James Ralph

James Ralph (?1705-1762), Miscellaneous Poems (1729). British Library, 2011. Courtesy Chapters / Indigo.

James Ralph (?1705 - 24 January 1762) was an American-born English poet and miscellaneous writer.

Life

Ralph was born about 1705, probably in Pennsylvania.

He was a merchant's clerk in Philadelphia when he became acquainted with Benjamin Franklin, then a journeyman printer. Franklin says of him, "Ralph was ingenious, genteel in his manners, and extremely eloquent; I think I never knew a prettier talker." Ralph was a diligent versifier and dreamt of making his fortune by poetry. Franklin reproaches himself with unsettling Ralph's religious opinions.

Ralph had a wife and child, but having some disagreement with her relatives he resolved to leave her on their hands, accompany Franklin to England, and abandon America for ever. With just money enough to pay his passage he arrived in London with Franklin in December 1724, and lived at his expense for some time. Ralph is the ‘Mr. J.R.’ to whom Franklin inscribed, in 1725, his Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain.

Ralph formed an illicit connection with a milliner, on whom he lived for a time. Unable to find in London employment of even the humblest kind, he became teacher of a village school in Berkshire, where he assumed Franklin's name, and wrote to him, recommending to his care the mistress who had lost her friends and her business through her connection with Ralph. Franklin admits regretfully that he made improper advances to her, which she rejected. On this account, when Ralph returned to London, "he let me know," Franklin says "he considered all the obligations he had been under to me as annulled, from which I concluded I was never to expect his repaying the money I had lent him, or that I advanced for him. This, however, was of little consequence, as he was totally unable, and by the loss of his friendship I found myself relieved from a heavy burden." It is doubtful if Ralph and Franklin met again.

Hack writer and poet

Returning to London, Ralph became a hack-writer, and in 1728 published The Touchstone; or, … Essays on the reigning diversions of the town,’ a work graver than its title would denote. It was reissued in 1731, with a new title-page, as The Taste of the Town; or A guide to all public diversions. In 1728 also appeared his Night: A poem, dedicated in fulsome terms to the Earl of Chesterfield. ‘Night’ was a descriptive poem in blank verse, and not without merit.

Unfortunately for himself, on the appearance of the 1st edition of the ‘Dunciad’ (1728), Ralph (somewhat officiously, since he had not been attacked) came forward as the champion of Pope's victims, in a satire in blank verse (with a prose introduction), entitled Sawney: An heroic poem occasioned by the “Dunciad,” Sawney standing for Pope. The performance was a vehement and coarse attack on Pope, Swift, and Gay. Pope avenged himself by a dexterous use of the title of Ralph's poem, in the 2nd edition of the ‘Dunciad’ (book iii. line 165):

Silence, ye Wolves, while Ralph to Cynthia howls,

And makes night hideous — Answer him, ye Owls!

In a note (of 1729) Pope spoke contemptuously of Ralph as a "low writer." Ralph complained that Pope's distich and note prevented the booksellers for a time from employing him.

Playwright and editor

Ralph now tried the stage, but none of his pieces were successful. In 1730 he wrote the prologue to Fielding's Temple Beau, and when in 1736 Fielding took the Haymarket Theatre, Ralph is said to have been a shareholder with him. Certainly when, in 1741, Fielding started the Champion, an anti-ministerial paper, Ralph acted as a kind of co-editor, and continued to edit it after Fielding's connection with it ceased.

He had already (1739–41) edited the Universal Spectator, and was engaged on the parliamentary debates. But he remained in pecuniary distress, and in the Birch MSS. there are appeals from him to Dr. Birch for assistance. Ralph's connection with the Champion probably procured him the notice of George Bubb Dodington, after his desertion of Sir Robert Walpole.

In 1742 Ralph brought out The Other Side of the Question, professing to be by "A Woman of Quality," intended as a confutation of Hooke's Account of the Conduct of the Duchess of Marlborough. Ralph's criticism is one of the most spirited of his performances.

In 1743 appeared his Critical History of the Administration of Sir Robert Walpole, by a Gentleman of the Middle Temple, a criticism not only of Walpole, but of his immediate successors in office. Although Horace Walpole says that Ralph's pen had been rejected by Sir Robert Walpole, Pope, in the edition of the Dunciad (bk. i. line 215), printed in his works in 1743, reintroduced Ralph as having deserted Walpole immediately after his fall in 1742:

And see! the very Gazetteers give o'er;

Even Ralph repents, and Henley writes no more.

