Philips, Ambrose

(?1675-1749)

   He was educated at Shrewsbury, Shropshire, and graduated M.A. from St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1700, and was a fellow from 1699 to 1707. He seems to have been employed abroad in service for the government; some of his poems make reference to Utrecht (1703) and to Copenhagen in 1709 and 1710. In 1712 he published The Distressed Mother, a successful adaptation of Jean Racine's Andromaque. When this was praised by the press, Alexander Pope (see entry)- seemingly out of jealousy - wrote a comparison between his own performance and that of Philips. A bitter feud ensued which almost ended in a case of slander against Pope. After the accession of George I, Philips was made justice of the peace for Westminster and in 1717 a commissioner for the lottery. He was a member of Parliament for Armagh, Ireland. He died in London. Some of his poems: "A Bacchanalian Song," "A Winter-Piece," "From Holland to a Friend in England in the Year 1703," "In the Year 1714," "Lament for Queen Mary," "The Happy Swain," "The Olympian Odes (Pindar)," "The Tea-Pot; or, The Lady's Transformation."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. The Bride's Book of Poems. Cary Yager, ed. Contemporary Books, 1995. 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 Book of Classical Verse in Translation. Adrian Poole and Jeremy Maule, eds. 1995. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. The Poems of Ambrose Philips. M.G. Segar, ed. Blackwell, Oxford, 1937.