been bad in the first part of his life, was surely condemned and reformed by his better judgement.

In 1683, being then master of arts, and fellow of Trinity 5 College in Cambridge, he wrote a poem on the marriage of the Lady Anne with George Prince of Denmark '.

He took orders; and being made prebendary of Gloucester 2, 6 became a proctor in convocation for that church, and chaplain to Queen Anne.

In 1710 he was presented by the bishop of Winchester to the 7 wealthy living of Witney in Oxfordshire 3, which he enjoyed but a few months. On February 10, 1710-11, having returned from an entertainment, he was found dead the next morning. His death is mentioned in Swift's Journal".

Eng. Poets, xxv. 166.

2 He took orders before the accession of James II. In 1687 he became Rector of Blaby in Leicestershire, and in 1688 Prebendary of Gloucester. Dict. Nat. Biog.

3 Luttrell (vi. 332) recorded on July 29, 1708, that the liveing of Whitney, of 700l. per ann. is given to Dr. Richard Duke.' In recording his death (ib. p. 690) he makes it worth 500l. per ann.

'Feb. 14, 1710-11. Dr. Duke

died suddenly two or three nights ago; he was one of the wits when we were children, but turned parson, and left it, and never writ farther than a prologue or recommendatory copy of verses. He had a fine living given him by the Bishop of Winchester about three months ago; he got his living suddenly, and he got his dying so too...

Feb. 16. Atterbury and Prior went to bury poor Dr. Duke.' SWIFT, Works, ed. 1824, ii. 180, 182.

1

2

3

KING

ILLIAM KING was born in London in 1663, the son of
Ezekiel King, a gentleman.

of Clarendon 2.

From Westminster-school, where he was a scholar on the foundation under the care of Dr. Busby 3, he was at eighteen elected to Christ-church, in 1681; where he is said to have prosecuted his studies with so much intenseness and activity that, before he was eight years standing, he had read over and made remarks upon twenty-two thousand odd hundred books and manuscripts *. The books were certainly not very long, the manuscripts not very difficult, nor the remarks very large; for the calculator will find that he dispatched seven a day, for every day of his eight years, with a remnant that more than satisfies most other students 5. He took his degree in the most expensive manner, as a grand compounder; whence it is inferred that he inherited a considerable fortune".

In 1688, the same year in which he was made master of arts, he published a confutation of Varillas's account of Wicliffe ; and,

'Johnson's chief authorities are Wood's Ath. Oxon. (iv. 666), [Biographia Britannica], and The Remains of Dr. William King, 1732. [In 1776 appeared King's Works with historical notes and memoirs by John Nichols.]

There are two other men of the same name mentioned in the Lives -the Principal of St. Mary Hall, Oxford (ante, DRYDEN, 187), and the Archbishop of Dublin (post, PARNELL, 7; ŚWIFT, 64).

King is not included in Campbell's British Poets.

2

* King's Remains, 1732, p. 8. He was related also to the Harcourts. He writes of 'my cousin Harcourt's fine pieces of Paolo Veronese.' King's Works, 1776, i. 261.

3 Ante, DRYDEN, 4.

Remains, p. 16, 'this appears from his loose papers, which he terms Adversaria, a specimen of which is given.

5A thousand stories which the ignorant tell and believe die away at once when the computist takes them in his gripe.' John. Letters, ii. 321. See also Boswell's Johnson, iv. 171, 204.

Candidates for all degrees who possess certain property must go out, as it is termed, Grand Compounder. In general the property had to be 'to the extent of £300 a year.' Oxford Calendar, 1833, p. 96. They paid higher fees. They were abolished in 1853.

'King's Remains, p. 2.

8

Reflections upon Mr. Varillas's History of Heresy, &c. It was as

4 According to the editor of King's serted that 'above 4,000 errors had

engaging in the study of the Civil Law, became doctor in 1692, and was admitted advocate at Doctors' Commons.

