John Philips (1676-1708)

The son of the Archdeacon of Salop, John Philips attended Winchester College (1691-97) and entered Christ Church Oxford in 1697 at the age of 15. He was a friend of George Sewell and Edmund "Rag" Smith before he died of consumption at an early age. Philips is best known for his burlesque of Milton, the Splendid Shilling; he published Blenheim as a Tory counterpart to Addison's Campaign.

TEXT RECORDS:

1701An Imitation of Milton. [The Splendid Shilling.]
1705Blenheim, a Poem.
1708Cyder. A Poem.

PUBLICATIONS:

The sylvan dream: or the mourning muse. 1701.
The splendid shilling: an imitation of Milton. 1705.
Blenheim: a poem. 1705.
Cerealia: an imitation of Milton. 1706.
Honoratissimo viro Henrico Saint John, armigero: ode. 1707.
Ode graulatoria Willielmo Cowper. 1707.
Cyder: a poem in two books. 1708.
Poems, ed. George Sewell. 1712.
The whole works. 1720.
Poems, ed. M. G. Lloyd Thomas. 1927.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
Anglican

Winchester College
Christ Church College Oxford

poet

Viscount Bolingbroke
Rev. William Diaper
Robert Harley
Dr. George Sewell
Edmund Smith
John Somers
Thomas Tickell
Leonard Welsted

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL; DLB.

Life by George Sewell in Poems (1712); Leonard Welsted, Poem to the Incomparable John Philips; Giles Jacob, An Historical Account of ... English Poets (1720); Biographia Britannica (1747-66); Cibber-Shiels, Lives of the Poets (1753); David Erskine Baker, Companion to the Play-House (1764); Bell's Poets of Great Britain (1776-82); Samuel Johnson, Life in Works of the English Poets (1779-81); John Nichols, Select Collection of Poems (1780-82); Biographia Dramatica (1782; 1812); Roach's Beauties of the Poets (1794); Robert Anderson, British Poets (1795); Robert Southey, Specimens of Later English Poets (1807); Samuel Jackson Pratt, Cabinet of Poetry (1808); Alexander Chalmers, English Poets (1810); Alexander Chalmers, General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17); John Nichols, Literary Anecdotes (1812-15); Thomas Campbell, Specimens of the British Poets (1819); Ezekiel Sanford, British Poets (1819); John Aikin, Select Works of the British Poets (1820); William Hazlitt, Select British Poets (1824); Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); Robert Chambers, Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844); John Holland, in Psalmists of Britain (1843); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Foster, Alumni Oxon (1887-91); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05); life in Poems ed. M. G. Thomas (1927); Fairchild, in Religious Trends in English Poetry (1939); Dobree, OHEL (1959); Nancy Lee Riffe, "An Early Miltonic Burlesque" Notes and Queries NS 11 (1964) 296; John Chalker, in The English Georgic (1969); Chadwyck-Healey English Poetry Database (1995).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for John Philips:

