Tickell, Thomas

(1686-1740)

   Born at Bridekirk, Cumberland, the son of a clergyman, he graduated M.A. from Queen's College, Oxford, in 1708-1709, was made a fellow in 1710, then became university reader or professor of poetry at Oxford, although the opinion was that he was not really up to it. When Joseph Addison (see entry) was appointed secretary of state (1717) he chose Tickell as undersecretary. Tickell was involved in a bitter quarrel in 1715 between Addison and Alexander Pope (see entry). Both Pope and Tickell had produced a translation of the first book of Homer's Iliad. Pope more or less claimed that Tickell, with the aid of Addison, had plagiarized his. From 1724 to his death, Tickell was secretary to the lords justices of Ireland. He was buried at Glasnevin, Dublin, where he had a house. Some of his poems: "A Description of the Phoenix," "A Fragment of a Poem on Hunting," "Apollo Making Love," "Colin and Lucy," "Kensington Gardens," "On the Prospect of Peace," "Secure of Fame and Justice in the Grave," "The Royal Progress," "To the Earl of Warwick, on the Death of Mr. Addison."

   Sources: A Treasury of Minor British Poetry. J. Churton Collins, ed. Edward Arnold, 1896. Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Eighteenth-Century English Verse. Dennis Davison, ed. Penguin Books, 1988. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. The National Portrait Gallery. (www.npg.org.uk). Poemhunter (www.poemhunter.com). Samuel Johnson's Lives of the English Poets, 1779-1781 (http://www2.hn.psu.edu/Faculty/KKemmerer/poets/preface.htm). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. The Poetical Works of Joseph Addison. John Bell. Apollo Press, 1778.