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Quick facts for kids Richard Blackmore

Born	22 January 1654 Corsham, Wiltshire
Died	9 October 1729 (aged 75) Boxted, Essex
Nationality	English
Occupation	poet, physician

Sir Richard Blackmore (born January 22, 1654 – died October 9, 1729) was an English poet and physician. He is mostly remembered for his long poems and for being a target of jokes and criticism from other writers. However, he was also a respected doctor and a theologian, which means he studied religion.

Richard Blackmore's Early Life
Blackmore: The Epic Poet
Other Writings by Blackmore
Blackmore as a Doctor
Why Blackmore Was Satirized
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Richard Blackmore's Early Life

Richard Blackmore was born in Corsham, a town in Wiltshire, England. His father was a wealthy lawyer. Richard went to Westminster School for a short time. In 1669, when he was 15, he started studying at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, which is part of Oxford University.

He earned his first degree in 1674 and a master's degree in 1676. For a while, he worked as a tutor at the university. In 1682, he received money from his father's inheritance. He used this money to travel around Europe, visiting France, Geneva, and different places in Italy. He spent some time in Padua and earned a degree in medicine from the University of Padua.

Blackmore returned to England after traveling through Germany and Holland. He then started his career as a doctor. In 1685, he married Mary Adams. Her family connections helped him become a member of the Royal College of Physicians in 1687. He had some disagreements with the College, including being criticized for taking time off without permission. He also strongly disagreed with a plan to open a free clinic for poor people in London. This disagreement later became a topic for jokes by Sir Samuel Garth in his poem The Dispensary in 1699.

Blackmore: The Epic Poet

Richard Blackmore loved writing very long poems called epics. His first epic, Prince Arthur, an Heroick Poem in X Books, came out in 1695. Blackmore supported the Glorious Revolution, a time when King James II was replaced by William III. So, Prince Arthur was written to celebrate King William III.

The poem was written in a style similar to Virgil's famous epic, The Aeneid. Its story was based on Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, an old book about British kings. Blackmore's poem told the story of the Celtic King Arthur fighting against the invading Saxons and taking over London. This was a hidden way of talking about King William III fighting against "Saxon" King James II and taking London.

Some critics, like John Dennis, made fun of the poem. They said it was too much like Geoffrey of Monmouth's work and that its hero was weak. Even so, the poem was printed three times. King William was pleased and made Blackmore his personal doctor (a job he also held for Queen Anne). The King also gave him a gold medal and made him a knight in 1697.

In 1697, Blackmore released another epic called King Arthur: an Heroic Poem in Twelve Books. Like his first epic, this one also used old stories to talk about current events. However, people were less interested this time. Blackmore also used John Milton as his inspiration for this poem, instead of Virgil. He admitted in his introduction that his first book had followed the old rules of poetry too strictly.

Because Blackmore used his epics to fight political battles, other writers, especially those who disagreed with his politics, started to oppose him. William Garth attacked Blackmore's views on the free clinic, and Blackmore responded with A Satyr against Wit (1700). Tom Brown and other writers then teamed up to write Commendatory Verses, on the Author of the Two Arthurs, and a Satyr against Wit (1700). Blackmore had not only taken clear political sides in his epics, but he had also said that epic poetry was needed to fix the bad quality of poetry written by other witty writers.

John Dryden, another famous poet, accused Blackmore of stealing the idea of an epic about King Arthur from him. Dryden called Blackmore names and said his poetry sounded like wagon wheels because Blackmore wrote in hackney cabs (horse-drawn taxis) while traveling between patients.

In 1705, after Queen Anne took the throne, Blackmore wrote another epic called Eliza: an Epic Poem in Ten Books. This poem was about a plot by Rodrigo Lopez, a doctor, against Queen Elizabeth I. Again, this "epic" was about current events. It was meant to criticize John Radcliffe, a doctor who supported the old king and was out of favor with Queen Anne. Queen Anne didn't seem to pay much attention to the poem, but Sarah Churchill did. Blackmore then wrote two more poems to gain favor with the Duke of Marlborough, a powerful military leader.

