PHILIPS, AMBROSE (c. English poet, was born in Shropshire of a Leicestershire family. He was educated at Shrewsbury school and St. John's college, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow in 1699. His Pastorals opened vol. vi. of Tonson's Miscellanies (1709), which also contained the pastorals of Pope. Philips was a stanch Whig, and a friend of Steele and Addison. In Nos. 22, 23, 3o and 32 (1713) of the Guardian he was injudiciously praised as the only worthy suc cessor of Spenser. The quarrel between Pope and Philips which ensued is described by Samuel Johnson as a "perpetual reciproca tion of malevolence." Philips had been made justice of the peace for Westminster, and in 1717 a commissioner for the lottery, and when Boulter was made archbishop of Armagh, Philips ac companied him as secretary. He sat in the Irish parliament for Co. Armagh, was secretary to the lord chancellor in 2726, and in 1733 became a judge. He died in London on June 18, His contemporary reputation rested on his pastorals and epistles, particularly the description of winter addressed by him from Copenhagen (1709) to the earl of Dorset. In T. H. Ward's
English Poets, however, he is represented by two of the simple and charming pieces addressed to the infant children of Lord Carteret and Daniel Pulteney. These were scoffed at by Swift as "little Hams on Miss Carteret," and earned for Philips from Henry Carey the nickname of "Namby-Pamby." Philips's works are an abridgment of Bishop Hacket's Life of John Williams (i700) ; The Thousand and One Days; Persian Tales . . . (1722), from the French of F. Pais de la Croix; three plays: The Distrest Mother (1712), an adaptation of Racine's Andromaque; The Briton (1722) ; Humfrey, duke of Gloucester (1723). Many of his poems, which included some translations from Sappho, Anacreon and Pindar, were published separately, and a collected edition appeared in 1748.