1.	1699 ca. John Philips, "Mr. John Philips's designed Dedication to his Poem called The Splendid Shilling, to William Brome, Esq. of Ewithington, in the County of Hereford" 1699 ca.; St. James's Chronicle (26 September 1775).
2.	1705 J. C., Westminster Scholar, "On Mr. Phillips's Poem, occasion'd by the Votes of the House of Commons to do something to perpetuate the Duke Marlborough's Memory" Diverting Post (17 February 1705).
3.	1706 Richard Daniel, in The British Warrior (1706) 5.
4.	1707 Thomas Tickell, in Oxford, a Poem, 1707; Nichols, Select Collection of Poems (1780-82) 5:42.
5.	1707 ca. Edmund Smith, "Ragg's Verses to J. Philips" 1707 ca.; St. James's Chronicle (26 September 1775).
6.	1708 John Gay, in Wine, a Poem (1708) 8.
7.	1708 ca. J. A., "To the Memory of his dear Friend, John Phillips, Esq." 1708 ca.; Grub-Street Journal (27 August 1730).
8.	1710 Edmund Smith, A Poem on the Death of Mr. John Philips (1710) 1-13.
9.	1712 George Sewell, in Life of John Philips (1712) 3-4.
10.	1712 Thomas Newcomb, in Bibliotheca, 1712; Nichols, Select Collection of Poems (1784) 57-58.
11.	1713 Henry Felton, in Dissertation on Reading the Classics (1713; 1715) 257-59.
12.	1713 William Diaper, in Dryades (1713) 4.
13.	1727 Joseph Mitchell, in The Shoe-Heel, 1727; Poems (1729) 2:88-89.
14.	1728 James Ralph, in The Muses' Address to the King (1728) 17.
15.	1730 ca. Theophilus Leigh, 1730 ca.; Spence, Anecdotes, ed. Osburne (1966) 1:333.
16.	1738 Anonymous, in "The Apotheosis of Milton" Gentleman's Magazine (October 1738) 521.
17.	1740 William Somervile, in Hobbinol, or the Rural Games (1740) 3-4.
18.	1746 Anonymous, in "A Bacchanalian Rhapsody" The Museum: or the Literary and Historical Register 1 (1746) 339.
19.	1749 Anonymous, in Westminster Abbey, an Heroic Poem (1749) 15-17.
20.	1763 William Thompson, "Garden Inscriptions: In the midst of an Apple-Tree, over Mr. Philips's Cyder" in The Poetical Calendar (1763) 8:118.
21.	1763 Anonymous, "Upon Sir J— P—p's Silence and Behaviour on the Cyder-Bill" Scots Magazine 25 (March 1763) 164.
22.	1773 William Hayward Roberts, in A Poetical Epistle to Christopher Anstey on the English Poets (1773); Poems (1774) 104.
23.	1773 Danos, in "Verses on some late English Poets" Scots Magazine 35 (September 1773) 486.
24.	1779 Vicesimus Knox, in Essays Moral and Literary (1779) 2:276.
25.	1779 Samuel Johnson, in "Life of Milton" Lives of the English Poets (1779-81); ed. Hill (1905) 1:150.
26.	1795 Robert Anderson, in Works of the British Poets (1795) 6:535.
27.	1806 John Aikin, in Letters to a Young Lady (1806) 143.
28.	1807 Robert Southey, in Specimens of the Later English Poets (1807) 1:144.
29.	1824 Bryan Waller Procter, in Effigies Poeticae, or, the Portraits of the British Poets (1824) 65.
30.	1833 Hartley Coleridge, in "Richard Bentley" Northern Worthies (1833; 1852) 1:208n.
31.	1843 John Holland, in Psalmists of Britain. Records of upwards of One Hundred and Fifty Authors, who have rendered the Whole or Parts of The Book of Psalms, into English Verse (1843) 2:120-22.
32.	1860 George Gilfillan, in Specimens with Memoirs of the less-known British Poets (1860) 3:11-13.
33.	1882 Epes Sargent, in Harper's Cyclopaedia of British and American Poetry (1882) 131.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for John Philips:

1.	1720 Giles Jacob, in Historical Account of the Lives and Writings of our most considerable English Poets (1720) 134-35, 137.
2.	1753 Anonymous, in Cibber-Shiels, Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) 3:143-50.
3.	1776 John Nichols, Note in Original Works of William King (1776) 3:185n.
4.	1779 Samuel Johnson, Lives of the English Poets (1779-81); ed. Hill (1905) 1:312-27.
5.	1808 Samuel Jackson Pratt, in Cabinet of the Muses (1808) 2:128-29.
6.	1812 Alexander Chalmers, in General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17) 24:455-58.
7.	1819 Thomas Campbell, in Specimens of the British Poets (1819; 1845) 318.
8.	1820 John Aikin, in Select Works of the British Poets (1820) 208.
9.	1844 Robert Chambers, in Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844; 1850) 1:374.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1699 ca. John Philips: John Philips, "Mr. John Philips's designed Dedication to his Poem called The Splendid Shilling, to William Brome, Esq. of Ewithington, in the County of Hereford" 1699 ca.; St. James's Chronicle (26 September 1775).