Everything about William King Poet totally explained
William King (
1663 -
1712) was an
English poet.
Born in
London, the son of an Ezekiel King, he was related to the family of
Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon. From
Westminster School, where he was a scholar under the care of Dr. Busby, at the age of eighteen he was elected to
Christ Church, Oxford in
1681. There he's said to have dedicated himself so completely to his studies that after eight years he'd read over twenty-two thousand books and manuscripts. (However, this astounding figure is reduced to about one-third by the polymath, Thomas Young, who remarks in his autobiographical sketch that King "read no fewer than
seven thousand in the course of a residence of
seven years at Oxford.")
In
1688, the same year in which he was made Master of Arts, he published a confutation of
Varillas's account of
Wycliffe; and, engaging in the study of the
civil law, became Doctor in
1692, and was admitted an advocate at
Doctors' Commons. He had already made some translations from the
French language, and written some humorous and satirical pieces and in
1694,
Molesworth published his
Account of Denmark, in which he treated the
Danes and their monarch with great contempt. This book offended
Prince George of Denmark, the consort of
Queen Anne; and the Danish Minister protested.
In
1699 he published
A Journey to London, after the method of Dr.
Martin Lister, who had published
A Journey to Paris. And in
1700 he satirised the
Royal Society — or at least, Sir
Hans Sloane, their president — in two dialogues, entitled
The Transactioner. In
1702, having moved to
Ireland, he was made Judge of the
Admiralty, Commissioner of the Prizes, Keeper of the Records in Birmingham's Tower, and Vicar-General to Dr. Marsh, the primate. King soon found a friend in Upton, one of the judges, who had a house called
Mountown, near
Dublin, where King frequently stayed; It was here he wrote the poem
Mully of Mountown. In
1708, when Lord Wharton was sent to govern Ireland, King returned to London and published some essays, called
Useful Transactions. His
Voyage to the Island of Cajamai is particularly commended. He then wrote the
Art of Love, a poem remarkable, notwithstanding its title, for purity of sentiment; and in
1709 imitated
Horace in an
Art of Cookery, which he published with some letters to Dr. Lister.
In
1710 he became a supporter of the Church, on the side of
Henry Sacheverell; and was supposed to have concurred at least in the projection of the Examiner. His eyes were open to all the operations of
Whiggism; and he bestowed some strictures upon Dr. Kennet's adulatory sermon at the funeral of
the Duke of Devonshire.
The History of the Heathen Gods, a book composed for schools, was written in
1711. The same year he published
Rufinus, an historical essay; and a poem intended to dispose the nation to think as he thought of the
Duke of Marlborough and his adherents.
In the autumn of
1712 his health declined and he died on Christmas Day.
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