Elkanah Settle

F. C. Brown, Elkanah Settle: His life and works. Kessinger, 2010. Courtesy FlipKart.

Elkanah Settle (1 February 1648 - 12 February 1724) was an English poet and playwright.

Life

Overview

Settle, educated at Oxford, was the author of a number of turgid dramas, now unreadable and unread, but which in their day were held to rival Dryden, who pilloried Settle as Doeg in the 2nd part of Absalom and Achitophel. Settle essayed a reply in Absalom Senior. He wrote against the Papists, but recanted, and made amends by a Narrative of the Popish Plot, in which he exposed the perjuries of Titus Oates. He was appointed City Poet. Latterly he had a booth in Bartholomew Fair. He died in the Charterhouse.

Youth and education

Settle, the son of Josias Settle and his wife Sarah, was born at Dunstable on 1 February and baptised on 9 February 1647-8 (Bedfordshire Notes and Queries, vol. iii. pt. vii. 206).

He matriculated on 13 July 1666 from Trinity College, Oxford, where his tutor was Abraham Campian, but he left Oxford without taking a degree and proceeded to London.

First play

According to Gildon, Settle once possessed a good fortune, which he quickly dissipated.

If Downes may be believed, it was in 1666 that Settle, then barely 18, completed his earliest play, Cambyses, King of Persia: A tragedy. It was the 1st new play acted that season at Lincoln's Inn Fields. Betterton and his wife were in the cast, and, the other parts being "perfectly well acted," it "succeeded six days with a full audience" (Downes, Roscius Anglicanus, 1886, p. 27). It was subsequently produced at Oxford, and was printed in 1671 and 1673. Wood states that Settle's fellow collegian, William Buller Fyfe, had some part in the composition, the plot of which was mainly derived from Herodotus.

Settle was inflated by his success, and Cambyses formed the 1st of a series of bombastic dramas, the scenario of which was discreetly laid in Persia or Morocco.

Conflict with Dryden

Settle's triumph was eagerly adopted by Rochester as a means of humiliating Dryden. Through Rochester's influence Settle's next tragedy, The Empress of Morocco, was twice acted at Whitehall, the prologues being spoken respectively by Rochester and by Lord Mulgrave. It seems to have been originally given in 1671, and revived at Dorset Garden in 1673, when Betterton played it for 2 weeks with great applause. Though highflown, it is not devoid of merit, and Genest called the plot ‘well managed.’ In his dedication to the Earl of Norwich, Settle says, "I owe the story of my play to your hands and your honourable embassy into Africa." It was published by Cademan in 1671, and again in 1673 with 6 engravings (one of which represents the front of Dorset Garden), at the enhanced price of 2 shillings. It is said to have been the 1st play ever published with engravings (later editions 1687 and 1698).

The court was for the time completely won over by Settle's heroic tragedies, passages from which were quoted against Dryden's Tyrannic Love and Conquest of Granada; at the universities, where it was keenly discussed whether Dryden or Settle were the greater genius; the younger fry, said Wood, inclined to Elkanah.

As his enemies had anticipated, Dryden's temper was stirred, and with John Crowne and Shadwell he clubbed to crush the upstart by an unworthy and abusive pamphlet (Notes and Observations on the "Empress of Morocco"). Settle was undismayed, and retorted vigorously in Notes and Observations on the "Empress of Morocco" Revised, 1674, 4to, to which he added, by way of counter-attack, "Some few Erratas to be printed, instead of the Postscript, with the next edition of the 'Conquest of Granada'."

Early plays

Notwithstanding the transference of Rochester's patronage to Crowne and Otway, Settle "rhymed and rattled" persistently. His Love and Revenge, founded upon the Fatal Contract of William Hemings, was produced at Dorset Garden in 1675 and printed. In the dedication the dramatist congratulates providence on lengthening the Duke of Newcastle's life, so that he might "witness the prosperous reign of a great and pious monarch." In a "postscript" he attacked Shadwell, a much better writer than himself.

His Conquest of China by the Tartars was given at the same theater, Jevon, who had a leading part, taking great liberties with its turgid periods (Downes, p. 35; printed London, 1676, 4to). His Ibrahim, the Illustrious Bassa: A tragedy (based on Georges de Scudéry's L'Illustre Bassa), was licensed on 4 May 1676 and printed (1677 and 1692, 4to), with a dedication to the Duchess of Albemarle, and his Fatal Love; or. The forced inconstancy, a fustian version of the legend of Clitophon and Leucippe, was given at the Theatre Royal (Drury Lane) in 1680.

