CHURCHILL, CHARLES, was born in 1731 in Westminster, where in St. John's parish his father was curate. After passing through the usual course of studies in Westminster School he was taken by his father to Oxford to be matriculated in that university, but the levity of his behaviour at the entrance examination occasioned his rejection. He was shortly after admitted a member of the University of Cam bridge, where however he did not stay long enough to take a degree, but returned to Westminster; and although he was but in his seven teenth year, and without any menus of subsistence, precipitately married a young lady of the name of Scott. After a year's residence in his father's house he retired with his wife to Sunderland, and prepared for taking orders. At the age of twenty-five he was ordained by Bishop Sherlock. Ilia course of life for the next two or three years is involved in obscurity ; the most probable statement is that he acted as curate of Itainham in Essex, a curacy previously held by his father, and that he there opened a school. In 1758, on the that!' of his father, be succeeded to the curacy of St. John's in Westminster, and from this period a total alteration took place in his character and habits, which, from having been hitherto those of a moral, domestic, and studious man, became gradually ruined, and terminated in avowed and abandoned licentiousness. This change has been attributed to his intimacy with the clever but profligate poet, Robert Lloyd, whose father, Dr. Lloyd, a master of Westminster School, about this time interposed as the friend of Churchill, and rescued him from jail by advancing to his creditors a composition of five shillings in the pound ; to the credit of Churchill it must be added that he himself subsequently paid the whole amount.
Churchill's first poems were the 'Bard' and the ' Conclave,' for which he was unable to obtain a publisher. The 'Rescind,' a very clever and severe satire upon the principal theatrical inaungers and performers at that time, was published in 1761, at his own risk ; the London publishers having refused to give five guineas for the manu script. It obtained an amazing popularity, and was answered by the numerous parties attacked in Churehillinds, Murphyads, Examiners, &c. Tho subject is one on which the author, as a poet and constant playgoer, was well qualified to express a critical judgment Like most of his productions, it is more remarkable for energy and eloquent roughness of sarcasm, than for polished phraseology or refined sentiment. His next poem, the 'Apology,' written in reply to his critical adversaries, is perhaps the most finished and correct of his works. The poem called ' Night' was intended as an apology for his own nocturnal habits. These orgies, in which Churchill wss asso ciated with the convivial wits of his time, Colman, Thornton, &c., are well described in Charles Johnson's 'Chrysal ; or, the Adventures of a Guinea.' The argument of the ' Apology' Is bad enough; showing only that the open avowal of vice and licentiousness is less culpable than the practice of it under the hypocritical assumption of mulct: fled temperance. The 'Ghost,' a poetical satire ou the ridiculous impostor° of Cock-lane, consists chiefly of a series of rugged Hudi brastio incongruities. 'Pompom,' in this poem, is intended for Dr.
Johnson, who had designated Churchill 'a shallow fellow.' In 1702 Churchill became acquainted with John Wilkes, and contributed to the pages of the 'North Briton.' To gratify his political patron, he wrote the 'Prophecy of Famine; a Scots Pastoral,' which was greatly extolled, not only by Wilkes, and the politicians of hie party, who said it was "personal, poetical, and political,' but by the literary public : and the admiration of contemporaries has been so far sustained by posterity.
The praise and profit which Churchill obtained by this 'jet' d'esprit' seem to have overwhelmed his common sense : he plunged at once into the greatest irregularities of conduct, which drew from his parishioners a serious remonstrance, and induced him to relinquish the clerical profession. At the same time he quarrelled with and separated from his wife, who herself is said to have been anything but a prude. The utter recklessness of his conduct at this period is shown by his seduction of a tradesman's daughter in Westminster, whom he shortly afterwards abandoned. His poem called the Con ference' was composed whilst he seemed to suffer some feelings of coutrition. He boasted however in letters to his friends that he felt "no pricks of conscience" at his abandonment of his wife or his pro fession—" the woman I was tired of, and the gown I was displeased with," and throwing aside his clerical habit, he appeared in a blue coat, gold-laced waistcoat, large ruffles, and a gold-laced hat. His satirical 'Epistle to Hogarth ' was revenged by the artist's caricature of The Reverend Mr. Churchill as a Russian bear' in canonicals, holding a club and a pot of porter, with a pug-dog which is treating the poet's works with great indignity. We have still to mention several poems, all of which are more or less satirical; namely, the Duellist ;' the 'Author ; " Gotham ; ' the 'Candidate;' Independ ence ; ' the Journey ; ' and 'Farewell.' Of these, the 'Author' is by far the most pleasing and fairest, if it be not in all respects the moat powerfuL The Candidate' is replete with poetical fire and spirit. Farewell' is comparatively tame, and 'Gotham,' which was written during a short fit of retirement and reformation, is chiefly descriptive. Churchill was a close and occasionally ri very successful imitator of Dryden. His verses have much of the fervour and force of this great poet ; and at the same time all the coarseness and rug gedness of Donne and Oldham. Cowper, in a long passage in his Table Talk,' assigns him, on the whole, a distinguished place as a poet, calling him a "spendthrift alike of money and of wit." Ho died at Boulogne in 1765, while on a visit to Wilkes, his intimate friend. His complete works were published in 8vo, in 1804, with a life and portrait. Some interesting particular& are given in ' Genuine Memoirs of Mr. Churchill,' 12mo, 1765. See also Mr. Tooke's 'Memoirs of Charles Churchill,' and Mr. John Forater's able essay on 'Churchill,' republished from the Edinburgh Review,' with additions, in Long man's Traveller's Library.