By nature formed, by want a pedant made, Blackmore at first set up the whipping trade; Next quack commenced, when fierce with pride he swore, That toothache, gout, and corns, should be no more: In vain his drugs, as well as birch he plied, His boys grow blockheads, and his patients died. Sir Richard Blackmore had his medical diploma from Padua, in Italy; a learned and eminent University, which, like some in my own country, is supposed not to be over scrupulous in conferring honours of this nature.] [Footnote 66: "Prince Arthur," a heroic poem, in ten books, published in 1695, was written, the author assures us in his Preface, "by such catches and starts, and in such occasional uncertain hours, as his profession afforded, and for the greatest part in coffee-houses, or in passing up and down the streets."] [Footnote 67: Who was the first of these well-judging monarchs, is hard to say. Blackmore may have had some sort of royal licence for the practice of physic during the reign of Charles or James; but he was not made physician to the Household till the reign of King William, who conferred on him, at the same time, the honour of knighthood; for which that monarch's taste is thus commemorated by Pope: The hero William, and the martyr Charles, One knighted Blackmore, and one pensioned Quarles. Blackmore's dulness, or solidity of temper, rendered him absolutely impenetrable to the shafts of ridicule, which were aimed at him from all quarters; and, consoling himself with the excellence of his intentions, he wrote on till the catalogue of his works gave room for Swift's burlesque inscription, to be placed under his picture: