author
Charles Churchill
1731–1764
A sharp, fast-rising satirist of 18th-century London, he became famous for bold lampoons written in heroic couplets. His career was brief, but his poems made enough noise to leave a clear mark on the literary world.
1 Audiobook
Poetical Works
by Charles Churchill
About the author
Born in Westminster in February 1731, Charles Churchill was educated at Westminster School and later took Anglican orders. Britannica describes him as an English poet known for lampoons and polemical satires, while the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive notes that he went on to publish a run of mostly satirical poems.
His breakthrough was The Rosciad (1761), a satire on the actors and actresses of his day, which was an immediate success. From there he built a reputation for forceful, often combative verse, and his writing became closely tied to the lively political and theatrical arguments of the time.
Churchill died in Boulogne, France, on November 4, 1764, while traveling to meet John Wilkes. Though he died young, he is still remembered as one of the most energetic English satirists of the 18th century.