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Charles Gildon

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twenty Years all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With an Account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd by Pyrates." Before the year was out, Gildon responded with a mocking satire, whose title page in return is "The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Mr. D---- De F--, of London, Hosier, who has liv'd above fifty Years by himself in the Kingdoms of North and South Britain. The various Shapes he has appear'd in, and the Discoveries he has made for the Benefit of his Country. In a Dialogue between Him, Robinson Crusoe, and His Man Friday. With Remarks Serious and Comical upon the Life of Crusoe." Gildon used a dialogue between Defoe and his characters Robinson Crusoe and Friday to expose narrative inconsistencies in Defoe's novel. On page xvii, Crusoe and Friday make Defoe swallow his own big books as a punishment for his unfair depiction of his characters, saying "if you will make such large Compositions, you must take them for your Pains." Without explicitly identifying Gildon, Defoe defended himself against his critics in his preface to
320:(1696). Gildon wrote two sheets of Mrs. Manley's life under the title of The History of Rivella, Author of the Atalantis, probably in a negative light. Delarivier Manley persuaded the publisher Edmund Curll to defer the publication; soon Manley met and reconciled with Gildon to suppress his materials. Then Manley wrote her own version of history under strict time constraints and published it anonymously under the title 77:. He left college without ordination and moved to England in 1684, at the age of 19. Two years later, he moved to London, where he immediately spent or lost his patrimony. Two years after that, in 1688, he married a woman without money. He almost immediately turned to writing as a method of getting money. 335:
who "keeps six Whores, and starves his modest Wife". Gildon apparently did not forget Defoe's insult. In 1719, Defoe published his tale of Robinson Crusoe's adventures. Defoe's title page reads "The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: who lived eight and
152:. Writing as "Lindamour", Gildon prefaced this new collection with an invented letter "To the Honorable and Divine Hermione. Giving an account of the Life and Death of the Author.", also known as Gildon's hagiographic "Life of Blount". 289:
For six months, Gildon conducted attacks on Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope. He attacked Swift for Swift's enmity with Mainwaring, and his quarrel with Pope was probably similarly political. After
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figures, although he appears to have propagated or introduced errors. Gildon's biographies are often the only biographies available, but they have often been shown to have invention in them.
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Price for the whole ONDB set of 60+ volumes is currently $ 2660. Otherwise, an online subscription is required to read this work. The following reference is somewhat more accessible
107:, whereas Behn was probably a Cavalier spy), it is possible that Gildon did know and seek out Behn, but his account of her life has many errors (including a credulous reading of 271: 182:(1705) to attack Deism. He produced a series of tales, including "The Post-Boy Robb'd of his Mail", "The Golden Spy," and "All for the Better" between 1692 and 1720. 482:
Charles Gildon, 'Some Reflections on Mr. Rymer's Short View of Tragedy, and an Attempt at a Vindication of Shakespear, in an Essay directed to John Dryden Esq.', in:
103:, claiming to have been her close friend. Inasmuch as he and Behn were both probably royalists from Dorset (although only Gildon's family had been active during the 46:. Due to Pope's caricature of Gildon as well as the volume and rapidity of his writings, Gildon has become the epitome of the hired pen and literary opportunist. 820: 26:
and translator. He produced biographies, essays, plays, poetry, fictional letters, fables, short stories, and criticism. He is remembered best as a target of
284: 144:, Blount's "Summary Account of the Deists Religion", and several letters (tracts) prepared by Blount, Gildon, and other writers. In 1695, Gildon republished 650:
to Gildon, see Astrid Buschmann-Göbels, "Bellum Grammaticale (1712)—A battle of books and a battle for the market" in Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade (ed.),
279: 451: 354: 159:'s recently published criticisms of Shakespeare and other 'modern' plays and their authors, Goldin presented a defense of the modernism of 312:
