, a poetaster, much noticed in poetical history, and of whom, therefore,
, a poetaster, much noticed in poetical history, and of whom, therefore, some account may
be expected, was the son of Joseph Settle, of Dunstable,
in Bedfordshire, and was born in 1648. In 1666 he was
entered a commoner of Trinity college, Oxford, but quitted the university and came to London probably in the
following year, when he commenced author and politician.
At his outset he joined the whigs, who were then, though
the minor, yet a powerful party, and employed his talents
in their support. Afterwards, he went over to the other
side, and wrote for the tories with as much spirit, and
doubtless as much principle, as he had employed for the
whigs. Among other effusions, he published a heroic
poem on the coronation of James II.; and wrote paragraphs
and essays in the newspapers in support of the administration. In this change of party he had woefully miscalculated; the revolution took place, and from that period
having lost the little credit he had, he lived poor and despised, subject to all the miseries of the most abject state
of indigence, and destitute of any advantageous and reputable connection. In 1680 he was so violent a whig, that
the famous ceremony of pope-burning on the 17th of November was entrusted to his management, and he seems
to have been at that time much in the confidence of those
who opposed government. After his change he became
equally violent against those with whom he had before
associated, and actually entered himself a trooper in king
James’s army at Hounslow Heath. In the latter part of
his life he was so reduced as to attend a booth in Bartholomew-fair, the keepers of which gave him a salary for writing drolls. He also was obliged to appear in his old age
as a performer in these wretched theatrical exhibitions,
and, in a farce called “St. George for England,
” acted a
dragon inclosed in a case of green leather of his own invention. To this circumstance, Dr. Young refers in the
following lines of his epistle to Mr. Pope: