Richard Graves

This article is about the 18th-century English poet. For the 20th-century Irish-Australian writer, see Richard Harry Graves.

Richard Graves (1715-1804). Portrait by Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788). Courtesy Morgan Library & Mueum.

Rev. Richard Graves (4 May 1715 - 23 November 1804) was an English poet, cleric, and novelist.

Life

Graves was born at Mickleton Manor, Mickleton, Gloucestershire, to antiquary Richard Graves and his wife, Elizabeth.

He was a student at Abingdon School.

He then attended Pembroke College, Oxford, where he befriended poet William Shenstone. He became a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, in 1736, and earned an M.A. in 1740. At All Souls he began a lifelong friendship with William Blackstone.

However, in January 1749 the college revoked his fellowship because of his marriage to Lucy Bartholomew, a yeoman's daughter from Aldworth. (At the time, All Souls College automatically withdrew funding from any fellow who married.) Lucy was much younger than Graves and uneducated but he sent her to a private school in London before the marriage so that she would acquire the accomplishments considered important for women in the 19th century. His friends did not accept his marriage initially, but they eventually liked and respected Lucy.

Graves then served as rector of Claverton, near Bath, Somerset. He was an enthusiastic collector of poems, a translator, essayist and correspondent. His best-known work is the picaresque novel, The Spiritual Quixote (1773). The Spiritual Quixote was a satire of John Wesley, George Whitefield, and methodism in general, which he saw as a threat to his Anglican congregation. He also wrote numerous poems and several plays.

He served as chaplain to Mary Townshend, Countess Chatham, and as private tutor to Prince Hoare and Thomas Malthus. He was a close friend of Shenstone, Anthony Whistler, "lowborn" Ralph Allen, and William Warburton.

He and Lucy had 5 children, including a son also named Richard Graves who became vicar of Great Malvern.

Publications

Poetry

• The Love of Order: A poetical essay, in three cantos. London: J. Dodsley, 1773.
• The Progress of Gallantry: A poetical essay. London: J. Dodsley, 1774.
• Euphrosyne; or, The amusements of real life. (2 volumes), London: J. Dodsley, 1776.

Plays

• Echo and Narcissus: A dramatic pastoral, of three acts. London: J. Dodsley, 1780.
• The Coalition; or, The opera rehears'd: A comedy, in three acts. Bath, UK: printed by R. Crutwell, for C. Dilly / G.G.J. & J. Robinson, London, 1794.

Novels

• The Spiritual Quixote; or, The summer's ramble of Mr. Geoffrey Wildgoose: A comic romance]. (3 volumes), 1773. Volume I, Volume II, Volume III
• Columella; or, The distressed anchoret: A colloquial tale. (2 volumes), London: J. Dodsley, 1779.
• Eugenius; or Anecdotes of the golden vale: An embellished narrative of real facts. (2 volumes), London: J. 1785.
• Plexippus; or, The aspiring plebeian. (2 volumes), London: J. Dodsley, 1790.
• The Farmer's Son: A moral tale. Bath, UK: R. Crutwell, 1795.

Non-fiction

• A Letter from a Father to His Son at the University. Oxford, UK: D. Prince & J. Cooke, 1787.
• Recollections of Some Particulars in the Life of the Late William Shenstone. London: J. Dodsley, 1788.
• The Rout; or, A sketch of modern life. London: J. Dodsley, 1789.
• The Reveries of Solitude: Consisting of essays in prose. Bath, UK: R. Crutwell, for G.G.J. & J.Robinson, London, 1793.
• Sermons; to which is added a letter from a father to his son at the university. Bath, UK: printed by R. Crutwell, 1799.
• The Invalid; with The obvious means of enjoying health and a long life. London: Phillips, 1804.

Collected editions

• Lucubrations: Consisting of essays, reveries, etc in prose and verse (by "the late Peter of Pontefract"). London: J. Dodsley, 1786.
• Senilities; or, Solitary amusements in prose and verse. London: T.N. Longman & O. Rees, 1801.
• The Triflers: Consisting of trifling essays, trifling anecdotes, and a few poetical trifles. London: privately published, 1805.

Translated

• Giovanni Della Casa, Galateo; or, A treatise on politeness. London: J. Dodsley, 1774.
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Werter: A German story . (2 volumes), London: J. Dodsley, 1779.
• François de Salignac de La Mothe-Fénelon, Fleurettes: Containing an ode on solitude. London: J. Dodsley,1784.
• Herodian, The Heir Apparent; or, The life of Commodus. London: J. Dodsley, 1789.
• Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, The Meditations. Bath, UK: R. Crutwell, for G.G.J. & J. Robinson, London, 1792.
• Xenophon, Hiero: On the condition of royalty; a conversation from the Greek. Bath, UK: R. Crutwell, for G.G.J. & J. Robinson, London, 1793.

Edited

• The Festoon: A collection of epigrams, ancient and modern. London: Robinon & Robert, 1766.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of British poets

References

• Tracy, C (1987) A Portrait of Richard Graves ISBN 0-8020-5697-0
• Hill, CJ (1935) "The Literary Career of Richard Graves, the Author of The Spiritual Quixote." Smith College Studies in Modern Languages XVI.1-3

External links

Poems

• Rev. Richard Graves (1715-1804) info & 4 poems at English Poetry, 1579-1830
• Richard Graves at the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (11 poems)

Books

• Rev. Richard Graves at Amazon.com

About

• Graves, Richard in the Dictionary of National Biography
• "Richard Graves and his literary work" in the Cambridge History of English and American Literature