Charles Gildon facts for kids

Charles Gildon (born around 1665 – died January 1, 1724) was an English writer who worked on many different types of books. He was a translator, wrote biographies, essays, plays, poems, and even fictional letters. He also wrote fables, short stories, and worked as a critic.

Gildon is known for writing about many famous people from the time of the English Restoration. However, he often made up or spread false information in these stories. He is most remembered because the famous poet Alexander Pope made fun of him in his poems, and he was also an enemy of Jonathan Swift. Many of Gildon's biographies are the only ones we have from that time, but almost all of them contain made-up details. Because of how Pope described him, and because he wrote so much so quickly, Gildon became known as a writer who would do anything for money.

Biography

Charles Gildon was born in Gillingham, Dorset. His family was Roman Catholic and had supported the King during the English Civil War. While one of his cousins became a Catholic priest, Charles's parents went to France, and Charles studied in Douai. He left college in 1684 when he was 19 and moved to England.

Two years later, in 1686, he moved to London. He quickly spent or lost all the money he had inherited. In 1688, he got married to a woman who also didn't have much money. Because of this, he started writing almost immediately to earn a living.

Early Writing Work

His first known boss in writing was John Dunton. Dunton hired Gildon to write for a newspaper called the Athenian Mercury. Gildon also wrote The History of the Athenian Society in 1692. In the same year, Gildon wrote a life story of Aphra Behn, claiming they were close friends. It's possible they knew each other since both were likely from Dorset and supported the King. However, his story about her life has many clear mistakes.

At this time, Gildon was friends with famous writers like John Dryden and William Wycherley, as well as Aphra Behn. He lived a fancy lifestyle. For a few years, from 1693 to 1698, he believed in Deism. Deism is a belief that God created the world but doesn't interfere with it. In 1693, Gildon edited the Works of Charles Blount and added his own Deist writing called Oracles of Reason. In 1695, he wrote a Life of Blount that made him seem like a hero. Around the same time, in 1694, he wrote a defense of Dryden's modern ideas against another writer named Thomas Rymer.

Between 1696 and 1702, Gildon wrote four tragedies (sad plays) that were not successful. In 1698, he changed his religion and became an Anglican. Later, in 1705, he wrote The Deist's Manual to argue against Deism. He also wrote a series of stories, including "The Post-Boy Robb'd of his Mail," "The Golden Spy," and "All for the Better," between 1692 and 1720.

His book The Golden Spy (1709) is seen by today's experts as the first "it-narrative" in English. This is a type of story where an object, like a coin, tells the story as it moves from person to person. But back then, people saw it as a funny satire, similar to an old Roman story called The Golden Ass.

Political Views and Troubles

By 1706, Gildon was a strong supporter of the Whig Party. This was different from his family, who supported the King (Tories and Jacobites). He published letters asking Electress Sophia to visit England. He hoped she would be ready to become Queen after Queen Anne died. The government saw this as a crime called seditious libel, which means writing things that encourage rebellion against the government.

Important Whig leaders helped him. Richard Steele wrote a plea for him. When Gildon was found guilty and had to pay a fine of 100 pounds, Arthur Mainwaring paid it for him. These letters could have led to jail time, but Gildon's connections saved him.

Arthur Mainwaring, who was already an enemy of Jonathan Swift, helped Gildon again. Steele also introduced him to more newspaper work. In return, Gildon dedicated his 1710 book Life of Thomas Betterton to Steele.

Later Works and Conflicts

Gildon's essay "The Art of Poetry" was published without his name in John Brightland's A Grammar of the English Tongue in 1711. Gildon later made this essay into a full book called The Complete Art of Poetry in 1718. Brightland's Grammar also included Gildon's writing on "Logic; or, The Art of Reasoning." Much of Gildon's "Logic" was a translation of a book by Jean Le Clerc from 1692. Later, Ephraim Chambers used a lot of Gildon's translation when he wrote his famous encyclopedia, the Cyclopaedia.

In 1711, John Brightland hired Gildon to manage The British Mercury newspaper. For six months, Gildon used the paper to attack Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope. He attacked Swift because Swift was enemies with Mainwaring. His fight with Pope was probably also about politics. After The British Mercury closed, he attacked Pope again in a play called A New Rehearsal (1714). He also attacked Pope in his book Memoirs of the Life of William Wycherley (1718), who was one of Pope's teachers. Also in 1718, Gildon changed his literary opinions in Complete Art of Poetry, which he dedicated to the Duchess of Buckingham. In this book, he repeated old rules of writing that he had disagreed with earlier in his career, when he supported Dryden.

Later Life and Death

By 1719, Gildon was blind and very poor. He was in danger of starving. In 1721, the Duchess of Buckingham gave him some money to help. In the same year, Robert Harley (who had been a supporter of Swift and Pope) gave him a yearly payment of 100 pounds as a "Royal Bounty." On December 12, 1723, a special performance of Thomas Southerne's play Oroonoko was likely held to raise money for him.

Gildon was also involved in writing about women writers. He is thought to be the writer who pretended to be "One of the Fair Sex" in Memoirs on the Life of Mrs. Behn, which appeared in the first edition of The Histories and Novels or the Late Ingenious Mrs. Behn (1696). Gildon also wrote some pages about Mrs. Manley's life, probably in a negative way. Delarivier Manley convinced the publisher to delay printing it. Soon, Manley met Gildon and they made up, so he stopped publishing his negative writings. Then Manley wrote her own version of her story and published it without her name.

He also published a funny pamphlet called The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Mr. D––– De F , of London, Hosier in 1719, right after The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. This pamphlet included a conversation between Daniel Defoe and his characters Robinson Crusoe and Friday. In it, Gildon pointed out mistakes in Defoe's story. At the end of the pamphlet, Crusoe and Friday made Defoe eat his own big books as punishment for how he wrote his characters. Daniel Defoe defended himself against Gildon's attacks in the introduction to his book, Serious Reflections, which was the last part of the Robinson Crusoe story.

Charles Gildon died in London on January 1, 1724.