In 1744 was published Ralph's Use and Abuse of Parliaments. The first part, "A General View of Government in Europe," was a reprint of a dissertation by Algernon Sydney, and "A. Sidney" appears on the title-page as the author of the whole work. Ralph's second part, "A Detection of the Parliaments of England," which was inspired by Dodington and one of his political allies, represents parliamentary government to be a failure.

Historian

Also In 1744 appeared vol. i. of Ralph's chief work, The History of England during the Reigns of King William, Queen Anne, and King George I. With an Introductory Review of the Reigns of the Royal Brothers Charles and James. By a Lover of Truth and Liberty. The second and concluding volume was published in 1746, bringing the narrative to the death of William III. Ralph, in his preface, professed that his object was "to eradicate if possible the evil of parties," and censured impartially James II and William III.

Ralph's massive double-columned folios were creditable to his diligence, and contained many things not to be found in the work of his immediate predecessor, Rapin. In the introduction (p. xxii) to his History of the Early Part of the Reign of James II, Charles James Fox says, in a letter to Malcolm Laing, "I have found the place in Ralph, and a great deal more important matter relative to the transactions of those times which is but slightly touched by other historians. I am every day more and more surprised that Ralph should have had so much less reputation as an historian than he seems to deserve." In his ‘Constitutional History’ (ii. 575) Hallam calls Ralph "the most diligent historian we possess for the time of Charles II" (see also Edinburgh Review, liii. 13).

Ralph's history was begun under Dodington's patronage, but before the second volume was issued Dodington was no longer in opposition, having accepted office in Pelham's administration. The history appears, however, to have found favour with Bolingbroke, then one of the chiefs of the opposition party of which the Prince of Wales was the head. In this way probably the conduct of the Remembrancer, by George Cadwallader, Gent., started in 1748 as the organ of the prince's party, was entrusted to Ralph. Horace Walpole, who contributed to it, speaks of The Remembrancer as the Craftsman of the new generation, and as having among its contributors Lord Egmont, the prince's right-hand man. In Hogarth's March to Finchley one of the figures is reading The Remembrancer.

Ralph was admitted to frequent conversations with the prince, and conducted the negotiations which resulted in the renewal of Dodington's alliance with Prince Frederick, and his resignation of office. Dodington, in consideration of Ralph's services, promised to make him his secretary should he himself receive the seals on the demise of George II. These hopes were disappointed by the death of the Prince of Wales in 1751.

Ralph's services as a journalist were next secured by the Duke of Bedford, William Beckford, and their allies in opposition. The result was The Protester, by Issachar Barebone, one of the people, 2 June–10 Nov. 1753. But Ralph was soon "bought off" by the Pelham government. In a letter to the Duke of Bedford Ralph informs him that, in consequence of a threatened prosecution of The Protester, he had "laid down the pen," and returned to Beckford 150l. of the 200l. paid him "on account." In point of fact Ralph had made his peace with the Pelham ministry, partly through the good offices of Garrick, who had befriended him in some of his dramatic enterprises. He received from the government 200l. down to repay the advance made to him, as already mentioned, and an allowance of 300l. a year. Pelham himself was adverse to the transaction, but was overborne by his brother, the Duke of Newcastle. The allowances appear to have been given less to enlist Ralph's pen in the service of the government than to prevent him from attacking it.

Ralph's career as a journalist seems now to have ended. In the Newcastle Correspondence in the British Museum there are a number of letters to the Duke of Newcastle from Ralph, almost all of them announcing visits to Newcastle House to receive his pension. This, at the instance of the duke, was continued after the death of George II.

Last years

Ralph is said to have been one of the friends who assisted Hogarth, his neighbour at Chiswick, in the composition of the Analysis of Beauty, 1753. On the authority of Thomas Hollis, The Groans of Germany, 1741, a pamphlet very popular at the time (‘translated from the original lately published at The Hague’), is ascribed to Ralph, but internal evidence is against his authorship. Ralph was not responsible for another work generally ascribed to him, A Critical Review of the Public Buildings of London and Westminster, 1734, which went through several editions.

The only known production of Ralph's pen during his later years is The Case of Author by Profession or Trade stated, which was published anonymously in 1758. It is a diffuse and rambling performance, but curious as perhaps the first protest raised in the 18th century against the treatment of authors and dramatists by booksellers and theatre managers. Ralph did not spare Garrick himself, and the latter resented the ingratitude of the man whom, besides other benefits, he had helped to a pension. Ralph complains bitterly that authors should be vilified because they write for money, but he ignored the fact, illustrated in his own career, that their pens were too often at the command of the highest bidders for their political support. His only suggestion for mitigating the practical grievances of the author and the dramatist was that authors should form a combination against booksellers, and that the selection of dramas for stage representation should be entrusted to the Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Literature, now the Society of Arts.

