with some

approbation of Locke and the admiration of Molyneux, which are found in their printed letters. Molyneux is particularly delighted with the song of Mopas,' which is therefore subjoined to this narrative.

It is remarked by Pope, that what "raises the hero often sinks the man." Of Blackmore it may be said, that as the poet sinks the man rises; the animadversions of Dennis, insolent and contemptuous as they were, raised in him no implacable resentment: he and his critic were afterwards friends; and in one of his latter works he praises Dennis as "equal to Boileau in poetry, and superior to him in critical abilities."

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He seems to have been more delighted with praise than pained by censure, and, instead of slackening, quickened his career. Having in two years produced ten books of Prince Arthur,' in two years more (1697) he sent into the world ‘King Arthur' in twelve. The provocation was now doubled, and the resentment of wits and critics may be supposed to have increased in proportion. He found, however, advantages more than equivalent to all their outrages; he was this year made one of the physicians in ordinary to King William, and advanced by him to the honour of knighthood, with a present of a gold chain and medal.9

general Critical Observations and several new Remarks upon Virgil. By Mr. Dennis,' 8vo 1696.

Dennis says, in his dedication to the witty Earl of Dorset, that "some admired it as a masterpiece of art and nature," while "others exploded it with extreme contempt." For his own part he thought it, he tells us, neither admirable nor contemptible.

Reverse of Louis, he (example rare!)

Lov'd to deserve the praise he could not bear;
He shunn'd the acclamations of the throng,

And always coldly heard the poet's song.
Hence the great King the Muses did neglect,
And the mere poet met with small respect.

BLACKMORE: The Kit-Kats (1708).

In the Lord Chamberlain's Office is a copy of a warrant to the Master of the Great Wardrobe, dated 28th July, 1701, directing the Master to fit up a bed at Hampton Court for Sir Richard Blackmore, "with stuff furniture, a large bed suitable, and bedding, and six back-chairs covered with the same stuff." This was the fitting of his room as one of the Physicians in Ordinary.

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