Leonard Welsted facts for kids

Leonard Welsted (born in 1688, died in 1747) was an English poet. He is perhaps best known for being called a "dunce" by the famous poet Alexander Pope. Pope wrote about Welsted in his well-known works The Dunciad and Peri Bathos.

Welsted was a talented writer who often wrote in a relaxed and cheerful way. He was connected to the Whig political party later in his life. This was when he became an enemy of Alexander Pope. However, earlier in his life, Welsted had supported the Tory party. In those times, writers often needed financial help from powerful people, which was called "patronage." This likely influenced his political choices.

Leonard Welsted's Early Life and Family

Leonard Welsted was the son of a Church of England priest. Sadly, he became an orphan at the age of six. He later attended Trinity College, Cambridge but left before finishing his degree.

Around 1707, he married Frances Purcell. She was also an orphan and the daughter of the famous composer Henry Purcell. They had a daughter, who they also named Frances. However, his wife Frances died in 1712. That same year, Welsted married Anna Maria Walker, who was the sister of an admiral. In his poems, he called his second wife "Zelinda." His daughter, Frances, passed away in 1726 when she was only seventeen years old. Welsted wrote a poem called Hymn to the Creator the next year to express his sadness.

Seeking Support Through Poetry

Welsted wrote many poems hoping to get a job or financial support through patronage. In 1709, he wrote two poems praising John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, a famous military leader. He also wrote a poem honoring the poet John Philips. However, these efforts did not immediately lead to a position.

In 1712, the Tory party was in power. Welsted then began to write poems praising the opposing Whig party. He also translated a work called On the Sublime. However, another writer, Jonathan Swift, claimed that Welsted had translated a French version by Boileau, not the original Greek text by Longinus.

In 1714, Welsted openly criticized Robert Harley, who was the former head of the Tory party. Welsted did this in his work The Prophecy. Harley responded to this attack. Because of this, Harley's friends in the Scriblerus Club became Welsted's enemies. The Scriblerus Club was a group of writers, including Alexander Pope.

Literary Rivalries and Conflicts

Welsted continued to upset the writers in the Scriblerus Club. In 1717, he wrote Palaemon to Caelia, or, The Triumvirate. This was a funny attack on John Gay, Alexander Pope, and John Arbuthnot. It made fun of their play called Three Hours After Marriage.

Later, in 1724, Welsted made fun of a line from Pope's poem Essay on Criticism. Because of this, another writer named Thomas Cooke made Welsted the hero who fights against Pope in his own poem, The Battel of the Poets.

Gaining Support and New Opportunities

When the Hanoverian royal family came to power in Britain, Welsted's situation improved. He wrote a poem called An Epistle to Mr. Steele on the King's Accession. After this, he became a secretary or assistant to Richard Steele, a well-known writer and politician.

In the following years, Welsted wrote for newspapers run by Steele and Ambrose Philips. He also wrote the introduction and conclusion for Steele's play The Conscious Lovers in 1722. During this time, he kept writing poems with flattering dedications to various noble people.

Welsted's efforts to gain support paid off. He was given a job as a clerk and received an annual salary of £25. In 1726, his play, The Dissembled Wanton, was performed in London. This play earned him £138 from the performances and another £30 for the rights to print it. He also tried to get people to pay in advance for some translations he planned, but these projects did not work out.

One of his best poems, Oikographia, was written in 1725. It describes his life in the Tower of London, but not as a prisoner. He lived in a part of the Tower and wrote about the simple joys of a happy life with his loving wife.

Pope's Attacks and Welsted's Responses

In 1728, Alexander Pope attacked Welsted in his writings. In Peri Bathos, Pope made fun of Welsted's overly polite and flattering style. In The Dunciad, Pope joked that Welsted's poetry flowed like beer, suggesting it was not very good. Pope presented Welsted in several parts of The Dunciad as a silly and untalented poet.

Welsted tried to fight back. In 1730, he worked with another writer Pope had made fun of, James Moore Smythe, on a poem called One Epistle to Mr. A. Pope. In 1732, Welsted wrote two more attacks on Pope: Of Dulness and Scandal and Of False Fame. In return, Pope again made fun of Welsted in his poem Epistle to Arbuthnot in 1735.

Jonathan Swift also criticized Welsted. In Swift's 1733 poem On Poetry: A Rhapsody, he compared Welsted's poor poetry to other bad rhymes. Swift also mentioned Welsted's "translation" of Longinus, pointing out that it was actually a translation of a French version.

Later Career and Works

In 1730 and 1731, Welsted received promotions in his government job. His salary increased to £70 and then to £150 as a commissioner of the lottery. These promotions might have happened because important politicians and leading Whigs, like Bishop Hoadley, helped him.

His later works include a prose book called The Scheme and Conduct of Providence in 1736. This book discussed the idea of God's plan for the world. He also wrote the poem The Summum bonum, or, Wisest Philosophy. This poem once again praised the simple happiness of a quiet life.