bury, and rose to be secondary in the Crown-office, by Anne, sister of the celebrated poet, and was born in the Strand, near Charing-cross, in August 1630, and received his earliest education under his uncle. In 1648 he became a student of Magdalen-hall, Oxford, where he continued till 1651. The time of his death is not ascertained. He published two small works, entitled "Tractatulus de carmine Dramatico Poetarum, præsertim in choris Tragicis, et veteris Comedia," and "Compendiosa enumeratio Poetarum (saltem quorum fama maxime enituit) qui a tempore Dantis Aligerii usque ad hanc ætatem claruerunt; nempe Italorum, Germanorum, Anglorum, &c." These were added to the seventeenth edition of Joh. Buchlerus's book, entitled "Sacrarum profanarumque phrasium poeticarum Thesaurus," &c. Lond. 1669, 8vo. But he is better known by his "Theatrum Poetarum, or a compleat collection of the Poets, especially the most eminent of all ages, the Ancients distinguish't from the Moderns in their several alphabets. With some observations and reflections upon many of them, particularly those of our own nation. Together with a prefatory discourse of the Poets and Poetry in general," Lond. 1675. Into this work there is, says Warton, good reason to suppose that Milton threw many additions and corrections. It contains criticisms far above the taste of that period, and such as were not common after the national taste had been just corrupted by the false and capricious refinements of the court of Charles II. The preface, however, discovers more manifest traces of Milton's hand than the book itself.

In 1800 sir E. Brydges published a new edition of the "Theatrum" as far as respects the English poets, and has subjoined very valuable additions to every article. The arrangement in this edition is greatly improved by being made chronological; and industrious research has gathered much curious information from obscure or neglected sources. Few more acceptable presents could have been given to the public, unless indeed the learned and accomplished editor would perform his promise to add a second volume.

To Edward Phillips, Wood attributes the following works, most of which render it probable that he was an author by profession : 1. "A new World of English Words, or General Dictionary, &c." Lond. 1657, folio. In this he had made so much use of Blount's "Glossographia," with

t

out acknowledgment, that the latter complained of the injury in a letter to Wood, and speaks of Phillips, as a 'beggarly half-witted scholar, hired for the purpose by some of the law-booksellers," to transcribe that in four or five months, which cost him (Blount) twice as many years in compiling. At last he was provoked to expose Phillips in a pamphlet entitled "A world of Errors discovered in the New World of Words," 1673, folio. Phillips had a yet more formidable antagonist in Skinner, who in his "Etymologicon" takes many opportunities to expose his ignorance. 2. A supplement to "Speed's Theatre," 1676, folio. 3. A continuation of "Baker's Chronicle." 4. "Tractatulus de modo et ratione formandi voces derivativas Latinæ Linguæ," 1684, 4to. 5. "Enchiridion Lingue Latinæ, or a compendious Latin Dictionary, &c." 1684, 8vo. 6. "Speculum Linguæ Latinæ," 1684, 4to. These two last are chiefly taken from Milton's MS Latin "Thesaurus." 7. "Poem on the coronation of his most sacred majesty James II. and his royal consort our gracious queen Mary," 1685, folio. He also published an edition of Drummond of Hawthornden's poems, in 1656; and translated Pausanias into Latin; and, into English, two novels from J. Perez de Montalvan; and "The Minority of St. Lewis, with the politic conduct of affairs by his mother queen Blanch of Spain, during her regency," 1685, 12mo. But next to his "Theatrum, ," we are mostly indebted to him for his life of his illustrious uncle.

JOHN PHILLIPS, the other nephew of Milton, appears to have been at first a warm adherent to his uncle's political opinions, and published "Milton's Defensio" in answer to the "Apologia pro rege, &c." which was falsely ascribed to bishop Bramhall. His other publications imply some change of sentiment, particularly his "Satyr against Hypocrites," published about the time of the restoration, and reprinted in 1671 and 1680, 4to. These other writings, according to Wood, are, 1. "Montelion; or the prophetic almanack for the year 1660," 8vo. 2. "Maronides; or Virgil Travestie," a burlesque on the 5th and 6th books of the Eneid," 1672 and 1673, 8vo, and reprinted together in 1678. 3. "Duellum Musicum," printed with Locke's "Present practice of Musick vindicated." 4. "Mercurius Verax; or the prisoner's prognostications for the year 1675," 1675, 8vo. 5. A Continuation of Heath's Chronicle, 1676, folio, a wonderful production from the author

of "Miltoni Defensio." 6. "Dr. Oates's Narrative of the Popish Plot vindicated," 1680, folio. 7. "Character of a Popish Successor," the second part, 1681, folio, disowned by Elkanah Settle, author of the first part. 8. "SpecuJum Crape-Gownorum; or, an old Looking-glass for the young academics new foil'd, &c." 9. "Samuel Lord Bishop of Oxon his celebrated reasons for abrogating the test, and notion of idolatry, answered by Sam. archdeacon of Canterbury,".1688, 4to. In Wood we have no account of his death, but he adds that he was a man of very loose principles, atheistical, forsakes his wife and children, makes no provision for them." He appears, indeed, from his publications, to have reflected very little credit on his family.'

