[1243] See post, April 6, 1772, where Johnson called Fielding a blockhead.
[1244] Churchill published his first poem, The Rosciad, in March or April 1761 (Gent. Mag. xxxi. 190); The Apology in May or June (Ib. p. 286); Night in Jan. 1762 (Ib. xxxii. 47); The First and Second Parts of The Ghost in March (ib. p. 147); The Third Part in the autumn (ib. p. 449); _The Prophecy of Famine _in Jan. 1763 (ib. xxxiii. 47), and The Epistle to Hogarth in this month of July (ib. p. 363). He wrote the fourth part of The Ghost, and nine more poems, and died on Nov. 4, 1764, aged thirty-two or thirty-three.
[1245] 'Cowper had a higher opinion of Churchill than of any other contemporary writer. "It is a great thing," he said, "to be indeed a poet, and does not happen to more than one man in a century; but Churchill, the great Churchill, deserved that name." He made him, more than any other writer, his model.' Southey's Cowper, i. 87, 8.
[1246] Mr. Forster says that 'Churchill asked five guineas for the manuscript of The Rosciad (according to Southey, but Mr. Tooke says he asked twenty pounds).' Finding no purchaser he brought the poem out at his own risk. Mr. Forster continues:—'The pulpit had starved him on forty pounds a year; the public had given him a thousand pounds in two months.' Forster's Essays, ii. 226, 240. As _The Rosciad _was sold at one shilling a copy, it seems incredible that such a gain could have been made, even with the profits of The Apology included. 'Blotting and correcting was so much Churchill's abhorrence that I have heard from his publisher he once energetically expressed himself, that it was like cutting away one's own flesh.' D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature, ed. 1834, iii. 129. D'Israeli 'had heard that after a successful work he usually precipitated the publication of another, relying on its crudeness being passed over by the public curiosity excited by its better brother. He called this getting double pay, for thus he secured the sale of a hurried work.'
[1247] In the opening lines of Gotham, Bk. iii, there is a passage of great beauty and tenderness.
[1248] In 1769 I set Thornton's burlesque Ode. It was performed at Ranelagh in masks, to a very crowded audience, as I was told; for I then resided in Norfolk. BURNEY. Dr. Burney's note cannot be correct. He came to reside in London in 1760 (Memoirs of Dr. Burney, i. 133) The Ode is in the list of 'new books, published' in the Gent. Mag. for June 1763, and is described as having been performed at Ranelagh.
[1249] The Connoisseur was started by Thornton and Colman in 1754. Cowper and Lloyd were contributors. Southey's Cowper, i. 46, 49, 65.
[1250] See ante, p. 350, note.
[1251] See post, Aug. 2, 1763, and Oct. 26, 1769.
[1252] See post. Sept. 20, 1777, note.