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WILLIAM GIFFORD (1756-1826)

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 5 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WILLIAM See also:GIFFORD (1756-1826)  , See also:English publicist and See also:man of letters, was See also:born at See also:Ashburton, See also:Devon, in See also:April 1756 . His See also:father was a glazier of indifferent See also:character, and before he was thirteen See also:William had lost both parents . The business was seized by his godfather, on whom William and his See also:brother, a See also:child of two, became entirely dependent . For about three months William was allowed to remain at the See also:free school of the See also:town . He was then put to follow the plough, but after a See also:day's trial he proved unequal to the task, and was sent to See also:sea with the See also:Brixham fishermen . After a See also:year at sea his godfather, driven by the See also:opinion of the townsfolk, put the boy to school once more . He made rapid progress, especially in See also:mathematics, and began to assist the See also:master . In 1772 he was apprenticed-to a shoemaker, and when he wished to pursue his mathematical studies, he was obliged to See also:work his problems with an See also:awl on beaten See also:leather . By the kindness of an Ashburton surgeon, William Cooksley, a subscription was raised to enable him to return to school . Ultimately he proceeded in his twenty-third year to See also:Oxford, where he was appointed a See also:Bible clerk in See also:Exeter See also:College . Leaving the university shortly after See also:graduation in 1782, he found a generous See also:patron in the first See also:Earl Grosvenor, who undertook to provide for him, and sent him on two prolonged See also:continental See also:tours in the capacity of See also:tutor to his son, See also:Lord Belgrave . Settling in See also:London, See also:Gifford published in 1794 his first work, a See also:clever satirical piece, after See also:Persius, entitled the Baviad, aimed at a coterie of second-See also:rate writers at See also:Florence, then popularly known as the Della Cruscans, of which Mrs See also:Piozzi was the See also:leader .

A second See also:

satire of a similar description, the Maeviad, directed against the corruptions of the See also:drama, appeared in 1795 . About this See also:time Gifford became acquainted with See also:Canning, with whose help he in See also:August 1797 originated a weekly newspaper of Conservative politics entitled the See also:Anti-Jacobin, which, however, in the following year ceased to be published . An English version of See also:Juvenal, on which he had been for many years engaged, appeared in 1802; to this an autobiographical See also:notice of the translator, reproduced in See also:Nichol's Illustrations of Literature, was prefixed . Two years afterwards Gifford published an annotated edition of the plays of See also:Massinger; and in 1809, when the Quarterly See also:Review was projected, he. was made editor . The success which attended the Quarterly from the outset was due in no small degree to the ability and tact with which Gifford discharged his editorial duties . He took, however, considerable liberties with the articles he inserted, and See also:Southey, who was one of his See also:regular contributors, said that Gifford looked on authors as Izaak See also:Walton did on See also:worms . His See also:bitter opposition to Radicals and his onslaughts on new writers, conspicuous among which was the See also:article on See also:Keats's See also:Endymion, called forth See also:Hazlitt's See also:Letter to W . Gifford in 1819 . His connexion with the Review continued until within about two years of his See also:death, which took See also:place in London on the 31st of See also:December 1826 . Besides numerous contributions to the Quarterly during the last fifteen years of his See also:life, he wrote a metrical See also:translation of Persius, which appeared in 1821 . Gifford also edited the dramas of See also:Ben See also:Jonson in 1816; and his edition of See also:Ford appeared posthumously in 1827 . His notes on See also:Shirley were incorporated in See also:Dyce's edition in 1833 .

His See also:

political services were acknowledged by the appointments of See also:commissioner of the lottery and paymaster of the See also:gentle-man pensioners . He See also:left a considerable See also:fortune, the bulk of which went to the son of his first benefactor, William Cooksley .

End of Article: WILLIAM GIFFORD (1756-1826)
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