Gildon is involved with the biographies of women writers. He is assumed to be the biographer who masqueraded as "One of the Fair Sex" of
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also included Gildon's treatise on "Logic; or, The Art of Reasoning". Gildon's "Logic" is an unattributed translation of a large part of
73:. While one of Charles's cousins, Joseph, would become a Catholic priest, Charles's parents fled to France, and Charles was educated at 810: 800: 357:(patron and friend to Swift and Pope, earlier) gave him a 100-pound annuity as a "Royal Bounty." On 12 December 1723, a benefit of 136:. It comprises a "Preface" by Gildon, Blount's "Vindication of Dr. Burnet", an English translation by "H. B." of three sections of 835: 338: 815: 805: 631: 193:
in English". But for his contemporaries, it tends to be read as "a Menippean satire, a re-adaptation of Apuleius's
353:. Gildon was in danger of starvation. In 1721, the Duchess of Buckingham gave him some relief. The same year, 349:
By 1719, Gildon was blind and impoverished. Pope suggested, in his correspondence, that the blindness was due to
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Miscellaneous letters and essays on several subjects philosophical, moral, historical, critical, amorous, &c
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https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/blount-charles-1654-1693
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Wu, Jingyue (2017), ‘ "Nobilitas sola est atq; unica Virtus": Spying and the Politics of Virtue in
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and Leslie Stevens's article on "Blount, Charles (1654–1693)" in the second edition of the
239:'s, aided Gildon again, and Steele introduced him to other periodical work. Gildon's 1710 190: 91: 734:
Irony and Earnestness in Eighteenth-Century Literature: Dimensions of Satire and Solemnity
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which he dedicated to the Duchess of Buckingham. In it, he reiterated Rymer's dicta of
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Serious Reflections during the Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1720)
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by then (in contrast to his family's Toryism and Jacobitism), published letters to the
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to come visit England, with an eye toward being on hand to take the throne upon Queen
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Gildon's essay on "The Art of Poetry" was published anonymously in John Brightland's
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paid his fine. The letters were sufficient provocation to carry a prison term or the
118: 70: 250:, which was first published in 1711; Gildon later expanded this essay into his book 358: 332: 266: 771: 696:
The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Mr. D---- De F--, of London, Hosier
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The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner
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The Golden Spy; or, A Political Journal of the British Nights Entertainments
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Leslie Stephen, "Gildon, Charles", in John Stevens and Sidney Lee, eds.,
189:(1709) has been regarded by modern scholars as "the first, fully-fledged 175: 171: 160: 114: 104: 86: 23: 365:
was probably intended for him. Gildon died in London on 1 January 1724.
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Grammars, grammarians and grammar-writing in eighteenth-century England
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family that had been active in support of the Royalist side during the
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The Deist's Manual: or, A Rational Enquiry into the Christian Religion
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Archaeologiae Philosophicae: sive Doctrina antiqua de rerum originibus
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The Deist's Manual: or, A Rational Enquiry into the Christian Religion
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of 1692. Much of Gildon's translation of Le Clerc was appropriated by
751:. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press. p. 236, note 7. 611:(1 ed.). London: James and John Knapton, John Darby, and others. 521:(Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2004), pp.193-226 (p.213). 513:
Lamb, Jonathan (2001), 'Modern Metamorphoses and Disgraceful Tales',
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wrote his appeal. When Gildon was found guilty and fined 100 pounds,
301:(one of Pope's mentors) in 1718. Gildon switched literary sides in 350: 109: 749:
