came a butt for caricature as a voluminous and reckless dunce. ‘Recanting Settle,’ wrote a critic, when his tragedies and libels could no more yield him penny loaves and ale, ‘bids our youth by his example fly, the Love of Politicks and Poetry’ (Poems on State Affairs, ii. 138). In one of his earliest satires Pope dubbed him Codrus, after the prolix poetaster of Juvenal (Lintot, Miscell. 1712, revised for Dunciad, i. 183), and in the ‘Dunciad’ are many jibes at his expense, notably the allusion to the lord-mayor's show, which ‘liv'd in Settle's numbers one day more’ (bk. i. 90). In 1776, on the occasion of his conversation with Johnson, Wilkes referred to Elkanah as the last of the city poets, and one whose poetry matched the queerness of his name (Boswell, Johnson, ed. Hill, iii. 76).
In addition to the works enumerated and minor complimentary pieces, Settle was author of: 1. ‘The Life and Death of Major Clancie, the grandest Cheat of this Age,’ 1680, 8vo. 2. ‘Insignia Bataviæ; or the barbarous behaviour of the Dutch towards the English in East India,’ 1688, 4to. 3. ‘The Compleat Memoirs of the Life of that Notorious Impostor, Will. Morrell, alias Bowyer, alias Wickham,’ 1694, 12mo; 1699, 8vo. 4. ‘Minerva Triumphans. The Muses' Essay. To the Honour of the Generous Foundation, the Cotton Library at Westminster,’ 1701, fol. 5. ‘Carmen Irenicum. The Happy Union of the Two East India Companies. An Heroic Poem,’ 1702, fol. (for 1, 4 and 5, see Hazlitt, Bibl. Coll. 3rd ser. pp. 229–30). Settle also edited the ‘Herod and Mariamne’ (1673, 4to) of Samuel Pordage [q. v.], and contributed to the popular translation of ‘Ovid's Epistles’ (1683, 8vo). He re-edited for the stage Sir R. Fanshaw's version of Guarini, which appeared at Dorset Garden in 1676 as ‘Pastor Fido, or the Faithful Shepherd’ (London, 1677, 4to); ‘a moderate pastoral’ (Genest, i. 196). He revised and rewrote the last two acts of Beaumont and Fletcher's ‘Philaster’ for the Theatre Royal in 1695 (London, 4to).
The British Museum possesses Settle's ‘Triumphs of London’ for 1691, 1692, 1693, 1694, 1695, 1699, 1708, and his ‘Glory's Resurrection’ for 1698. The Guildhall Library has all these, with the exception of 1693, and, in addition, the ‘Triumphs’ for 1701 and 1702.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iv. 684; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714; Rawlinson MSS. (in Bodleian), iii. 407; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. i. 41 seq.; Nichols's Lord Mayors' Pageants, 1831; Fairholt's Hist. of Lord Mayors' Pageants, i. 109, 121–2; Langbaine's Dramatic Poets, 1698, p. 123; Dennis's Letters, 1721, vol. ii.; Dunton's Life and Errors, passim; The Session of the Poets, held at the foot of the Parnassian Hill, 9 July 1696; The Towne Displayed, 1701; Johnson's Poets, ed. Cunningham; Dryden's Works, ed. Scott and Saintsbury; Pope's Works, ed. Elwin; Rochester's Poems, 1707, p. 19; Oldham, ed. Bell, p. 234; Disraeli's Quarrels of Authors, pp. 206, 288; Masson's Milton, vi. 611; Morley's Bartholomew Fair; Lowe's Betterton, p. 137; Gissing's New Grub Street, 1891, p. 31 (Settle contrasted with Shadwell); Beljame's Public et les Hommes de Lettres en Angleterre 152, 207; Ward's English Dram. Lit. ii. 534; Doran's Annals of the Stage; Sitwell's First Whig, pp. 86–7, 101, 202; English Cyclopædia; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn); Hazlitt's Bibl. Collections and Notes; Guildhall Libr. Cat. 1889; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
SETTLE, THOMAS (fl. 1575–1593), divine, born about 1555, matriculated as pensioner at Queens' College, Cambridge, in 1575, but left college without a degree. He was ordained by Bishop Freake of Norwich, and was minister at Boxted in Suffolk. In May 1586 he was cited before Archbishop Whitgift at Lambeth to answer six charges: that he did not observe the order in the Book of Common Prayer, that he did not use the sign of the cross in baptism, that he did not marry with the ring, that he frequented conventicles, that he denied the validity of private baptism, that he denied the descent into hell. Settle acknowledged his contumacy on the last charge, and refused subscription to any rites or ceremonies. After a stormy dispute with Whitgift he was committed to the Gatehouse, where he was kept prisoner till 1592. On his release he joined the Brownists' congregation, which met privately in London, and was arrested again before the end of the year, while attending a meeting at the house of George Johnson in St. Nicholas Lane. On 6 April 1593 he was brought before the high commission and required to take the oath ex officio, but absolutely declined. He admitted that he had separated himself from the established church for about a year, that he had not taken the sacrament in his parish church for three years, and that he had opposed the discipline of the church for seven years; but he declined to say from whom he had imbibed his opinions. He confessed to being present at illegal religious meetings, and refused to attend public service. He was sent back to prison, and nothing further is recorded of him. He may have been the author of ‘Tho. Settle his Catechisme,’ London, 8vo, n.d.; licensed to Henry Carr and Henry Hasselup, 22 May 1587. There is no reason to identify him with the Settle men--