I

He had already made some translations from the French, and 4 written some humorous and satirical pieces; when, in 1694, Molesworth published his Account of Denmark, in which he treats the Danes and their monarch with great contempt; and takes the opportunity of insinuating those wild principles, by which he supposes liberty to be established, and by which his adversaries suspect that all subordination and government is endangered".

This book offended prince George3; and the Danish minister 5 presented a memorial against it. The principles of its author did not please Dr. King, and therefore he undertook to confute part, and laugh at the rest. The controversy is now forgotten; and books of this kind seldom live long, when interest and resentment have ceased.

In 1697 he mingled in the controversy between Boyle and 6 Bentley; and was one of those who tried what Wit could perform in opposition to Learning, on a question which Learning only could decide ❝.

In 1699 was published by him A Journey to London, after the 7 method of Dr. Martin Lister, who had published A Journey to Paris'. And in 1700 he satirised the Royal Society, at least

been discovered in Varillas's book.' For the correction of the statement that 'two Stephens succeeded the sons of William the Conqueror,' Varillas is referred to 'the man who shows the kings at Westminster.' King's Works, i. 5, 13. See also ante, DRYDEN, 124.

* Robert Molesworth, afterwards first Viscount Molesworth.

2 Steele praised the book in The Plebeian, No. 1. Addison's Works, v. 245; post, ADDISON, 95. Swift addressed to Molesworth the fifth Drapier Letter. In it he says:-' I have buried at the bottom of a strong chest your Lordship's writings, under a heap of others that treat of liberty, and spread over a layer or two of Hobbes, Filmer, Bodin, and many more authors of that stamp.' Works, vi. 484. Gibbon, in his Memoirs, P. 17, quotes one of Molesworth's speeches to 'show the temper, or

In Animadversions on a Pretended Account of Denmark, King's Works, i. 35. King became Secretary to the Princess Anne in Jan. 1694. Ath. Oxon. iv. 666.

6

Post, SWIFT, 28; Monk's Bentley, 1.99, 130, 137,264; Macaulay's Atterbury, Misc. Writings, 1871, p.344. King published Dialogues of the Dead, relating to the present Controversy concerning the Epistles of Phalaris. Works, i. 133.

7 Lister was a physician and naturalist; he contributed largely to the Phil. Trans. of the Royal Society. Ib. i. 189. King, in his travesty, which he pretended to be a translation from Sorbière (post, SPRAT, 6), constantly quotes Lister's words, putting them within quotation marks,

Sir Hans Sloane their president, in two dialogues, intituled The Transactioneer 1.

8 Though he was a regular advocate in the courts of civil and canon law he did not love his profession, nor indeed any kind of business which interrupted his voluptuary dreams or forced him to rouse from that indulgence in which only he could find delight. His reputation as a civilian was yet maintained by his judgements in the courts of Delegates', and raised very high by the address and knowledge which he discovered in 1700, when he defended the earl of Anglesea against his lady, afterwards dutchess of Buckinghamshire 3, who sued for a divorce, and obtained it *.

9 The expence of his pleasures and neglect of business had now lessened his revenues; and he was willing to accept of a settlement in Ireland, where, about 1702, he was made judge of the admiralty, commissioner of the prizes 5, keeper of the records in Birmingham's tower, and vicar-general to Dr. Marsh the primate 6.

10

But it is vain to put wealth within the reach of him who will not stretch out his hand to take it. King soon found a friend as idle and thoughtless as himself in Upton, one of the judges, who had a pleasant house called Mountown, near Dublin, to which

as in the following passage:-""The cellar windows of most houses are grated with strong bars of iron," to keep thieves out; and Newgate is grated up to the top, to keep thieves in." Which must be a vast expense." King's Works, i. 192.

1 lb. ii. 1. Horace Walpole wrote on Feb. 14, 1753:-'Sir Hans Sloane is dead, and has made me one of the trustees to his museum, which is to be offered for £20,000 to the King, the Parliament,' &c. Letters, ii. 320. With money raised by lottery 'the Crown purchased the collection and Harleian MSS., together with Montagu House. Such was the commencement of the British Museum.' Ib. n.