The Shortest Way with Defoe: Robinson Crusoe, Deism, and the Novel
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A Short View of Tragedy; It’s Original, Excellency, and Corruption
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For the definitive attribution of the authorship of Brightland's
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Sambrook, James. In, Matthew, H.C.G. and Brian Harrison, eds.
736:. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 271, note 60. 609:
Cyclopaedia: or, An Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences
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28.1 (2001), pp. 133–66, reprinted in Bill Brown (ed.),
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folded, he launched another attack on Pope in a play called
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See also Ernest Mossner's article on "Blount, Charles" at
132:. This book is a collection of Deist writings supplied by 318:
The Histories and Novels or the Late Ingenious Mrs. Behn
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in 1692. In the same year, Gildon wrote a biography of
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which appears at the beginning of the first edition of
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40.2 (2017), pp. 237-253 doi: 10.1111/1754-0208.12412
113:). At the time, he was a social correspondent with 503:. London: A. Roper; Fran. Coggan; and Geo. Strahan. 395:. London: A. Roper; Fran. Coggan; and Geo. Strahan. 385:, Gildon acknowledged that he was the publisher of 782: 327:Gildon aspired to a courtly lifestyle; in 1703, 49:He is a literary source for many biographies of 438:The Miscellaneous Works of Charles Blount, Esq; 436:Blount, Charles (1695). Gildon, Charles (ed.). 406:Blount, Charles (1693). Gildon, Charles (ed.). 821:Converts to Anglicanism from Roman Catholicism 654:(Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2008), pp. 81–100. 762:The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 713:. Abingdon: Routledge. p. 278, note 5. 22:(c. 1665 – 1 January 1724), was an English 764:vol. 22, 225–6. London: Oxford UP, 2004. 709:Defoe, Daniel (2017). Starr, G. A. (ed.). 488:. London: Benjamin Bragg. pp. 64–118. 216:death. The government prosecuted him for 170:Between 1696 and 1702, Gildon wrote four 150:The Miscellaneous Works of Charles Blount 716: 606: 591: 299:Memoirs of the Life of William Wycherley 235:Arthur Mainwaring, an enemy already of 220:. Prominent Whigs came to his aid, and 174:tragedies that failed. He converted to 783: 746: 731: 693: 666:More Reformation. A Satyr upon Himself 621: 562: 552:(3 ed.). London: John Brightland. 547: 536:Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies 498: 483: 435: 420: 405: 390: 339:Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe 232:, but Gildon's connections saved him. 85:His first known literary employer was 717:Owens, W. R.; Furbank, P. N. (eds.). 708: 678: 663: 467: 128:In 1693, Gildon edited and published 774:The Dictionary of National Biography 567:. 2 vols. London: Charles Rivington. 425:(in Latin). London: Walter Kettilby. 243:was dedicated to Steele in return. 97:The History of the Athenian Society 13: 14: 847: 811:18th-century English male writers 801:17th-century English male writers 668:. London: the author. p. 10. 626:. McLean: Berkeley Bridge Press. 342:(1720), the final installment of 456:Dictionary of National Biography 314:Memoirs on the Life of Mrs. Behn 740: 725: 702: 687: 672: 657: 640: 615: 600: 585: 556: 541: 524: 248:A Grammar of the English Tongue 836:People from Gillingham, Dorset 715:This is volume 3 of part 1 of 596:. Amsterdam: Johannes Wolters. 507: 492: 476: 461: 444: 429: 414: 399: 375: 1: 550:Grammar of the English Tongue 484:Gildon, Charles, ed. (1694). 368: 121:, as well as Behn. He was a 56: 816:18th-century English writers 806:17th-century English writers 594:Logica sive Ars ratiocinandi 7: 747:Prince, Michael B. (2020). 269:when Chambers composed his 204:In 1706, Gildon, a staunch 142:Archaeologiae Philosophicae 10: 852: 719:The Novels of Daniel Defoe 622:Bocast, Alexander (2016). 607:Chambers, Ephraim (1728). 565:The Complete Art of Poetry 472:. London: Richard Baldwin. 297:(1714) and in the body of 252:The Complete Art of Poetry 381:On the title page of his 322:The Adventures of Rivella 80: 776:(1908), vol. 7, p. 1226. 694:Gildon, Charles (1719). 577:: CS1 maint: location ( 563:Gildon, Charles (1718). 548:Gildon, Charles (1714). 499:Gildon, Charles (1705). 440:. London: by the editor. 410:. London: by the editor. 391:Gildon, Charles (1705). 241:Life of Thomas Betterton 155:In 1694, in response to 39:Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot 592:Le Clerc, Jean (1692). 