Whig

Neglected by the court, Settle made overtures to the opposition, and his political bias is sufficiently shown in his next play, The Female Prelate: Being the history of the life and death of Pope Joan, which was produced at the Theatre Royal in 1680, and printed immediately, with a dedication to Shaftesbury. The invective is outrageous, but the plot and incidents, says Genest, are good (Hist. i. 275).

Settle's mastery of scenic effect and the violence of his protestantism led to his unanimous election as organizer-in-chief of the pope-burning procession on Queen Elizabeth's birthday (17 Nov. 1680); and Roger L'Estrange, in Heraclitus Ridens (No. 50), described him as poet-laureate and master of ordnance to the whig party, who would vindicate Lucifer's 1st rebellion for a few guineas. Next year he wrote, at Shaftesbury's instance, his Character of a Popish Successor;; (1681), which evoked a storm of remonstrance. Settle accentuated his remarks in a revised edition, which he afterwards alleged that Shaftesbury, dissatisfied by its moderation of tone, had retouched.

His personal attacks upon the Duke of York are said to have involved him in a duel with Thomas Otway. Of these passages in his life he wrote: "I now grew weary of my little talent for Dramaticks, and forsooth must be rambling into politics … and much have I got by it" (pref. to Distressed Innocence).

Dryden again

Apart from his success, Settle appears to have given John Dryden small provocation; but Dryden nursed his jealousy, and gave vent to his resentment in the s2nd part of his ‘Absalom and Achitophel,’ published about November 1682, where his former rival is described as

    Doeg, though without knowing how or why,
    Made still a blundering kind of melody,
    Spurr'd boldly on, and dashed through thick and thin,
    Through sense and nonsense never out or in;
    Free from all meaning, whether good or bad,
    And, in one word, heroically mad.

Dryden's intention to stigmatize him had doubtless reached Settle's ears, for he produced almost at the same time his Absalom Senior; or, Achitophel Transpros'd’ (published at the sign of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey, near Fleetbridge, 1682), a whig reply to the 1st part of Dryden's satire, with a free description of its author.

In several of his later plays the laureate referred contemptuously to Settle, for whom he predicted an audience in Bartholomew Fair. Elkanah took leave of his tormentor in Reflections on Several of Mr. Dryden's Plays, 1687, 4to.

Tory

Determined, at least, not to lose by politics, Settle, upon the dissolution of the Oxford parliament, promptly recanted, and wrote A Narrative of the Popish Plot, 1683, fol., exposing the perjuries of "Doctor' Oates, and covering with abuse Shaftesbury and his old associates at the "Green Ribbon Club." Written with a clever assumption of fairness, the Narrative evoked a cloud of answers and letters, and a heated Vindication of Titus Oats.

Settle was undeterred from publishing hostile "animadversions" upon the dying speeches of William, lord Russell, and Algernon Sidney, and he went so far as to issue A Panegyrick on Sir George Jefferies (1683) on his elevation to the chief-justiceship, Jeffreys having been conspicuous as "Shimei" in his satire of Achitophel Transpros'd.

His tory enthusiasm reached its climax in 1685, when he published an adulatory Heroick Poem on the Coronation of the High and Mighty Monarch, James II (London, 4to), and shortly afterwards entered himself as a trooper in James's army on Hounslow Heath. He is said, moreover, to have published a weekly sheet in support of the administration.

Poet Laureate of London

Upon the revolution Settle recommenced overtures to his whig friends; but, feeling that both parties were looking askance at him, he put in for the reversion of Matthew Taubman's post of city laureate, for which political consistency was not a necessary qualification. Taubman's last pageant was dated 1689; in 1690 the show was intermitted, but Settle was duly appointed city poet in the following year, and issued for lord-mayor's day The Triumphs of London (for Abel Roper, London, 4to).

His 4 pageants 1692-1695 bear the same title. No pageants are known for 1696-1697, but in 1698 Settle produced Glory's Resurrection. He then reverted to the older title until 1702. The Triumphs for the next 5 years are missing, but Settle issued one for 1708, though the exhibition of that year was frustrated by the death of Prince George of Denmark. It seems to have been the last lord-mayor's show to have been described in a separate official publication.

As a laureate, Settle celebrated with equal readiness the act of succession ("Eusebia Triumphans," 1702 and 1707), the danger to the church ("A New Memorial," 1706), the propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts ("A Pindarick Ode," 1711), the tory peace of 1713 ("Irene Triumphans," 1713), and the whig triumph 2 years later ("Rebellion Display'd," 1715).

