author
John Phillips
1631–1706
A sharp, unruly seventeenth-century writer with close ties to John Milton, he mixed satire, politics, and literary parody in ways that made him hard to ignore. His work offers a lively glimpse of Restoration England at its noisiest.
1 Audiobook
A Satyr Against Hypocrites
by John Phillips
About the author
Born in 1631, he was an English writer and the nephew of John Milton; he was educated by Milton and grew up in a household shaped by books, politics, and religious argument. He was also the younger brother of Edward Phillips, another writer, and he seems to have worked at times as an unofficial assistant or secretary to his famous uncle.
His writing ranged widely. He is remembered for satire and for burlesque or comic reworkings of classical material, including Maronides, a parody based on Virgil. Accounts of his career also connect him with pamphlets, political writing, and works that stirred controversy, which fits his reputation as a bold and sometimes wayward literary figure.
Phillips died in 1706. He is not as famous now as Milton, but his life and work remain interesting for readers who enjoy the rougher, more mischievous side of seventeenth-century English literature.