Poetry Codex

Restoration & Augustan

William Kenrick

1725?–1779

William Kenrick (1725?–1779) was an English novelist, playwright, translator and satirist who spent much of his career lampooning his fellow writers. He translated Rousseau's Emilius into English and wrote for the stage, and he later edited the London Review.

This selection is drawn from his verse book Poems; Ludicrous, Satirical, and Moral (1768). Alongside long philosophical epistles in couplets it includes fables, topical satires on the London theatres and their rivals, and prologues written for Drury Lane.

Poems (43)

  1. To a Gentleman, Who Censured the Author for Scribbling Verses
  2. Fine Sights; or, the Countess of C—y, in Elysium
  3. An Epistle to Mr. Garrick, on the Report of His Having Left the Stage
  4. On the Investigation of Truth
  5. The Force of Prejudice
  6. A Familiar Epistle to a Friend
  7. The Political Magnet
  8. An Alliterative Description of an Alliterative Bard
  9. P— and Proteus
  10. The Snarling Pug and Dancing Bear
  11. On Happiness, and the Incapacity of Mankind for Its Attainment
  12. Simkin, a Fairy Tale
  13. On the Weakness of the Human Understanding, and the Incomprehensibility of the Deity
  14. Prologue to the Widow'd Wife
  15. An Occasional Prologue, Intended to Have Been Spoken at the Theatre-Royal on Richmond-Green, MDCCLXVII
  16. On Physical and Moral Good and Evil
  17. Art and Nature
  18. The Shropshire Goose
  19. On the Immortality of the Soul
  20. Candour, Pens, Ink, and Paper
  21. Ralph Moulsey's Description of Richmond Playhouse
  22. On Human Certitude, and the Universality of Science
  23. Verses on Reading Lord Lyttelton's New Dialogues of the Dead, and Seeing His Lordship's Picture at W—'s
  24. A Drinking Song, Translated from the German
  25. The Hare and the Crow
  26. To a New-Married Lady, Who Insisted on the Author's Writing a Song on Her
  27. On a Certain Musician's Turning Poet
  28. On Moral Sentiment
  29. The Beavers: a Fable
  30. Phoebus Detected
  31. On Reading Thespis, a Satire on the Comedians of Drury-Lane Theatre
  32. On the Diversity of Religious Sects and Opinions
  33. The Loaded Ass; or Public Credit
  34. On the State of the Theatres
  35. Invocation to Silence
  36. The Poetical Triumvirate
  37. Ode to Count Bruhl
  38. An Epistle to A—r M—y, Esq.
  39. Mary, the Cook-Maid's Address to Her Fellow Artists of London and Westminster
  40. The Bullfinch and Sparrow
  41. On the Man of Parts, and Head of the Press
  42. Prologue to Falstaff's Weding, a Comedy
  43. Epilogue to the Same

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