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THOMAS PARNELL (1679-1718)

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 860 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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THOMAS See also:PARNELL (1679-1718)  , See also:English poet, was See also:born in See also:Dublin in 1679 . His See also:father, See also:Thomas See also:Parnell, belonged to a See also:family (see above) which had been See also:long settled at See also:Congleton, See also:Cheshire, but being a See also:partisan of the See also:Commonwealth, he removed with his See also:children to See also:Ireland after the Restoration, and See also:purchased an See also:estate in See also:Tipperary which descended to his son . In 1693 the son entered Trinity See also:College, See also:Cambridge, and in 1700 took his M.A. degree, being ordained See also:deacon in the same See also:year in spite of his youth . In 1704 he became See also:minor See also:canon of St See also:Patrick's See also:Cathedral and in 1706 See also:archdeacon of See also:Clogher . Shortly after receiving this preferment he married See also:Anne Minchin, to whom he was sincerely attached . See also:Swift says that nearly a year after her See also:death (1711) he was still See also:ill with grief . His visits to See also:London are said to have begun as See also:early as t 7o6 . He was intimate with See also:Richard See also:Steele and See also:Joseph See also:Addison, and although in 1711 he abandoned his Whig politics, there was no See also:change in the friend-See also:ship . Parnell was introduced to See also:Lord See also:Bolingbroke in 1712 by Swift, and subsequently to the See also:earl of See also:Oxford . In 1713 he contributed to the Poetical Miscellanies edited for See also:Tonson by Steele, and published his See also:Essay on the Different Styles of See also:Poetry . He was a member of the Scriberlus See also:Club, and See also:Pope says that he had a See also:hand in " An Essay of the learned Martinus Scriblerus concerning the Origin of Sciences." He wrote the " Essay on the See also:Life and writings and learning of See also:Homer"' prefixed to Pope's See also:translations, and in the autumn of 1714 both were at See also:Bath together . In 1716 Parnell was presented to the vicarage of Finglass, when he resigned his archdeacenry .

In the same. year he published Homer's See also:

Battle of the Frogs and Mice . With the remarks of Zoilus . To which is prefixed, the Life of the said Zoilus . Parnell was in London again in 1718, and, on the way back to Ireland, was taken ill and died at See also:Chester, where he was buried on the 24th of See also:October . Parnell's best known poem is " The See also:Hermit," an admirably executed moral See also:conte written in the heroic See also:couplet . It is based on an old See also:story to be found in the Gesta Romanorum and other See also:sources . He cannot in any sense be said to have been a See also:disciple of Pope, though his See also:verse may owe something to his friend's revision . But this and other of his pieces, " The Hymn to Contentment," " The See also:Night Piece on Death," " The See also:Fairy See also:Tale," were See also:original in treatment, and exercised some See also:influence on the See also:work of See also:Goldsmith, See also:Gray and See also:Collins . Pope's selection of his poems was justified by the publication in 1758 of See also:Posthumous See also:Works of Dr Thomas Parnell, containing Poems Moral and Divine, and on various other subjects, which in no way added to his fame . They were contemptuously dismissed as unauthentic by Thomas Gray and See also:Samuel See also:Johnson, but there seems no See also:reason to doubt the authorship . In 1770 Poems on Several Occasions was printed with a life of the author by See also:Oliver Goldsmith . His Poetical Works were printed in See also:Anderson's and other collections of the See also:British Poets .

See The Poetical Works (1894) edited by See also:

George A . Aitken for the Aldine Edition of the British Poets . An edition by the Rev . See also:John See also:Mitford for the same See also:series (1833) was reprinted in 1866 . His See also:correspondence with Pope is published in Pope's Works (ed . Elwin and Courthorpe, vii . 451-467) .

End of Article: THOMAS PARNELL (1679-1718)
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