421:Burnet, Thomas (1692). 303:Complete Art of Poetry, 732:Herron, Shane (2022). 679:Defoe, Daniel (1719). 664:Defoe, Daniel (1703). 624:Chambers on Definition 468:Rymer, Thomas (1693). 254:in 1718. Brightland's 89:, who used Gildon for 698:. London: J. Roberts. 408:The Oracles of Reason 387:The Oracles of Reason 199:The New Metamorphosis 148:in his collection of 146:The Oracles of Reason 130:The Oracles of Reason 683:. London: W. Taylor. 282:hired Gildon to run 92:The Athenian Mercury 826:English biographers 291:The British Mercury 285:The British Mercury 125:in the mid 1690s. 61:Gildon was born in 42:and as an enemy of 383:The Deist's Manual 331:attacked him as a 180:The Deist's Manual 178:in 1698 and wrote 63:Gillingham, Dorset 633:978-1-945208-00-3 226:Arthur Mainwaring 119:William Wycherley 71:English Civil War 843: 753: 752: 744: 738: 737: 729: 723: 722: 714: 706: 700: 699: 691: 685: 684: 676: 670: 669: 661: 655: 644: 638: 637: 619: 613: 612: 604: 598: 597: 589: 583: 582: 576: 568: 560: 554: 553: 545: 539: 528: 522: 515:Critical Inquiry 511: 505: 504: 496: 490: 489: 480: 474: 473: 465: 459: 448: 442: 441: 433: 427: 426: 418: 412: 411: 403: 397: 396: 379: 359:Thomas Southerne 267:Ephraim Chambers 210:Electress Sophia 197:and a sequel to 851: 850: 846: 845: 844: 842: 841: 840: 781: 780: 757: 756: 745: 741: 730: 726: 707: 703: 692: 688: 677: 673: 662: 658: 645: 641: 634: 620: 616: 605: 601: 590: 586: 570: 569: 561: 557: 546: 542: 529: 525: 512: 508: 497: 493: 481: 477: 466: 462: 449: 445: 434: 430: 419: 415: 404: 400: 380: 376: 371: 344:Robinson Crusoe 295:A New Rehearsal 280:John Brightland 260:Jean Le Clerc's 218:seditious libel 83: 59: 17: 12: 11: 5: 849: 839: 838: 833: 828: 823: 818: 813: 808: 803: 798: 793: 779: 778: 769: 755: 754: 739: 724: 701: 686: 671: 656: 639: 632: 614: 599: 584: 555: 540: 523: 506: 491: 475: 460: 443: 428: 413: 398: 373: 372: 370: 367: 307:neo-classicism 237:Jonathan Swift 222:Richard Steele 195:The Golden Ass 187:The Golden Spy 134:Charles Blount 82: 79: 67:Roman Catholic 58: 55: 44:Jonathan Swift 28:Alexander Pope 20:Charles Gildon 16:English writer 15: 9: 6: 4: 3: 2: 848: 837: 834: 832: 829: 827: 824: 822: 819: 817: 814: 812: 809: 807: 804: 802: 799: 797: 794: 792: 789: 788: 786: 777: 775: 770: 767: 763: 759: 758: 750: 743: 735: 728: 720: 712: 705: 697: 690: 682: 675: 667: 660: 653: 649: 643: 635: 629: 625: 618: 610: 603: 595: 588: 580: 574: 566: 559: 551: 544: 537: 533: 527: 520: 516: 510: 502: 495: 487: 479: 471: 464: 457: 453: 447: 439: 432: 424: 417: 409: 402: 394: 388: 384: 378: 374: 366: 364: 360: 356: 355:Robert Harley 352: 347: 345: 341: 340: 334: 330: 325: 323: 319: 315: 310: 308: 304: 300: 296: 292: 288: 286: 281: 276: 274: 273: 268: 264: 261: 257: 253: 249: 244: 242: 238: 233: 231: 227: 223: 219: 215: 211: 207: 202: 200: 196: 192: 188: 183: 181: 177: 173: 168: 166: 162: 158: 153: 151: 147: 143: 139: 138:Thomas Burnet 135: 131: 126: 124: 120: 116: 112: 111: 106: 102: 98: 95:and to write 94: 93: 88: 78: 76: 72: 68: 64: 54: 52: 47: 45: 41: 40: 35: 34: 29: 25: 21: 791:1660s births 773: 765: 761: 748: 742: 733: 727: 718: 710: 704: 695: 689: 680: 674: 665: 659: 651: 647: 642: 623: 617: 608: 602: 593: 587: 564: 558: 549: 543: 535: 531: 526: 518: 514: 509: 500: 494: 485: 478: 469: 463: 455: 446: 437: 431: 422: 416: 407: 401: 392: 386: 382: 377: 362: 348: 343: 337: 329:Daniel Defoe 326: 321: 317: 313: 311: 302: 298: 294: 290: 283: 277: 270: 262: 255: 251: 247: 245: 240: 234: 203: 198: 194: 191:it-narrative 186: 184: 179: 169: 157:Thomas Rymer 154: 149: 145: 141: 129: 127: 108: 96: 90: 84: 60: 48: 37: 31: 19: 18: 796:1724 deaths 272:Cyclopaedia 176:Anglicanism 172:blank verse 165:John Dennis 161:John Dryden 115:John Dryden 105:Interregnum 87:John Dunton 51:Restoration 24:hack writer 785:Categories 369:References 101:Aphra Behn 57:Early life 30:in Pope's 831:Fabulists 573:cite book 534:(1709)’, 278:In 1711, 185:Gildon's 363:Oroonoko 351:syphilis 324:(1714). 110:Oroonoko 36:and his 648:Grammar 389:. See: 256:Grammar 230:pillory 33:Dunciad 630:  519:Things 263:Logica 214:Anne's 81:Career 123:Deist 75:Douai 65:to a 628:ISBN 579:link 333:rake 206:Whig 163:and 117:and 361:'s 201:". 140:'s 787:: 575:}} 571:{{ 346:. 275:. 167:. 768:: 721:. 636:. 581:) 458:. 287:.

Index

hack writer
Alexander Pope
Dunciad
Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot
Jonathan Swift
Restoration
Gillingham, Dorset
Roman Catholic
English Civil War
Douai
John Dunton
The Athenian Mercury
Aphra Behn
Interregnum
Oroonoko
John Dryden
William Wycherley
Deist
Charles Blount
Thomas Burnet
Thomas Rymer
John Dryden
John Dennis
blank verse
Anglicanism
it-narrative
Whig
Electress Sophia
Anne's
seditious libel

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