WALSH, WILLIAM (16631708)

This article appears in Volume V28, Page 293 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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WALSH, WILLIAM (16631708) , English poet and critic, son of Joseph

Walsh

of Abberley, Worcestershire, was born in 1663. He entered Wadham College, Oxford, as a

gentleman

GENTLEMAN (from Lat. gentilis, " belonging to a race or gens," and " man "; Fr. gentilhomme, Span. gentil hombre, Ital. gentil huomo, in its
original
- ORIGINAL
and strict signification, a term denoting a man of good family, the Lat. generosus (its invariable transl

commoner in 1678. Leaving the university without a degree, he settled in his native county, and was returned M.P. for Worcester in 1698, 1701 and 1702. In 1705 he sat for Richmond, Yorkshire. On the accession of Queen Anne he was made "

gentleman

GENTLEMAN (from Lat. gentilis, " belonging to a race or gens," and " man "; Fr. gentilhomme, Span. gentil hombre, Ital. gentil huomo, in its
original
- ORIGINAL
and strict signification, a term denoting a man of good family, the Lat. generosus (its invariable transl

of the horse," a post which he held till his death, noted by Narcissus Luttrell on the 18th of 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 is not as a poet, however, but as the friend and correspondent of 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. 49-6o). Pope, who visited him at Abberley in 1707, set

great

GREAT

value upon his

opinion

OPINION (Lat. opinio, from opinari, to think)

. " Mr Walsh used to tell me," he says, " that there was one way left of excelling; for though we had several

great

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

WORK

of Dr Knightly Chet

wood

(1650-1720). In 1704 Walsh collaborated with Sir John Vanbrugh and William

Congreve

in Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, or Squire Trelooby, an adaptation of Moliere'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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