The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) Volume III.Cibber, Theophilus
General
The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) Volume III.
Cibber, Theophilus
Poets, English -- Biography -- Early works to 1800; Poets, Irish -- Biography -- Early works to 1800
At his leisure hours he wrote likewise, The Art of Love, an imitation of
Ovid, De Arte Amandi. To which he prefixed an account of Ovid. In
the latter part of his life, about the year 1711, he published an
Historical Account of the Heathen Gods, and Heroes, for the use
of Westminster, and other schools; for the better and more easy
understanding of the Classics. Besides these performances, we likewise
find three numbers of a project, entitled, the Transactioner, or, Useful
Transactions: Containing a great number of small pieces, which it would
be tedious here to enumerate.[1]
We have already observed, that our author while in Ireland, neglected
the best opportunity of encreasing his fortune; and the circumstance
which occasioned it we find to be this: He had contracted an intimacy
which soon grew into friendship, with judge Upton, a man of the same
temper with himself, who delighted in retirement and poetical amusement.
He had a country villa called Mountown, near Dublin, where he and Dr.
King used to retire, and spend most of their time without any regard to
their public offices; and by these means neglecting to pay court to the
lord lieutenant, they fell under his displeasure. These two poetical
companions, indulged no other thoughts but those of living and dying in
their rural retreat. Upon this occasion, Dr. King wrote a Pastoral Poem,
called Mully of Mountown: Mully was the name of a Red-Cow which gave him
milk, whom he made the chief subject of his Poem; which at that time the
critics would have imposed upon the word as a political allegory,
tho' this was a manner of writing, with which the Dr. was totally
unacquainted.
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