In 1711, Blackmore wrote The Nature of Man, a poem about how climate affects people's character, suggesting that the English climate was the best. This was a warm-up for his 1712 poem, Creation: A Philosophical Poem. This poem was praised by famous writers like John Dennis, Joseph Addison, and later, Samuel Johnson. It was printed 16 times and was his most successful epic. Its goal was to argue against atheism (not believing in God) and to explain the ideas of the philosopher Locke. Samuel Johnson believed this poem would be the only one Blackmore was remembered for.

Blackmore stopped writing epics for a while after Creation. In 1722, he continued his religious themes with Redemption, an epic about the divine nature of Jesus Christ. It was written to argue against a group of Christians called Unitarians. The next year, he released another long epic, Alfred. This poem was supposedly about Alfred the Great, but like his earlier Arthurian epics, it was also political. It was dedicated to Prince Frederick, the eldest son of King George II, but the poem was not very popular.

Other Writings by Blackmore

When Blackmore wasn't writing about politics, he wrote about religion. In 1713, he and his friend John Hughes started a magazine called The Lay Monk, which was similar to another popular magazine called The Spectator. It only ran for a few months, but Blackmore collected its issues and published them as The Lay Monastery.

In 1716, he became a leader in the College of Physicians. However, the new royal family, the Hanoverians, were not as impressed with Blackmore as King William or Queen Anne had been. That year, he published two books called Essays upon Several Subjects, with one of them including an attack on the famous poet Alexander Pope. In 1718, he published A Collection of Poems on Various Subjects, which gathered shorter poems he had already published.

Blackmore was very interested in Protestantism. He joined the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in America in 1704. He wrote books against Deism and Unitarianism in 1721. He also created A New Version of the Psalms of David in 1721 and tried to get the Church of England to accept them as official translations. In 1724, a plan to publish Blackmore's Psalms for America was stopped by the Bishop of London.

Finally, Blackmore tried to argue against Deism again with Natural Theology, or, Moral Duties Consider'd apart from Positive in 1728. His last work, The Accomplished Preacher, was published after he died in 1731.

Blackmore as a Doctor

Today, Richard Blackmore is often remembered as someone who was mocked by other writers, especially by Alexander Pope. However, as a doctor, he had very modern ideas. He believed that a doctor's own observations and experience were more important than old theories or rules. He also disagreed with the ancient "humour theory" of medicine. He wrote about the plague in 1720, smallpox in 1722, and consumption in 1727.

He died in Boxted, Essex, and was buried in his local church. A monument was built there to remember him.

Why Blackmore Was Satirized

Blackmore is mostly famous today because of his enemies. Samuel Garth's poem The Dispensary made him seem like a greedy fool with big ideas about himself. But Alexander Pope's criticisms were the most lasting. Pope often made fun of Blackmore's supposed stupidity and his grand ideas. The Scriblerus Club (a group of writers including Pope, Jonathan Swift, and others) attacked Blackmore in their play Three Hours after Marriage in 1717.

Pope also pointed out Blackmore's silly lines in his work Peri Bathos (1727). In his famous poem The Dunciad (1728), Pope gave a very harsh description of "Neverending Blackmore," saying his poetry was so bad it could even put lawyers to sleep. These attacks were in addition to earlier ones from Tom Brown and John Dryden.

Blackmore's poetry was often seen as dull or heavy. What also made him a target for jokes was his willingness to use poetry to help himself get ahead. People at the time could see that he had a personal interest in writing King Arthur. He also used his poetry to criticize other poets, especially those who supported the Tory political party. This made him an easy target for counter-attacks that he couldn't survive.

Despite all the criticism, in his own time, Blackmore was respected by important thinkers like Locke. His poetry was also praised by religious writers like Watts and Matthew Henry, who often quoted Blackmore's poems in his Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Images for kids

The grave of Richard Blackmore in the sanctuary of St Peter's Church, Boxted, Essex.
A memorial to Richard Blackmore in the chancel of St Peter's Church, Boxted, Essex.