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GIFFORD, WILLIAM (1756-1826)

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 5 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GIFFORD, See also:WILLIAM (1756-1826) , See also:English publicist and See also:man of letters, was See also:born at See also:Ashburton, See also:Devon, in See also:April 1756. His See also:father was a glazier of indifferent See also:character, and before he was thirteen William had lost both parents. The business was seized by his godfather, on whom William and his See also:brother, a See also:child of two, became entirely dependent. For about three months William was allowed to remain at the See also:free school of the See also:town. He was then put to follow the plough, but after a See also:day's trial he proved unequal to the task, and was sent to See also:sea with the See also:Brixham fishermen. After a See also:year at sea his godfather, driven by the See also:opinion of the townsfolk, put the boy to school once more. He made rapid progress, especially in See also:mathematics, and began to assist the See also:master. In 1772 he was apprenticed-to a shoemaker, and when he wished to pursue his mathematical studies, he was obliged to See also:work his problems with an See also:awl on beaten See also:leather. By the kindness of an Ashburton surgeon, William Cooksley, a subscription was raised to enable him to return to school. Ultimately he proceeded in his twenty-third year to See also:Oxford, where he was appointed a See also:Bible clerk in See also:Exeter See also:College. Leaving the university shortly after See also:graduation in 1782, he found a generous See also:patron in the first See also:Earl Grosvenor, who undertook to provide for him, and sent him on two prolonged See also:continental See also:tours in the capacity of See also:tutor to his son, See also:Lord Belgrave. Settling in See also:London, Gifford published in 1794 his first work, a See also:clever satirical piece, after See also:Persius, entitled the Baviad, aimed at a coterie of second-See also:rate writers at See also:Florence, then popularly known as the Della Cruscans, of which Mrs See also:Piozzi was the See also:leader.

A second See also:

satire of a similar description, the Maeviad, directed against the corruptions of the See also:drama, appeared in 1795. About this See also:time Gifford became acquainted with See also:Canning, with whose help he in See also:August 1797 originated a weekly newspaper of Conservative politics entitled the See also:Anti-Jacobin, which, however, in the following year ceased to be published. An English version of See also:Juvenal, on which he had been for many years engaged, appeared in 1802; to this an autobiographical See also:notice of the translator, reproduced in See also:Nichol's Illustrations of Literature, was prefixed. Two years afterwards Gifford published an annotated edition of the plays of See also:Massinger; and in 1809, when the Quarterly See also:Review was projected, he. was made editor. The success which attended the Quarterly from the outset was due in no small degree to the ability and tact with which Gifford discharged his editorial duties. He took, however, considerable liberties with the articles he inserted, and See also:Southey, who was one of his See also:regular contributors, said that Gifford looked on authors as Izaak See also:Walton did on See also:worms. His See also:bitter opposition to Radicals and his onslaughts on new writers, conspicuous among which was the See also:article on See also:Keats's See also:Endymion, called forth See also:Hazlitt's See also:Letter to W. Gifford in 1819. His connexion with the Review continued until within about two years of his See also:death, which took See also:place in London on the 31st of See also:December 1826. Besides numerous contributions to the Quarterly during the last fifteen years of his See also:life, he wrote a metrical See also:translation of Persius, which appeared in 1821. Gifford also edited the dramas of See also:Ben See also:Jonson in 1816; and his edition of See also:Ford appeared posthumously in 1827. His notes on See also:Shirley were incorporated in See also:Dyce's edition in 1833.

His See also:

political services were acknowledged by the appointments of See also:commissioner of the lottery and paymaster of the See also:gentle-man pensioners. He See also:left a considerable See also:fortune, the bulk of which went to the son of his first benefactor, William Cooksley.

End of Article: GIFFORD, WILLIAM (1756-1826)

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