The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland/Volume 4/Edward Ward
Edward Ward,
A man of low extraction, and who never received any regular education. He was an imitator of the famous Butler, and wrote his Reformation, a poem, with an aim at the ſame kind of humour which has ſo remarkably diſtinguiſhed Hudibras. ‘Of late years, ſays Mr. Jacob, he has kept a public houſe in the city, but in a genteel way.’ Ward was, in his own droll manner, a violent antagoniſt to the Low Church Whigs, and in conſequence of this, drew to his houſe ſuch people as had a mind to indulge their ſpleen againſt the government, by retailing little ſtories of treaſon. He was thought to be a man of ſtrong natural parts, and poſſeſſed a very agreeable pleaſantry of temper. Ward was much affronted when he read Mr. Jacob’s account, in which he mentions his keeping a public houſe in the city, and in a book called Apollo’s Maggot, declared this account to be a great falſity, proteſting that his public houſe was not in the City, but in Moorfields[1]
The chief of this author's pieces are,
- Hudibras Redivivus, a political Poem.
- Don Quixote, tranſlated into Hudibraſtic Verſe.
- Eccleſiæ & Faſtio, a Dialogue between Bow ſteeple Dragon, and the Exchange Graſhopper.
- A Ramble through the Heavens, or The Revels of the Gods.
- The Cavalcade, a Poem.
- Marriage Dialogues, or A Poetical Peep into the State of Matrimony.
- A Trip to Jamaica.
- The Sots Paradiſe, or The Humours of a Derby Alehouſe.
- A Battle without Bloodſhed, or Military Diſcipline Buffoon’d.
- All Men Mad, or England a Great Bedlam, 4to. 1704.
- The Double Welcome, a Poem to the Duke of Marlborough.
- Apollo’s Maggot in his Cups, or The Whimſical Creation of a Little Satirical Poet; a Lyric Ode, dedicated to Dickey Dickenſon, the witty, but deformed Governor of Scarborough Spaw, 8vo. 1729.
- The Ambitious Father, or The Politician’s Advice to his Son; a Poem in five Cantos, 1733, the laſt work he left finiſhed.
Mr. Ward’s works, if collected, would amount to five volumes in 8vo. but he is moſt diſtinguiſhed by his London Spy, a celebrated work in proſe.
- ↑ Notes on the Dunciad.