Sir William Temple

The son of Sir John Temple, Master of the Rolls, William Temple was admitted fellow-commoner of Emmanuel College Cambridge where he was a student of Ralph Cudworth; he later served as a diplomat under Charles II, was Master of the Rolls, a member of the Irish Parliament, and the patron of Jonathan Swift, who later edited Temple's papers. Some of Temple's poetry is reprinted in Nichols, Select Collection (1780-84).

TEXT RECORDS:

1690Essays: Of Poetry.

PUBLICATIONS:

Upon the death of Mrs Catherine Philips. 1664.
Lettre d'un marchand de Londres a son amy a Amsterdam. 1666.
Poems by Sir W. T. 1670?
An essay upon the advancement of trade in Ireland. 1673.
Observations upon the United Provinces of the Netherlands. 1673.
Miscellanies. 1680-1701.
Memoirs of what past in Christendom, from the war begun in 1672 to the peace concluded in 1679. 1692.
An essay upon taxes. 1693.
An answer to a scurrilous pamphlet. 1693.
An introduction to the history of England. 1659.
The temple of death. 1695.
Works. 2 vols, 1720.
Letters of Dorothy Osburne to William Temple, ed. G. C. M. Smith. 1928.
Early essays and romances, ed. G. C. M. Smith. 1930.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
Anglican

Emmanuel College Cambridge
Member of Parliament
courtier

diplomat
essayist
poet
historian

Dorothy Osborne
Katherine Philips
Rev. Jonathan Swift

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL; DLB.

[Portrait in Works]; Abel Boyer, Memoirs of the Life and Negotiations of Sir William Temple (1714); Lady Gifford (sister), Life and Character of William Temple (1728); Biographia Britannica (1747-66) 6:3915-23; "Life of William Temple" Universal Magazine 6 (April 1750) 161-69 [portrait]; John Nichols, Select Collection of Poems (1780-82); "Life of Sir William Temple" Literary Magazine and British Review 4 (February 1790) 81-88 [portrait]; "Life of Sir William Temple" Walker's Hibernian Magazine (April 1790) 326-32; Alexander Chalmers, General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17); Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); Blackwood's Magazine 15:549, 24:757; T. P. Courtney, Memoirs of the Life, Works and Correspondence, 2 vols (1836); Thomas Bablington Macaulay, "Sir William Temple" Edinburgh Review (1836); Robert Chambers, Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05); Venn and Venn, Alum. Cant. (1922-27); C. Marburg, Temple: Seventeenth-Century Libertine (1932); H. E. Woodbridge, Temple: the Man and his Work (1940); Bush, OHEL (1945).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Sir William Temple:

1.	1698  John Hughes, in "Of Style" 1698; Poems (1735) 1:252-53.
2.	1699  Jonathan Swift, Journal, 1699; Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05) 2:455.
3.	1715  Gilbert Burnet, in Bishop Burnet's History of his own Time (1715; 1823) 2:61.
4.	1733  Francis Manning, in The British Hero; or The Vision (1733) 22.
5.	1778  Samuel Johnson, 1778; Boswell, Life of Johnson (1791); ed. G. B. Hill (1891) 3:292.
6.	1796  Thomas Green, 12 September 1796; Extracts from the Diary of a Lover of Literature (1810) 1.
7.	1797  William Godwin, in "Of English Style" The Enquirer (1797) 419.
8.	1812  James Mackintosh, 8 February 1812; in Life of Sir James Mackintosh (1853) 2:204-05.
9.	1813  Leigh Hunt, Journal entry, 17 March 1813; Correspondence of Leigh Hunt (1862) 1:81.
10.	1821  Lord Byron, Observations on the Observations (1821); Letters and Journals, ed. Rowland E. Prothero (1898-1901) 5:590.
11.	1826  Charles Lamb, in "The Genteel Style of Writing" New Monthly Magazine (March 1826); Works of Charles Lamb, ed. Lucas (1903-05) 2:199.
12.	1834  Samuel Egerton Brydges, in Autobiography (1834) 1:274.
13.	1836  Thomas Babington Macaulay, in Edinburgh Review (1836); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05) 2:458.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Sir William Temple:

1.	1769  James Granger, in Biographical History of England (1769; 1824) 5:104-05, 291-92.
2.	1780  John Nichols, in Select Collection of Poems with Notes Biographical and Historical (1780-82) 2:33-35.
3.	1812  Alexander Chalmers, in General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17) 29:197-212.
4.	1834  G. G. Cunningham, in Memoirs of Illustrious Englishmen (1834-37) 3:71-76.
5.	1844  Robert Chambers, in Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844; 1850) 1:500-02.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1667  Edmund Waller:   William Temple to Lord Lisle, August 1667; Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05) 2:379.
2.	1670 ca.  Katherine Philips:   William Temple, Upon Mrs. Philipp's Death: made at the Desire of my Lady Temple" Temple, Poems by W. T. (1670 ca.) 34-37.
3.	1690  Sir Philip Sidney:   William Temple, in Essay on Poetry (1690); Spingarn, Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century (1909) 3:91.
4.	1690  Rev. Jonathan Swift:   William Temple to Sir Robert Southwell, 29 May 1690; Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05) 3:197.