Ambrose Philips must not be confounded with his namesake John, the author of a clever burlesque of Milton, called _The Splendid Shilling_ (1705); of _Blenheim_ (1705), a poem which he was urged to write by the Tories in opposition to Addison's _Campaign_; and of a poem upon _Cider_ (1706), in 'Miltonian verse,' which seems to have afforded several suggestions to Pope in his _Windsor Forest_. It is said to display a considerable knowledge of the subject, and in that its principal merit consists. From _The Splendid Shilling_ a brief extract may be given: 'So pass my days. But when nocturnal shades This world envelop, and th' inclement air Persuades men to repel benumbing frosts With pleasant wines, and crackling blaze of wood; Me, lonely sitting, nor the glimmering light Of make-weight candle, nor the joyous talk Of loving friend delights; distressed, forlorn, Amidst the horrors of the tedious night, Darkling I sigh, and feed with dismal thoughts My anxious mind; or sometimes mournful verse Indite, and sing of groves and myrtle shades, Or desperate lady near a purling stream, Or lover pendent on a willow tree. Meanwhile I labour with eternal drought And restless wish, and rave; my parched throat Finds no relief, nor heavy eyes repose. But if a slumber haply does invade My weary limbs, my fancy still awake, Thoughtful of drink, and eager, in a dream Tipples imaginary pots of ale In vain; awake I find the settled thirst Still gnawing, and the pleasant phantom curse.' 'Philips,' says the poet Campbell, 'had the merit of studying and admiring Milton, but he never could imitate him without ludicrous effect, either in jest or earnest. His _Splendid Shilling_ is the earliest and one of the best of our parodies; but _Blenheim_ is as completely a burlesque upon Milton as _The Splendid Shilling_, though it was written and read with gravity, ... yet such are the fluctuations of taste that contemporary criticism bowed with solemn admiration over his Miltonic cadences.' [Sidenote: Nicholas Rowe (1673-1718).] Nicholas Rowe had the honour, if it was one in those days, of being made Laureate on the accession of George I. His odes, epistles, and songs are without merit, but he gained reputation as the translator of Lucan's _Pharsalia_, of which Sir Arthur Gorges had produced a version in 1614, and his plays entitle him to a place, though not a high one, in our dramatic literature. Rowe edited an edition of Shakespeare, and should have known his author, yet in a prologue he declares that he could not draw women--an amazing assertion echoed by Collins, who praises Fletcher for his knowledge of the 'female mind,' and adds that 'stronger Shakespeare felt for man alone.'