PHILIPS (FABIAN), author of several books relating to ancient customs and privileges in England, was the son of a gentleman, and born at Prestbury in Gloucestershire, Sept. 28, 1601. When he was very young, he spent some time in one of the inns of chancery; and thence translated himself to the Middle-temple, where he became learned in the law. In the civil war he continued loyal, having always been an assertor of the king's prerogative; and was so zealously attached to Charles I. that, two days before the king was beheaded, he wrote a protestation against the intended murder, which he caused to be printed, and affixed to posts in all public places. He also published, in 1649, 4to, a pamphlet entitled "Veritas inconcussa; or King Charles I. no man of blood, but a martyr for his people" which was reprinted in 1660, 8vo. In 1653, when the courts of justice at Westminster, especially the chancery, were voted down by Oliver's parliament, he published "Considerations against the dissolving and taking them away" for which he received the thanks of William Lenthall, esq. speaker of the late parliament, and of the keepers of the liberties of England. For some time, he was filazer for London, Middlesex, Cambridgeshire, and Huntingdonshire; and spent much money in searching records, and writing in favour of the royal prerogative: yet he was but poorly rewarded by the place of one of the commissioners for regulating the law, worth 200l. per annum, which only lasted two years. After the restoration of

1 Ath. Ox, vol. II.-Life of Edward prefixed to the "Theatrum" by Sir E. Brydges.

Charles II. when the bill for taking away the tenures was depending in parliament, he wrote and published a book, to shew the necessity of preserving them. Its title is "Tenenda nou Tollenda: or, the Necessity of preserving Tenures in Capite, and by Knight's-service, which, according to their first institution, were, and are yet, a great part of the salus populi, &c 1660," 4to. In 1663 he published "The Antiquity, Legality, Reason, Duty, and Necessity of Præ-emption and Pourveyance for the King," 4to; and, afterwards, many other pieces upon subjects of a similar kind. He likewise assisted Dr. Bates in his "Elenchus Motuum;" especially in searching the records and offices for that work. He died Nov. 17, 1690, in his eighty-ninth year; and was buried near his wife, in the church of Twyford in Middlesex. He was a man well acquainted with records and antiquities; but his manner of writing is not close or well digested. He published various political pamphlets, and among them one in 1681, which, supposing him to have been sincere, proves his passion for royal prerogative to have been much superior to his sagacity and judgment: it is entitled "Ursa Major et Minor; shewing, that there is no such fear, as is factiously pretended, of popery and arbitrary power." In the Archæologia, vol. XIII. is an account of a MS. of his in the Harleian collection, entitled "An Expedient or meanes in want of money to pay the sea and land forces, or as many of them as shall be thought expedient without money in this year of an almost universal povertie of the English nation." In Strype's life of Whitgift (p. 89), is a notice of one Fabian Phillips, one of the council of the marches of Wales, who appears to have been an ancestor of our author.'

PHILIPS (JOHN), an English poet, was son of Dr. Stephen Philips, archdeacon of Salop; and born at Bampton in Oxfordshire, Dec. 30, 1676. After some domestic education, he was sent to Winchester, where, as we are told by Dr. Sewel, his biographer, he was soon distinguished by the superiority of his exercises; and, what is less easily to be credited, so much endeared himself to his schoolfellows, by his civility and good-nature, that they, without murmur or ill-will, saw him indulged by the master with particular immunities. It is related, that, when he was at school, he seldom mingled in play with the other boys,

1 Ath. Ox, vol. II.—Biog. Brit,

but retired to his chamber; where his sovereign pleasure was to sit, hour after hour, while his hair was combed by somebody, whose service he found means to procure.

From school, where he became acquainted with the poets ancient and modern, and fixed his attention particularly on Milton, he was, in 1694, removed to Christ church, Oxford, where he performed all his university exercises with applause. Following, however, the natural bent of his genius to poetry, he continued the study of his favourite Milton, so intensely, that it is said there was not an allusion in "Paradise Lost," drawn from any hint in either Homer or Virgil, to which he could not immediately refer. Yet he was not so much in love with poetry, as to neglect other branches of learning, and, having some intention to apply to physic as a profession, he took much delight in natural history, particularly botany; but he appears to have relinquished these pursuits when he had begun to acquire poetical fame. While he was at Oxford, he was honoured with the acquaintance of the best and politest men in it; and had a particular intimacy with Mr. Edmund Smith, author of the tragedy of Phædra and Hippolitus. The first poem which distinguished him, in 1703, was his "Splendid Shilling;" his next, entitled "Blenheim," he wrote, as a rival to Addison's on the same subject, at the request of the earl of Oxford, and Mr. Henry St. John, afterwards lord Bolingbroke, on occasion of the victory obtained at that place by the duke of Marlborough in 1704. It was published in 1705; and the year after he finished a third poem, upon " Cyder," the first book of which had been written at Oxford. It is founded upon the model of Virgil's "Georgics." All that we have more by Philips is, a Latin "Ode to Henry St. John, esq.;" which is also esteemed a master-piece. He was meditating a poem on the "Last Day," when illness obliged him to relinquish all pursuits, except the care of his health. His disorder, however, became a lingering consumption, attended with an asthma, of which he died at Hereford, Feb. 15, 1708, when he had not reached his thirty-third year. He was interred in the cathedral there, with an inscription over his grave; and had a monument erected to his memory, in Westminster-abbey, by sir Simon Harcourt, afterwards lord chancellor, with an epitaph upon it, written by Dr. Atterbury, though commonly ascribed to Dr. Freind. Philips was one of those few poets, whose Muse and man