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CHARLES CHURCHILL (1731-1764)

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 346 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CHARLES See also:CHURCHILL (1731-1764)  , See also:English poet and satirist, was See also:born in See also:Vine See also:Street, See also:Westminster, in See also:February 1731 . His See also:father, See also:rector of Rainham, See also:Essex, held the curacy and lectureship of St See also:John's, Westminster, from 1733, and the son was educated at Westminster school, where he became a See also:good classical See also:scholar, and formed a See also:close and lasting intimacy with See also:Robert See also:Lloyd . See also:Churchill was entered at Trinity See also:College, See also:Cambridge, in 1749, but never resided . He had been refused at See also:Oxford, ostensibly on the unlikely ground of lack of classical knowledge, but more probably because of a hasty See also:marriage which he had contracted within the rules of the See also:Fleet in his eighteenth See also:year . He and his wife lived in his father's See also:house, and Churchill was afterwards sent to the See also:north of See also:England to prepare for See also:holy orders . He became See also:curate of See also:South Cadbury, See also:Somersetshire, and, on receiving See also:priest's orders (1756), began to See also:act as his father's curate at Rainham . Two years later the See also:elder Churchill died, and the son was elected to succeed him in his curacy and lectureship . His emoluments amounted to less than £See also:loo a year, and he increased his income by teaching in a girls' school . He fulfilled his various duties with decorum for a while, but his marriage proved unfortunate, and he spent much of his See also:time in dissipation in the society of Robert Lloyd . He was separated from his wife in 1761, and would have been imprisoned for See also:debt but for the timely help of Lloyd's father, who had been an See also:usher and was now a See also:master of Westminster school . Churchill had already done some See also:work for the booksellers, and his friend Lloyd had had some success with a didactic poem, " The Actor." His intimate knowledge of the See also:theatre was now turned to See also:account in the Rosciad, which appeared in See also:March 1761 . This reckless and amusing See also:satire described with the most disconcerting accuracy the faults of the various actors and actresses on the See also:London See also:stage .

Its immediate popularity was no doubt largely due to its See also:

personal See also:character, but its real vigour and raciness make it See also:worth See also:reading even now when the See also:objects of Churchill's wit are many of them forgotten . The first impressicn was published anonymously, and in the See also:Critical See also:Review, conducted by Tobias See also:Smollett, it was confidently asserted that the poem was the See also:joint See also:production of See also:George See also:Colman, Bonnell See also:Thornton and Robert Lloyd . Churchill owned the authorship and immediately published an See also:Apology addressed to the Critical Reviewers, which, after developing the subject that it is only the See also:caste ofauthors that See also:prey on their own See also:kind, repeats the fierce attack on the stage . Incidentally it contains an enthusiastic See also:tribute to See also:Dryden, of whom Churchill was a not unworthy scholar . In the Rosciad he had given warm praise to Mrs See also:Pritchard, Mrs See also:Cibber and Mrs See also:Clive, but no leading London actor, with the exception of See also:David See also:Garrick, had escaped censure, and in the Apology Garrick was clearly threatened . He deprecated See also:criticism by showing every possible civility to Churchill, who became a terror to the actors . See also:Thomas See also:Davies wrote to Garrick attributing his blundering in the See also:part of Cymbeline " to my accidentally seeing Mr Churchill in the See also:pit, it rendering me confused and unmindful of my business." Churchill's satire made him many enemies, and inquiries into his way of See also:life provided abundant See also:matter for See also:retort . In See also:Night, an See also:Epistle to Robert Lloyd (1761), he answered the attacks made on him, offering by way of See also:defence the See also:argument that any faults were better than See also:hypocrisy . His scandalous conduct brought down the censure of the See also:dean of Westminster, and in 1763 the protests of his parishioners led him to resign his offices, and he was See also:free to See also:wear his " See also:blue coat with See also:metal buttons " and much See also:gold See also:lace without remonstrance from the dean . The Rosciad had been refused by several publishers, and was finally published at Churchill's own expense . He received a considerable sum from the See also:sale, and paid his old creditors in full, besides making an See also:allowance to his wife . He now became a close ally of John Wilkes, whom he regularly assisted with the North Briton .

The Prophecy of See also:

Famine: A Scots See also:Pastoral (1763), his next poem, was founded on a See also:paper written originally for that See also:journal . This violent satire on Scottish See also:influence See also:fell in with the current hatred of See also:Lord See also:Bute, and the Scottish See also:place-hunters were as much alarmed as the actors had been . When Wilkes was arrested he gave Churchill a timely hint to retire to the See also:country for a time, the publisher, Kearsley, having stated that he received part of the profits from the paper . His Epistle to See also:William See also:Hogarth (1763) was in See also:answer to the See also:caricature of Wilkes made during the trial . In it Hogarth's vanity and envy were attacked in an invective which Garrick quoted as " shocking and barbarous." Hogarth retaliated by a caricature of Churchill as a See also:bear in torn clerical bands hugging a pot of See also:porter and a See also:club made of lies and North Britons . The Duellist (1763) is a virulent satire on the most active opponents of Wilkes in the House of Lords, especially on See also:Bishop See also:Warburton . He attacked Dr See also:Johnson among others in The See also:Ghost as " Pomposo, insolent and loud, Vain idol of a scribbling See also:crowd." Other poems are " The See also:Conference " (1763); " The Author " (1763), highly praised by Churchill's contemporaries; " See also:Gotham (1764), a poem on the duties of a See also:king, didactic rather than satiric in See also:tone; " The See also:Candidate " (1764), a satire on John See also:Montagu, See also:fourth See also:earl of See also:Sandwich, one of Wilkes's bitterest enemies, whom he had already denounced for his treachery in the Duellist (Bk. iii.) as " too infamous to have a friend "; " The Farewell " (1764); " The Times " (1764); " See also:Independence," and an unfinished " See also:Journey." In See also:October 1764 he went to See also:Boulogne to join Wilkes . There he was attacked by a See also:fever of which he died on the 4th of See also:November . He See also:left his See also:property to his two sons, and made Wilkes his See also:literary executor with full See also:powers . Wilkes did little . He wrote an See also:epitaph for his friend and about See also:half a dozen notes on his poems, and See also:Andrew See also:Kippis acknowledges some slight assistance from him in preparing his life of Churchill for the Biographia Britannica (178o) . There is more than one instance of Churchill's generosity to his See also:friends .

In 1763 he found his friend Robert Lloyd in See also:

prison for debt . He paid a See also:guinea a See also:week for his better See also:maintenance in the Fleet, and raised a subscription to set him free . Lloyd fell See also:ill on See also:receipt of the See also:news of Churchill's See also:death, and died shortly afterwards . Churchill's See also:sister Patty, who was engaged to Lloyd, did not See also:long survive them . William See also:Cowper was his schoolfellow, and left many kindly references to him . A partial collection of Churchill's poems appeared in 1763 . They are included in See also:Chalmers's edition of the English poets, and were edited (1804) by W . See also:Tooke . This was reprinted in the Aldine edition (1844) . There is a revised edition (1892) in the same See also:series, The Poetical See also:Works of See also:Charles Churchill, with a Memoir by J . L . See also:Hannay and copious notes by W .

Tooke . For Churchill's See also:

biography, see Genuine See also:Memoirs of Charles Churchill, with an account of and observations on his writings; together witk some See also:Original letters .. . between him and the author (1765) ; A . Kippis, in Biographia Britannica (1780) ; also John See also:Forster in the See also:Edinburgh Review (See also:January 1845) .

End of Article: CHARLES CHURCHILL (1731-1764)
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