Charles Churchill

Charles Churchill (1732–1764) was an English satirist, born in Westminster and educated at Westminster School. A clergyman who had taken orders for want of other prospects, he became famous overnight with The Rosciad (1761), a satire on the actors of the London stage, and gave up the ministry to live by his pen.

A friend and ally of John Wilkes, he turned his verse to politics in The Prophecy of Famine (1763), Gotham and The Times, and to personal satire in The Ghost and The Duellist. He died at Boulogne in November 1764, aged thirty-two. The texts here are from George Gilfillan's edition of his poetical works (Edinburgh, Nichol), with the editor's life, dissertation and notes omitted.