Later plays

In the meantime Settle had not abandoned his career as a playwright. His Heir of Morocco (1694, 4to), forming a 2nd part to his Empress of Morocco, and based upon a slender substratum of facts furnished by the English occupation of Tangier, was produced at the Theatre Royal in 1682 (revived on 19 Jan. 1709).

Then after a long interval came his Distressed Innocence; or, The princess of Persia (1691, 4to), founded on the 39th chapter of the 5th book of Theodoret, but "warped" in favour of the Christians. The piece was given at the Theatre Royal in 1691. His New Athenian Comedy (1693, 4to) and The Ambitious Slave, a tragedy (1694, 4to), were followed at Dorset Garden in 1697 by The World in the Moon (1697, 4to), an opera, of which the 1st scene was formed by a moon 14 feet in diameter. Of his Virgin Prophetess; or, The fate of Troy (1701, 4to), Genest says that the language and the deviations from the accredited legend were "disgusting, but the spectacle must have been fine."

The City Ramble; or. The playhouse wedding (1711, 4to), based to some extent upon the Knight of the Burning Pestle and the Coxcomb, with humorous additions of some merit, was produced at Drury Lane on 17 Aug. 1711. By this time Settle's reputation was so damaged that he determined to bring out the piece anonymously. But the secret "happened to take air," and he fell back upon producing it during the long vacation.

His last play, The Ladies' Triumph (1718, 12mo), produced at Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1718, ended with a masque in which Settle skilfully introduced elaborate scenery and machinery.

Last years

The theatre and the corporation proved only occasional resources, and very soon after the revolution Settle fulfilled various predictions by letting himself out to write drolls for Bartholomew Fair, love-letters for maid servants, ballads for Pye Corner, and epithalamiums for half a crown. In Bartholomew Fair he served under the show-woman, Mrs. Mynn, and produced at her booth his Siege of Troy in 1707. At the same show he is said to have played a dragon in green leather, whence Pope puts into his mouth the couplet—

    Yet lo! in me what authors have to brag on!
    Reduced at last to hiss in my own dragon
       (Dunciad, iii. 285; cf. Young's Epistle to Mr. Pope, i. 261–8)

He seems to have always had in hand a stock of printed elegies and complimentary verses under such titles as "Augusta Lacrimans," "Thalia Lacrimans," "Thalia Triumphans," "Memoriæ Fragranti," to which he affixed names and dedications in accordance with the demand.

Resourceful as he was, however, Elkanah's income dwindled until, about 1718, his city friends procured him a retreat in the Charterhouse. He died there, a poor brother, on 12 February 1723-4 (Hist. Reg. Chron. Diary, 1724, p. 11; the Charterhouse burial registers 1710–40 are missing).

5 days after his death he was described in the True Briton as a man "of tall stature, red face, short black hair," who "lived in the city, and had a numerous poetical issue, but shared the misfortune of several gentlemen, to survive them all."

On 28 February 1673-4 he married, Mary Warner, at St. Andrew's, Holborn (Notes and Queries, 8th ser. xii. 483).

Writing

Reputation

Settle was not deficient in promise as scholar, rhymester, and wit; but he wrecked his career by his tergiversation and by his inept efforts to measure his mediocre capacity against the genius of Dryden. He soon became a butt for caricature as a voluminous and reckless dunce. "Recanting Settle," wrote a critic, when his tragedies and libels could no more yield him penny loaves and ale, "bids our youth by his example fly, the Love of Politicks and Poetry" (Poems on State Affairs, ii. 138).

In an early satire, Pope dubbed him Codrus, after the prolix poetaster of Juvenal (Lintot, Miscell. 1712, revised for Dunciad, i. 183), and in the Dunciad are many jibes at his expense, notably the allusion to the lord-mayor's show, which "liv'd in Settle's numbers one day more" (bk. i. 90).

In 1776, on the occasion of his conversation with Johnson, Wilkes referred to Elkanah as the last of the city poets, and one whose poetry matched the queerness of his name (Boswell, Johnson, ed. Hill, iii. 76).

Miscellaneous

In addition to the works enumerated and minor complimentary pieces, Settle was author of: 1. ‘The Life and Death of Major Clancie, the grandest Cheat of this Age,’ 1680, 8vo. 2. ‘Insignia Bataviæ; or the barbarous behaviour of the Dutch towards the English in East India,’ 1688, 4to. 3. ‘The Compleat Memoirs of the Life of that Notorious Impostor, Will. Morrell, alias Bowyer, alias Wickham,’ 1694, 12mo; 1699, 8vo. 4. ‘Minerva Triumphans. The Muses' Essay. To the Honour of the Generous Foundation, the Cotton Library at Westminster,’ 1701, fol. 5. ‘Carmen Irenicum. The Happy Union of the Two East India Companies. An Heroic Poem,’ 1702, fol. (for 1, 4 and 5, see Hazlitt, Bibl. Coll. 3rd ser. pp. 229–30). Settle also edited the ‘Herod and Mariamne’ (1673, 4to) of Samuel Pordage [q. v.], and contributed to the popular translation of ‘Ovid's Epistles’ (1683, 8vo).