After several years of martyrdom to the gout, Ralph died at Chiswick on 24 January 1762.

Writing

The following publications by Ralph have not been already mentioned: 1. ‘The Muse's Address to the King,’ an ode, 1728. 2. ‘The Tempest, or the Terrors of Death,’ a poem, 1728. 3. ‘Clarinda, or the Fair Libertine,’ a poem, 1729. 4. ‘Zeuma, or the Love of Liberty,’ a poem, 1729. 5. ‘Miscellaneous Poems by several hands, published by Mr. Ralph,’ 1729. 6. ‘Fall of the Earl of Essex,’ a tragedy, 1731 (altered from Banks's ‘Unhappy Favourite’). 7. ‘The Lawyer's Feast,’ a farce, 1744 (taken from Beaumont and Fletcher's ‘Spanish Curate’). 8. ‘The Astrologer,’ a comedy, 1744 (taken from Albumazar).

Publications

Poetry

• The Tempest; or The terror of death: A poem. London: W. Meadows, 1727.
• The Muses Address to the King: An ode. London: W. Meadows, 1728; Dublin: George Faulkner / James Hoey, 1728.
• Night: A poem, in four books. London: C. Ackers, for S. Billingsley, 1728.
• Sawney: An heroic poem; occasion'd by the Dunciad. London: J. Roberts, 1728.
• Clarinda; or, The fair libertine: A poem, in four cantos. London: John Gray, 1729.
• The Loss of Liberty; or, The fall of Rome: A poem. London: C. Ackers, for J. Brindley, 1729.
• Zeuma; or, The love of liberty: A poem, in three books. London: C. Ackers, for S. Billingsley, 1729 [1728]. Book I, Book II, Book III
• Miscellaneous Poems. London: 1729.

Plays

• The Fashionable Lady; or, Harlequin's opera. London: J. Watts, 1730.
• The Fall of the Earl of Essex. London: W. Meadows / S. Billingsley, 1731.
• The Cornish Squire: A comedy. London: J. Watts, 1734.
• The lawyer's feast: A farce. 1744.
• The Astrologer: A comedy. London: M. Cooper, 1744.

Non-fiction

• The Touch-stone; or, Historical, critical, political, philosophical and theological essays on the reigning diversions of the town. London: Booksellers of London & Westminster, 1728.
• A Critical Review of the Publick Buildings, Statues and Ornaments of London and Westminster. London: C. Ackers, for J. Wilford / J. Clarke, 1734.
• The Groans of Germany; or, The enquiry of a Protestant German into the original cause of the present distractions of the empire. London: J. Hugginson, 1741.
• The Other Side of the Question; by a woman of quality. London: T. Cooper, 1742.
• The Conduct of the Late Administration: With regard to foreign affairs from 1722 to 1742. London: T. Cooper, 1742.
• A Critical History of the Administration of Sir Robert Walpole. London: J. Hinton, 1743.
• The Case of our Present Theatrical Disputes Fairly Stated. London: Jacob Robinson, 1743.
• The History of England: During the reigns of of King William, Queen Anne, and King George I. (2 volumes), London: C. Cogan & T. Waller, 1744.
• " ‘A Detection of the Parliaments of England,’ in Algernon Sidney, Of the Use and Abuse of Parliaments. (2 volumes), London: F. Freeman, 1744.
• The Case of Authors by Profession or Trade, Stated. London: R. Griffiths, 1758.

Collected editions

• The Case of Authors by Profession or Trade (1758) / together with The Champion (1739-1740). Gainesville, FL: Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, 1966.

Translated

• Thémiseul de Saint-Hyacinthe, Memoirs and history of Prince Titi. London: A. Dodd, 1736.

Edited

• Miscellaneous Poems, by several hands. Lonon: C. Ackers, for W. Meadows / J. Batley / T. Cox / et al, 1729..
• The Champion: Containing a series of papers, humourous, moral, political, and critical (journal; edited with Henry Fielding). London: J. Huggonson, 1741.
• The Remembrancer; by George Cadwallader, gent. (journal). London: William Owen, 1748-1751.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of British poets

References

•  Espinasse, Francis (1896) "Ralph, James" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 47 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 221-224  . Wikisource, Web, Oct.2, 2016.

External links

Poems

• James Ralph ((1705 ca.-1762) info & 6 poems at English Poetry, 1579-1830

Books

• James Ralph 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: Ralph, James