Everything about William Walsh totally explained
William Walsh (
1663 –
1708),
English poet and
critic, son of Joseph Walsh of
Abberley Hall,
Worcestershire.
He entered
Wadham College, Oxford, as a
gentleman commoner in 1678. Leaving the university without a degree, he settled in his native county, and was returned MP for
Worcester in 1698, 1701 and 1702. In
1705 he sat for
Richmond, Yorkshire. On the accession of
Queen Anne he was made "gentleman of the horse," a post which he held till his death, noted by
Narcissus Luttrell on
18 March 1708.
He wrote a
Dialogue concerning Women, being a Defence of the Sex (1691), addressed to "Eugenia"; and
Letters and Poems, Amorous and Gallant (preface dated 1692, printed in
Jonson's Miscellany, 1716, and separately, 1736); love lyrics designed, says the author, to impart to the world "the faithful image of an amorous heart."
It isn't as a poet, however, but as the friend and correspondent of
Alexander Pope that Walsh is remembered. Pope's
Pastorals were submitted for his criticism by
Wycherley in 1705, and Walsh then entered on a direct correspondence with the young poet. The letters are printed in Pope's
Works (ed. Elwin and Courthope, vi. 49-60). Pope, who visited him at Abberley in
1707, set great value upon his opinion. "Mr Walsh used to tell me," he says, "that there was one way left of excelling; for though we'd several great poets, we never had any one great poet that was correct, and he desired me to make that my study and my aim."
The excessive eulogy accorded both by
Dryden and Pope to Walsh must be accounted for partly on the ground of personal friendship. The life of
Virgil prefixed to Dryden's translation, and a "Preface to the Pastorals with a short defence of Virgil, against some of the reflections of Monsieur Fontenella," both ascribed at one time to Walsh, were the work of
Dr Knightly Chetwood (1650-1720). In
1704 Walsh collaborated with
Sir John Vanbrugh and
William Congreve in
Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, or Squire Trelooby, an adaptation of
Molière's farce. Walsh's
Poems are included in
Anderson's and other collections of the British poets.
See
The Lives of the Poets, vol. iii. pp. 151 et seq., published 1753 as by
Theophilus Cibber.
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