92 
PHILIPS. 
effeft of an happy intimacy between herfelf and the late 
famous Poliarchus, and are an admirable pattern for the 
pleading correfpondence of a virtuous friendfflip. They 
will fufficiently inftruft us, how an intercourfe of writing 
between perfons of different fexes ought to be managed 
■with delight and innocence ; and teach the world not to 
load fuch a commerce with cenfure and detraftion, when 
it is removed at fuch a diftance from even the appearance 
of guilt.” 
PHIL'IPS ( Ambrofe), was defcended from a very an¬ 
cient and confiderable family of that name in Leicefter- 
fliire. He was born about the year 1671, and received 
his education at Sr. John’s College, Cambridge. From 
the manner in which Pope mentions him, in the trea- 
tife on the Bathos, as a zealous Proteftant deacon, he 
feems to have been intended for the church, and to have 
taken the firff orders therein. During his ftay at the 
■univerfity he wrote his Paftorals, which acquired him at 
the. time a high reputation, concerning the merits of 
which the critical world has fince been much divided. 
He alfo, in 1700, publifned a life of John Williams, lord 
keeper of the great feal, bifhop of Lincoln, and archbifhop 
of York, in the reigns of king James and Charles I. in 
which are related fome remarkable occurrences in thofe 
tunes, both in church and ftate; with an Appendix, gi¬ 
ving an account of his benefactions to St. John’s college. 
This work. Cibber feems to imagine Mr. Philips made ufe 
of, the better to divulge his own political principles; 
which, in the courfe of it, he had a free opportunity of 
doing; as the archbifhop, who is the hero of his work, 
was a ftrong opponent to the high-church meafures. 
When he quitted the univerfity, and came to London, 
he became a conftant attendant at, and one of the wits 
of, Button’s coff'ee-houfe, where he obtained the friend¬ 
fhip and intimacy of many of the celebrated geniufes of 
that age, more particularly of fir Richard Steele, who, in 
the firff volume of his Tatler, hasinferted a little poem 
of Mr. Philips’s, which he calls a Winter Piece, dated 
from Copenhagen, and addrefied to the earl of Dorfet, on 
which he beftows the higheft encomiums ; and, indeed, 
fo much juftice is there in thefe his commendations, that 
even Pope himfelf, who, for reafons that we fhall pre¬ 
sently mention, had a fixed averfion for the author, while 
he nffefred to defpife his other works, ufed always to ex¬ 
cept this from the number. 
The firff diflike which Pope conceived againft Philips, 
proceeded from that jealoufy of fame which was fo con¬ 
spicuous in the charafter of that great poet; for fir Rich¬ 
ard Steele, who, as we have before obferved, was an ad¬ 
mirer of Philips, had taken fo ftrong a liking to the 
Paftorals of the latter, as to have formed a defign for a 
critical comparifon of them with thofe of Pope, in the 
conclufion of which, the preference was to have been 
given to Philips. This defign, however, coming to 
Pope’s knowledge, added to the foolifhly-exaggerated 
praifes of Tickel, occafioned the very curious tranfaftion 
we have related under the word Pastoral, vol. xviii. 
p. 766. 
Philips and Pope being of different political principles, 
was another caufe of enmity between them, which arofe 
at length to fo great a height, that the former, finding his 
antagonift two hard for him at the weapon of wit, had 
even determined on making ufe of a rougher kind of ar¬ 
gument, for which purpofe he went fofaras to hang up a 
rod at Button’s for the chaftifement of his adverfary 
whenever he (ho 11 Id come thither; which, however, Mr. 
Pope declining to do, avoided the argumentum laculinum , 
in which he would, no doubt, have found himfelf on the 
wenkeft fide of the queftion. Bsfides Pope, there were 
Some other writers who have written in burlefque of 
Philips’s poetry, which was fingular in its manner, 
and not difficult to imitate, particularly Mr. Henry Carey, 
•who, by fome lines in Philips’s ftyle, and which were 
for a time thought to be Dean Swift’s, fixed on that au¬ 
thor the name of Nam by Pamby; and Ifaac Hawkins 
Browne, in his poem called A Pipe of Tobacco, which- 
however is written with great good humour, and, though 
intended to burlefque, is by no means defigned to ridicule, 
Mr. Philips, he having taken the very fame liberty with 
Swift, Pope, Thomfon, Young, and Cibber. 
