WOLCOT, Dr. JOHN, better known under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, was born at Dodbrooke, in Devonshire, in 1738. He was educated at the charge of his uncle, a respectable surgeon and apothecary of Fowey, in Cornwall. After studying medicine at the London hospitals, he accompanied sir William Trelawny to Jamaica in the capa city of medical attendant, but finding his professional income too small for his wants, he solicited and obtained a church-living in the island. His congregation consisted mostly of negroes, and Sunday being their principal holiday and market, the attendance at church was very limited. Sometimes not a single person came; and Wolcot and his clerk—the latter being an excellent shot—used at such times, after waiting for ten minutes, to proceed to the seaside, to enjoy the sport of shooting ringtailcd pigeons. The death of his patron, Trelawny, induced him to abandon both Jamaica and the church. Returning to England, he tried to establish himself as a physician at Truro, in Cornwall, but does not appear to have succeeded. At any rate, he soon removed to London, where he gave himself up to writing audacious squibs and satires in verse, on all sorts of persons, from king George III, down to the liverymen of London, and even lower. Wolcot's line in literature is not a very respectable one, and most people would probably prefer obscurity to a reputation like his; but, to do him justice, Peter Paular is an excessively clever writer. Unscrupulous, impudent, and coarse, he is yet a master of burlesque humor and comic caricature: his verse is easy, vigorous, and idiomatic; and his fancy rich in the production of ludicrous metaphor. Two of his raciest pieces leveled
at his sovereign, are The Apple Dumplings and a King, and Whitbread's Brewery visited by their .Majesties. Besides these we may mention his Lyrical Odes on the royal academy exhibition (the earliest of his London efforts, and dating from 1782); Bozzy and Piozzi, or the British Biographers; Peeps at St. James's; Epistle to a Fallen _Minister; Odes to Mr. Paine; and the LOusiad, a Heroi-comie Poem, in five cantos, etc. The Lousiad has its foundation in the fact that an obnoxious insect had been discovered in the king's plate among some green peas, which produced a solemn decree that all the servants in the royal kitchen were to have their heads shaved. Some of Wolcot's serious effusions actually possess considerable merit. If the matter, or rather the themes of his verse, had been less worthless, it would have stood a better chance of permanent popularity. In his own lifetime, his pieces were greedily read, and he had an annuity from the book sellers of £250 for the copyright of them. He was considered so formidable a personage that the ministry are said to have endeavored to bribe him into silence. Wolcot,„whci records this proof of his power, also asserts the incorruptibility of his patriotism. He died Jan. 14,1819.