He re-edited for the stage Sir R. Fanshaw's version of Guarini, which appeared at Dorset Garden in 1676 as Pastor Fido; or, The faithful shepherd (London, 1677, 4to); "a moderate pastoral" (Genest, i. 196). He revised and rewrote the last 2 acts of Beaumont and Fletcher's Philaster for the Theatre Royal in 1695 (London, 4to).

The British Museum possesses Settle's Triumphs of London for 1691, 1692, 1693, 1694, 1695, 1699, 1708, and his Glory's Resurrection for 1698. The Guildhall Library has all these, with the exception of 1693, and, in addition, the Triumphs for 1701 and 1702.

Publications

Poetry

• Absalom Senior; or, Architopel transpros'd: A poem. London: S.E., 1682
  • also printed in Anti-Architopel: Three verse replies to 'Absalom and Architopel' by John Dryden (edited by Harold Whitmore Jones). Gainesville, FL: Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, 1961.
• An Heroick Poem on the Coronation of ... James II. London: J.L., for Benjamin Needham, 1685; Edinburgh: heir of Andrew Anderson, 1685.
• Carmen Irenicum: The happy union of the two East-India companies. London: John Nutt, 1702.
• Threnodium Appolinare: A funeral poem. London: Tho. Bickerton, 1708.
• Augusta Lacrymans: A funeral poem. London: J. Reade, 1709.
• Eusebia Triumphans: The Hanover succession to the imperial crown of Great Britain: An heroick poem. London: 1711.
• A Pindaric Poem on the propagation of the gospel in foreign parts. London: 1711.
• Irene Triumphans: An heroick poem. London: 1713.
• Augusta Triumphans: A congratulatory poem. London: 1714.
• Thalia Triumphans: A congratulatory poem. London: 1715.

Plays

• The Female Prelate; being the history of the life & death of Pope Joan: A tragedy: London: William Cademan, 1680.
• The Empress of Morocco: A tragedy. London: William Cademan, 1673; London: E. Cademan, 1687.
• Cambyses King of Persia: A tragedy. London: William Cademan, 1674; London: R. Bentley, 1692.
• Love and Revenge: A tragedy. London: William Cademan, 1675.
• The Conquest of China by the Tartars: A tragedy. London: Thomas Milbourn, for William Cademan, 1676.
• Ibrahim the illustrious Bassa: A tragedy. London: Thomas Milbourn, for William Cademan, 1677.
• Pastor Fido; or, The faithful shepherd: A pastoral. London: William Cademan, 1677; London: T. Chapman, 1694.
• Fatal love; or, The forc'd inconstancy: A tragedy. London: William Cademan, 1680.
• The Fairy-Queen: An opera (with Henry Purcell). London:Jacob Tonson. 1692.
• The World in the Moon: An opera. London: Abel Roper, 1697.
• The Siege of Troy: A tragi-comedy. London: 1708, 1723; Berwick, UK: W. Phorson, 1791.

Non-fiction

• Reflexions upon a late pamphlet, intituled, A narrative written by E. Settle. London: J.H., for the author, 1683.
• Insignia Bataviæ; or, The Dutch trophies display'd: Being exact relations of the unjust, horrid, and most barbarous proceedings of the Dutch against the English in the East-Indies. London: Thomas Pike, 1688.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of British poets
• List of English-language playwrights

Preceded by Matthew Taubman

Poet to the Corporation of London 1691-1724?

Succeeded by Position abolished

References

• Frank Clyde Brown, Elkanah Settle: His life and works Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1910.
•  Seccombe, Thomas (1897) "Settle, Elkanah" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 51 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 272-275  . Wikisource, Web, Feb. 26, 1018.

Fonds

• Elkanah Settle at the National Archives

External links

Poems

• Elkanah Settle at Poetry Nook (2 poems)

Books

• Works by Elkanah Settle at Project Gutenberg
• Settle Plays Online
• Elkanah Settle at Amazon.com
• Elkanah Settle at Internet Speculative Fiction Database

About

• Settle, Elkanah in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
• "Elkanah Settle and his bookbindings, revisited"

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: Settle, Elkanah