Samuel Pordage, the eldest son of John Pordage, rector of Bradford in Berkshire, attended Merchant Taylors' School and Lincoln's Inn; he published poems, including Azaria and Hushai, in answer to Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel (1682). Both Azaria and The Medal Reversed are sometimes attributed to Pordage's friend and fellow Whig, Elkanah Settle.
TEXT RECORDS:
1661Mundorum Explicatio, or, the Explanation of an Hieroglyphical Figure.
PUBLICATIONS:
Troades Englished, by S. P. [Seneca, trans.] 1660.
Poems upon several occasions, by S. P. gent. 1660.
Heroick stanzas on his Majesties coronation. 1661.
Mundorum explication, or an explanation of an hieroglyphical figure: a sacred poem by S.P. 1663.
Herod and Mariamne: a tragedy. 1673.
The siege of Babylon: a tragi-comedy. 1678.
The triumph of God's revenge against murder [Reynolds, ed. Pordage]. 1679.
A new apparition of S. Edmund-bery Godfrey's ghost to the E. of D— in the Tower. 1681.
The remaining medical works of T. Willis ... Englished by S.P. 1681.
Azaria and Hushai: a poem. 1682.
The medal revers'd: a satyre against persecution. 1682.
Two dialogues [by T. Willis] Englished by S.P. 1683.
The loyal incendiary, or the generous bontefieu: a poem occasioned by the setting fire to the Rye House. 1684.
PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:
English
Anglican
Merchant Taylors' School
Lincoln's Inn
Inns of Court
translator
poet
dramatist
John Aubrey
Elkanah Settle
REFERENCE:
DNB; NCBEL.
John Aubrey, Brief Lives (1669-1696) ed. Clark (1898) 2:160-61; Gerard Langbaine, Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691); Giles Jacob, Poetical Register (1719); David Erskine Baker, Companion to the Play-House (1764); Biographia Dramatica (1782; 1812); "S. Pordage" Gentleman's Magazine 70 (December 1800) 1153; Censura Literaria 8 (1808) 247-49; Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); John Mitford, "Pordage's Poems" Gentleman's Magazine NS 2 (1834) 495-96; Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Sutherland, OHEL (1969); H. W. Jones, Anti-Achitophel (1961); Chadwyck-Healey English Poetry Database (1995).
COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Samuel Pordage:
| 1. | 1683 John Oldham, in "A Satyr" Poems and Translations (1683) 169. |
| 2. | 1808 Walter Scott, in Life of Dryden (1808; 1834) 220n. |
BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Samuel Pordage:
