Rev. James Bramston (?1694 - 16 March 1744) was an English poet, satirist, and clergyman.[1]
James Bramston (?1694-1744). Courtesy Samuel Johnson Dictionary.
Life[]
Overview[]
Bramston was educated at Westminster School and Oxford, took orders, and was latterly Vicar of Hastings. His poems are The Art of Politics (1729), in imitation of Horace, and The Man of Taste (1733), in imitation of Pope . He also parodied John Philips's Splendid Shilling in The Crooked Sixpence. His verses have some liveliness.[2]
Youth and education[]
Bramston was the son of Francis Bramston, 4th son of Sir Moundeford Bramston, master in chancery, who in turn was younger son of Sir John Bramston the elder, lord chief justice of the king's bench.[1]
In 1708 James Bramston went to Westminster School and, in 1713, to Christ Church, Oxford, earning a B.A. degree on 17 May 1717, and an M.A. degree on 6 April 1720.[1]
Career[]
In March 1723 he became vicar of Lurgashall, Sussex, and in 1725 vicar of Harting in the same county, obtaining a dispensation to hold both livings.[1]
"Bramston," say Dallaway and Cartwright in the History of Sussex, ii. (i.) 365, "was a man of original humour, the fame and proofs of whose colloquial wit are still remembered in this part of Sussex."[1]
Writing[]
In 1729 he published the Art of Politicks, an imitation of the Ars Poetica of Horace, accompanied by a clever frontispiece illustrating the opening lines:—
If to a Human Face Sir James [Thornhill] should draw
A Gelding's Mane, and Feathers of Maccaw,
A Lady's Bosom, and a Tail of Cod,
Who could help laughing at a Sight so odd?
Just such a Monster, Sirs, pray think before ye,
When you behold one Man both Whig and Tory.
Not more extravagant are Drunkard's Dreams',
Than Low-Church Politicks with High-Church Schemes.[1]
The Art of Politicks was followed by The Man of Taste: Occasion'd by an epistle of Mr. Pope's on that subject (i.e. that to the Earl of Burlington, 1731), 1733.[1]
The only other works attributed to Bramston are some poems in Carolina Quadragesimalia; a poem in the University Collection on the death of Dr. Radcliffe, 1715; Ignorami Lamentatio, 1736; and a not very successful imitation of the Splendid Shilling of John Philips, entitled The Crooked Sixpence, Dodsley, 1743. This, in "a learned preface," is ascribed to Katherine Philips (the "matchless Orinda").[1]
Writing[]
The Art of Politicks and The Man of Taste are both little satires holding an honorable place in 18th-century verse, which abound with contemporary references and frequently happy lines.[1]
Recognition[]
Both the Art of Politicks and The Man of Taste were reprinted in volume I of Dodsley's Collection of Poems by several Hands.[1]
Publications[]
- The Art of Politicks. London: Lawton Gilliver, 1729; Dublin: S. Powell, 1729; Los Angeles: William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, University of California, 1976.
- The Man of Taste: Occasion'd by an epistle of Mr. Pope's on that subject. London: J. Wright, for Lawton Gilliver, 1733; Dublin: George Faulkner, 1733; Los Angeles: William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, University of California, 1975.
- The Crooked Six-Pence. London: Robert Dodsley, 1743.
Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[3]
See also[]
References[]
Dobson, Henry Austin (1886) "Bramston, James" in Stephen, Leslie Dictionary of National Biography 6 London: Smith, Elder, p. 207 . May 2, 2016.
Notes[]
External links[]
- Poems
- "The Crooked Six-pence"
- James Bramston at the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive ("The Art of Politics," "The Man of Taste")
- James Bramston at Amazon.com
- About
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: "Bramston, James"
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