Rev. Laurence Eusden

Laurence Eusden, the most obscure of the poet laureates, took his M.A. from Trinity College Cambridge in 1712 and was made a Fellow; he contributed to the Spectator and the Guardian, published translations from Claudian and Statius in Steele's Miscellanies (1714) and wrote occasional verse. The Rector of Coningsby, Eusden was given the laureateship at the behest of the Duke of Newcastle (1717). Several of his poems are collected in the fourth volume of John Nichols's Select Collection (1780-84).

TEXT RECORDS:

1727A Poem humbly inscrib'd to the Queen.

PUBLICATIONS:

A letter to Mr. Addison. 1714.
Verses at the last publick commencement at Cambridge. 1714.
A poem on the marriage of his grace the Duke of Newcastle. 1717.
A poem to her royal highness on the birth of the prince. 1717.
An ode for the birthday, as it was sung before his majesty. 1720.
An ode for the new year, as it was sung before his majesty. 1720.
To her highness the Princess Anne, on her recovery from the small-pox. 1720.
An ode for the new year, as it was sung before his majesty. 1721.
An ode for the birthday MDCCXXI, as it was sung before his majesty. 1721.
The parallel, with a dedication to ... Lord Carteret. 1722.
Three poems. 1722.
An ode for the birthday MDCCXXIII, as it was sung before his majesty. 1723.
The origin of the knigts of the Bath, a poem. 1725.
To Mr. John Saunders, on seeing his paintings in Cambridge. 1725.
An epistle to ... Sir Robert Walpole. 1726.
Three poems. 1727.
A poem humbly inscribed to his royal highness Prince Frederic. 1729.
Hero and Leander: a poem by Museaus. 1750.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
Anglican

Trinity College Cambridge
Bachelor of Arts
Master of Arts
College Fellow
Poet Laureate
courtier

clergyman
poet
translator

The Spectator
The Guardian

Joseph Addison
Rev. Richard Bentley
Countess of Hertford
Earl of Halifax
William Pattison
Sir Richard Steele
Robert Walpole

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL.

Giles Jacob, An Historical Account of ... English Poets (1720); Alexander Pope, Dunciad (1728; 1743); Cibber-Shiels, Lives of the Poets (1753); John Nichols, Select Collection of Poems (1780-82); Alexander Chalmers, General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17); Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most Eminent Persons (1832-34); John Holland, Poets of Yorkshire (1845); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); G. Nicholson, "Eusden" TLS (18 May 1946); Chadwyck-Healey English Poetry Database (1995).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Rev. Laurence Eusden:

1.	1713  Alexander Pope, "On a Lady who p—st at the Tragedy of Cato; occasion'd by an Epigram on a Lady who wept at it" 1713; Pope, Miscellanies. The Last Volume (1728) 176.
2.	1719  Anonymous, in "The Election of a Poet Laureate in 1719" Freeholder's Journal (13 February 1723) 375.
3.	1722  Matthew Concanen, in "Letter to a Critick" Poems (1722) 50.
4.	1726  William Pattison, "To Mr. Eusden, desiring his Corrections on a Poem" 1726; in Pattison, Works (1728) 157-58.
5.	1726  William Pattison to Laurence Eusden, 22 December 1726, in Memoir of William Pattison, Pattison, Works (1728) 38.
6.	1730  Thomas Cooke, in The Candidates for the Bays (1730) 2.
7.	1730  Anonymous, "An Epigram" Grub-Street Journal (24 December 1730).
8.	1735  Anonymous, in The Poet finish'd in Prose, being a Dialogue concerning Mr. Pope and his Writings (1735) 33-34.
9.	1742  Alexander Pope, in The Dunciad (1728; 1742); Works, ed. Warton (1796-97) 5:91-93 & n.
10.	1757  Thomas Gray to William Mason, 19 December 1757; in Works, ed. Gosse (1895) 2:345-46.
11.	1807  Robert Southey, in Specimens of the Later English Poets (1807) 1:280.
12.	1842  C. H. Timperley, in Encyclopaedia of Literary and Typographical Anecdote (1842) 2:642.
13.	1845  John Holland, "Lawrence Eusden" Poets of Yorkshire; comprising Sketches of the Lives, and Specimens of the Writings of those Children of Song (1845) 59-62.
14.	1853  John Mitford, in Correspondence of Thomas Gray and William Mason, ed. John Mitford (1853) 113-14n.
15.	1882  W. J. Courthope, Note in Works of Alexander Pope (1871-89) 4:316.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Rev. Laurence Eusden:

1.	1720  Giles Jacob, in Historical Account of the Lives and Writings of our most considerable English Poets (1720) 51-53.
2.	1753  Anonymous, in Cibber-Shiels, Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) 4:193-97.
3.	1780  John Nichols, in Select Collection of Poems with Notes Biographical and Historical (1780-82) 4: 128-30.
4.	1812  Alexander Chalmers, in General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17) 13:380.
5.	1832  William Clarke and Robert Shelton Mackenzie, in The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most eminent Persons who have flourished in Great Britain (1832-34) 3:519.
6.	1879  Walter Hamilton, in The Poets Laureate (1879) 138-45.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1709  Rev. Richard Bentley:   Laurence Eusden, "To the Rev. Dr. Bentley, on the Opening of Trinity-College Chappel, Cambridge" Poetical Miscellanies: the Sixth Part (1709) 587-91.
2.	1709  John Dryden:   Laurence Eusden, in "To Lord Halifax" 1709; Nichols, Select Collection of Poems (1780-82) 4:133.
3.	1714  Joseph Addison:   Laurence Eusden, "On Reading the Critique of Milton, in the Spectator" Steele, Poetical Miscellanies (1714) 196-97.
4.	1714  Joseph Addison:   Laurence Eusden, "To a Lady, that wept at the hearing of Cato read" Steele, Poetical Miscellanies (1714) 255-58.
5.	1714  Joseph Addison:   Laurence Eusden, "Commendatory Verses to the Author of Cato" 1714; Addison, Works (1909) 1:164-66.
6.	1714  Sir Richard Steele:   Laurence Eusden, "To the Author of the Tatlers" Steele, Poetical Miscellanies (1714) 251-55.