That Philips was an authorby profeffion, feems certain. 
He tranflated the Perfian Tales for Tonfon the bookfeller, 
and was reproached with having “ worked for half a 
crown.” But, as Dr. Johnfon remarks, “ the book is 
divided into many Sections, for each of which if he re¬ 
ceived half a crown, his reward, as writers then were 
paid, was very liberal.” In 1712, his famous tragedy of 
the Diftrefi'ed Mother, tranflated and adapted from Ra¬ 
cine’s Andromaque, was performed with prodigious ap- 
plaufe. It was not till' nine years afterwards, that lie 
produced his two other tragedies; the Briton, 1712, and 
Humphrey duke of Gloucefter, 1723; both afted with 
little fuccefs. 
Philips’s circumftances were in general, through 
his life, not only eafy, but rather affluent, in confequence 
of his being connecied, by his political principles, with 
perfons of great rank and confequence. He was con¬ 
cerned with-Dr. Hugh Boulter, afterwards archbifhop of 
Armagh, Richard Weft, chancellor of Ireland, the 
Rev. Gilbert Burnet, and the Rev. Henry Stevens, in 
writing a feries of papers called the Free Thinker, which 
were all publiffied together by Mr. Philips, in 3 vols. 8vo. 
In the latter part of.queen Anne’s reign, he was fecre- 
tary to the Hanover Club; a fet of noblemen and gen¬ 
tlemen, who had formed an aft’ociation in honour of that 
fucceffion, and for the fupport of its interefts, and who 
ufed particularly to diftinguiffl in their toafts fuch of the 
fair fex as were moft zealoufly attached to the iiluftrious 
houfe of Brunfwick. Philips’s ftation in this club, to¬ 
gether with the zeal fflown in his writings, recommend¬ 
ing him to the notice and favour of the new government, 
he was, foon after the acceflion of George I. put into the 
commiffion of the peace; and, in 1717, appointed one of 
the commiffioners of the lottery: and, on his friend Dr. 
Boulter’s being made primate of Ireland, he accompanied 
that prelate acrofs the channel, where he had confider¬ 
able preferments beftowed on him, and was elefted a mem¬ 
ber of the houfe of commons there, as reprefentative for 
the county of Armagh. In Sept. 1734. be was appointed 
regifter of the prerogative-court in Dublin. At length, 
having purchafed an annuity for life of 400I. he came 
over to England fome time in the year 1748; but did not 
long enjoy his fortune, being (truck with a palfy, of 
which he died June 18, 1749, in his feventy-eiglub year, 
at his lodgings near Vauxhall.- 
PHIL'IPS (John), an Englifli poet, born in 1676 at 
Bampton in Oxfordlhire, was the fon of Dr. Stephen Phi¬ 
lips, archdeacon of Salop. He received his ciaffical edu¬ 
cation at Winchefter-fchool, where he gained great re¬ 
putation by bis Greek and Latin exercifies. In 1694 he 
removed to Chrift-church, Oxford, where he fully main¬ 
tained the ciaffical diftinftion he had acquired, and ob¬ 
tained the efteem of feveral eminent literary characters. 
Being defigned for phyfic, he applied to the ftudy of na¬ 
tural hiftory, and particularly of botany; but it does not 
appear that he engaged in profeffional purfuits. In 1703 
he made himfelf known to the public by the poem of 
“The Splendid Shilling,” which the Tatler ftyles “the 
fineft burlefque poem in the Englifli language.” The re¬ 
putation he acquired by this eft’ufion was the caufe of his 
being felefted by Harley and St. John, the heads of the 
tory-party, (for all was party then,) to celebrate the vic¬ 
tory at “ Blenheim,” in competition with Addifon, the 
poet of the whigs. This he executed in a poem with that 
title, publiffied in 1705, which, however, does not feem 
to have added much to his fame. His didafric poem on 
“ Cyder,” publ’fhed in 1706, is his principal work, and 
that to which his name is chiefly alTociated. It became 
popular, and raifed him to eminence among the poets of 
his time. A Latin Ode, in the Horatian ftyle, addrefled 
to 
