Ambrose Philips

Ambrose Philips (baptized 9 October 1674 - 18 June 1749) was an English poet and politician.

Ambrose Philips (1674-1749). Anonymous engraving, 18th century. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Life

Overview

Philips was born in Shropshire and educated at Cambridge. He wrote pastorals and dramas, was one of the Addison circle, and started a paper, the Freethinker, in imitation of the Spectator. He also made translations from Pindar and Anacreon, and a series of short complimentary verses, which gained for him the nickname of "Namby Pamby." His Pastorals, though poor enough, excited the jealousy of Pope, who pursued the unfortunate author with life-long enmity. Philips held various Government appointments in Ireland.

Youth and education

Philips is said to have descended from an old Leicestershire family. According to the admission-book of St John's College, Cambridge, he was son of Ambrose Philips, born in Shropshire, and was in his 18th year in June 1693.

He was educated at Shrewsbury, and afterwards at St. John's College, Cambridge, which he entered as a sizar on 15 June 1693. He earned a B.A. in 1696 and an M.A. in 1700, was elected a fellow of his college on 28 March 1699, and held the fellowship till 24 March 1707–8.

From other entries he appears to have resided at Cambridge till he resigned his fellowship, and he is said to have written his Pastorals while at college. In 1700 he published an abridgement of Hacket's Life of Archbishop Williams. He was at Utrecht, where one of his poems is dated, in 1703, and in 1709 was employed in some mission in the north.

Early career

He addressed an Epistle to the Earl of Dorset, dated Copenhagen, 9 March 1709. It was published by Steele in the Tatler (No. 12), with high praise, as a "winterpiece" worthy of the most learned painter. His "Pastorals" appeared the same year in Tonson's Miscellany, which also included Pope's "Pastorals."

In 1709 he also translated the Contes Persans of Petit De la Croix. He was afterwards reproached by Pope with "turning a Persian Tale for half-a-crown," which, says Johnson, as the book was divided into many sections, was "very liberal as writers were then paid." After another visit to Denmark in the summer of 1710, he returned to England in October, and was on friendly terms with Swift, who promised in December to solicit Harley for the post of queen's secretary at Geneva for "poor pastoral Philips," and who said afterwards (Journal to Stella, 27 Dec. 1712), "I should certainly have provided for him had he not run party mad."

Philips had, in fact, become a member of the Addison circle. In 1711–12 he wrote the Distressed Mother, a mere adaptation of Racine's Andromaque. Its appearance was heralded by a very complimentary notice from Steele in the Spectator (No. 290, 1 Feb. 1711–12), and Sir Roger de Coverley was taken by Addison to see a performance on 25 March following. An epilogue, attributed to Budgell, is said to have been the most successful ever written. Pope says that the audience was packed by Philips's friends.

Quarrel with Pope

In the early numbers of the Guardian (1713) some papers upon pastoral poetry, in which Philips was complimented, excited Pope's jealousy, and he wrote a paper (No. 40) with an ironical comparison between Philips's "Pastorals" and his own. Philips was indignant at this attack, inserted through Steele's inadvertence or want of perception, and he hung up a rod at Button's coffee-house, threatening to apply it to Pope. As Philips is reported by Johnson to have been "eminent for bravery and skill in the sword," and Pope was a deformed dwarf, the anecdote scarcely illustrates Philips's "bravery."

Pope's revenge was taken by savage passages in his satires, which made Philips ridiculous. Philips, said Pope, was encouraged to go about abusing him, which seems to have been needless; and, in his letters, Pope also insinuated, though he could hardly have expected to be taken seriously, that Philips had appropriated subscriptions for the Iliad from members of the Hanover Club. Philips was secretary to this club, formed at the end of Queen Anne's reign for securing the succession. After the accession of George I, he was made justice of the peace for Westminster, and in 1717 a commissioner for the lottery.

Philips started the Freethinker in March 1718. It is one of the numerous imitations of the Spectator, and the 1st number explains that the name is not to be taken as equivalent to "'atheist,' but in the proper sense." His chief colleagues were Hugh Boulter, Richard West (afterwards Irish chancellor), and Gilbert Burnet, son of the bishop. It ran through the next year, and was republished in three volumes (3rd edit. 1739).

Philips was apparently rather dandified in appearance and pompous in conversation. His "red stockings" were ridiculed in Pope's Macer. Pope also satirises his slowness in composition. He appears, however, to have been an honorable man, respected by his friends, and of some real poetical sensibility.

Later career

Philips published some Epistles and a couple of plays, which, being original, had little success. His friend Boulter was made archbishop of Armagh in August 1724, and in November took Philips with him to Ireland as secretary. Swift, in his correspondence with Pope, refers contemptuously to Philips's position as a dependant upon Boulter and to his "little flams on Miss Carteret."

Philips represented the borough of Armagh in the Irish parliament; was made secretary to the lord chancellor in December 1726, and in August 1733 was appointed judge of the prerogative court. Boulter died in 1742, and in 1748 Philips, who had bought an annuity of 400l., returned to London. He is said to have collected his poems in a volume which was dedicated to the Duke of Newcastle. He also collected Boulter's correspondence, which, however, did not appear until 1769.

Philips died at his house in Hanson Street of paralysis, "in his seventy-eighth year."

Writing

The title of ‘namby-pamby’ was originally used by Henry Carey (died 1743) in a parody mentioned by Swift in 1725. 3 poems to the infant daughters of Lord Carteret, lord lieutenant, and of Daniel Pulteney, one of which begins "Dimply damsel, sweetly smiling," provoked this ridicule.