2 'All appeals from the Ecclesiastical and Admiralty Courts are determined by a Court of Delegates, consisting of three Common Law Judges and five Civilians. Dr. King made an excellent judge as often as

he was called to that Bench.' King's Works, Preface, p. 14; Remains, p. 15. See also Blackstone's Comm. iii. 66.

3

Post, SHEFFIELD, I n.

4 Post, SHEFFIELD, 20. The Earl was the grandson of the Earl mentioned ante, MILTON, 143. See Collins's Peerage, 1756, ii. 403.

5 Sole Commissary of the Prizes.' King's Remains, p. 13.

King's Works, Pref. p. 17. The salary of the keeper was only £10a year. lb. p. 18. For King's successor, Addison, it was raised to £300. Post, ADDISON, 29.

Swift wrote of the primate :-"That which relishes best with Marsh is mixed liquor and mixed company; and he is seldom unprovided with very bad of both.' Swift's Works, ix. 269. See also ib. viii. 283, where Swift speaks of 'very signal and lasting acts of public charity' done by the primate.

King frequently retired; delighting to neglect his interest, forget his cares, and desert his duty'.

Here he wrote Mully of Mountown, a poem; by which, though 11 fanciful readers in the pride of sagacity have given it a political interpretation, was meant originally no more than it expressed, as it was dictated only by the author's delight in the quiet of Mountown 2.

In 1708, when Lord Wharton was sent to govern Ireland 3, 12 King returned to London with his poverty, his idleness, and his wit; and published some essays called Useful Transactions*. His Voyage to the Island of Cajamai is particularly commended 5. He then wrote the Art of Love, a poem remarkable, notwithstanding its title, for purity of sentiment; and in 1709 imitated Horace in an Art of Cookery, which he published, with some letters to Dr. Lister".

In 1710 he appeared, as a lover of the Church, on the side of 13 Sacheverell; and was supposed to have concurred at least in the projection of The Examiner. His eyes were open to all

'King's Remains, p. 13. King and Savage had much in common. Post, SAVAGE, 335.

Works, i. 211; iii. 203. 'He made it upon the happiness of being buried alive with Mully, the red cow that gave him milk; which the critics would have imposed upon the world for a political allegory.' King's Remains, p. 14.

3 Post, ADDISON, 29.

Useful Transactions in Philosophy and other sorts of Learning. Works, ii. 57. In The Present State of Wit (1711), attributed to Gay, the writer, referring to the Transactions, says:-Though Dr. King has a world of wit, yet, as it lies in one particular way of raillery, the town soon grew weary of his writings; though I cannot but think that their author deserves a much better fate than to languish out the small remainder of his life in the Fleet Prison.' Swift's Works, vi. 154.

5 King's Works, ii. 132. 'It is a burlesque upon Hans Sloane's Voyage to Jamaica. Gent. Mag. 1779, p. 595. • King's Works, iii. 103. 7 Ib. iii. 41.

A Vindication of Dr.Sacheverell, &c., King's Works, ii. 179.

Sacheverell was a clergyman of

narrow intellects and an over-heated imagination. He had acquired some popularity among High Churchmen, and took all occasions to vent his animosity against the Dissenters.' For two sermons he was impeached at the bar of the House of Lords by the Commons. His trial lasted three weeks, during which all other business was suspended. The Queen's sedan was beset by the populace, exclaiming "God bless your Majesty and the Church. We hope your Majesty is for Dr. Sacheverell." The mob destroyed several meeting-houses, and plundered the dwelling-houses of eminent Dissenters. They even proposed to attack the Bank. The train-bands of Westminster continued in arms during the whole trial. Being found guilty he was prohibited from preaching for three years, and his two sermons were ordered to be burnt by the common hangman.' Smollett's Hist. of Eng. ii. 174-82. See also ante, DRYDEN, 109; post, SPRAT, 17; HALIFAX, 9; ADDISON, 14; YALDEN, 3; SWIFT, 27.

It was a weekly paper, published 'to defend the measures' of the Tory ministry. Among its early contributors were St. John, Atterbury, and