Edmund Gosse observes that Philips's "Epistle to the Earl of Dorset," declared by Goldsmith to be "incomparably fine," strikes us as "frigid and ephemeral;" while the odes to children are charming from their simplicity and fancy. The Epistle, however, is a very genuine description of nature, remarkable for its time.

His works are: ‘Life of John Williams … [abridged from Hacket] with appendix giving a just account of his benefactions to St. John's College, Cambridge,’ 1700. ‘Pastorals’ in Tonson's ‘Miscellany’ (p. vi), 1709. ‘Persian Tales,’ from the French of P. De la Croix,’ 1709; also in 1722, 12mo. ‘The Distressed Mother,’ 1712. ‘Odes of Sappho’ in ‘Anacreon’ (translation of 1713; see also Spectator, Nos. 223, 229). Epistle to Charles, lord Halifax, ‘On the accession of George I,’ 1714. ‘Epistle to James Craggs,’ 1717. Papers in the ‘Freethinker,’ 1718–19, collected in three vols. ‘The Briton’ (tragedy), 1722. ‘Humfrey, duke of Gloucester’ (tragedy), 1723. This, the ‘Briton,’ and the ‘Distressed Mother’ were published together as ‘Three Tragedies’ in 1725. Several small poems to children, on the death of Lord Halifax, and the departure of Lord Carteret from Dublin were printed separately in 1725 and 1726.

He is also said to have been editor of the Collection of Old Ballads, corrected from the best and most ancient copies extant, with introductions historical and critical, 1726-1738.

His Pastorals, with other poems, were published separately in 1710. He published his poems, with a dedication to the Duke of Newcastle, in 1748. They appeared again in 1765, and are in various collections of English poets.

Critical introduction

by Edmund Gosse

The reputation of Ambrose Philips has undergone some curious reverses. His Epistle to the Earl of Dorset, which Steele pronounced "as fine a piece as we ever had," and Goldsmith "incomparably fine," seems to us as frigid and as ephemeral as its theme; the Distressed Mother, in which he made Racine speak with the voice of Rowe, no longer holds a place, even in memory, on the tragic stage; his translations of Sappho, once thought so brilliant and so affecting, seems to modern readers ludicrously mean, nor is criticism any longer concerned to decide whether the pastorals of Philips or of Pope are the more insipid.

But while all these works, on which his contemporary reputation was founded, are forgotten, his odes to private persons, and in particular to children, which won him ridicule from his own age, and from Henry Carey the immortal name of "Namby-Pamby," have a simplicity of versification and a genuine play of fancy which are now recognised as rare gifts in the artificial school of Addison in which he was trained. Ambrose Philips is moreover to be praised, not in these odes only, but in his poems generally, for an affectionate observation of natural beauty.

Publications

Poetry

• Six Pastorals. London: H. Hills, 1710.
• An Ode (in the manner of Pindar) on the Death of the Right Honourable William, Earl Cowper. London: T. Woodward, J. Walthoe, & J. Peele, 1723.
• To the Honourable Miss Carteret. London: J. Roberts, 1725.
• Pastorals, Epistles, Odes, and other original poems; with translations from Pindar, Anacreon, and Sappho. London: J. & R. Tonson & S. Draper, 1748.
  • (facsimile edition), Menston, UK: Scolar Press, 1973.
• Poems of Parnell and A. Philips (with Thomas Parnell). London: J. Rivington, 1779.
• The Poetical Works. Edinburgh: Apollo Press, by the Martins, 1782.
• Poems of A. Philips, Parnell, and West (with Thomas Parnell & Gilbert West). Chiswick, UK: Press of C. Whittingham, 1822.
• Poems (edited by Mary Gertrude Segar). Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1937.

Plays

• The Distrest Mother: A tragedy. London: 1710.
• The Briton: A tragedy. London: B. Lintot, 1722.
• Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester" A tragedy. London: J. Roberts, 1723.
• Three Tragedies, viz.: The distrest mother / The Briton / Humfrey Duke of Gloucester. London: J. Tonson, T. Woodward, J. Walthoe, Jun. & J. Peele, 1725.

Non-fiction

• The Life of John Williams, LD: Keeper of the Great Seal, Bishop of Lincoln, and Abp. of York, in the reigns of King James, and King Charles the first. Cambridge, UK: A. Roper & R. Basset, 1703.
• An Epistle to the Right Honourable Charles Lord Halifax. London: J. Tonson, 1714.
• An Epistle to the Honourable James Craggs, Esq; Secretary at War. London: Jacob Tonson, 1717.
• The Free-Thinker; or, Essays of wit and humour (contributor). London: John Hinton, 1740.

Edited

• A Collection of Old Ballads: Corrected from the best and most ancient copies extant. (3 volumes), London: J. Roberts, / D. Leach, 1723, 1725. Volume I, Volume II, Volume III

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

To Charlotte Pulteney, by Ambrose Philips Clarica Poetry Moment POEM

• List of British poets

References

•  Stephen, Leslie (1896) "Philips, Ambrose" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 45 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 172-173  . Wikiource, Web, Feb. 19, 2018.

External links

Poems

• "To the Earl of Dorset" ("The Ice Storm")
• Ambrose Philips at PoemHunter (2 poems)
• Philips in The English Poets: An anthology: Extract from the "Ode to Miss Carteret", "To Miss Charlotte Pulteney, in Her Mother’s Arms"
• Ambrose Philips at the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (6 pastorals)
• Ambrose Philips (1674-1749) info & 10 poems at English Poetry, 1579-1830
• Ambrose Philips at Poetry Nook (60 poems)

Books

• Ambrose Philips at Amazon.com

About

• Ambrose Philips in the Encyclopædia Britannica
• Ambrose Philips and his pastorals in the Cambridge History of English and American Literature

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen & Sidney Lee). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Philips, Ambrose