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Charles Gildon (c. 1665 – 1 January 1724), was an English hack writer who was, by turns, a translator, biographer, essayist, playwright, poet, author of fictional letters, fabulist,
short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...
author, and
critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or gover ...
. He provided the source for many lives of Restoration figures, although he appears to have propagated or invented numerous errors with them. He is remembered best as a target of
Alexander Pope Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, ...
's in both '' Dunciad'' and the '' Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot'' and an enemy of
Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Du ...
's. Gildon's biographies are, in many cases, the only biographies available, but they have nearly without exception been shown to have wholesale invention in them. Because of Pope's caricature of Gildon, but also because of the sheer volume and rapidity of his writings, Gildon has come to stand as the epitome of the hired pen and the literary opportunist.


Biography

Gildon was born in
Gillingham, Dorset Gillingham ( ) is a town and civil parish in the Blackmore Vale area of Dorset, England. It lies on the B3095 and B3081 roads, approximately south of the A303 trunk road and northwest of Shaftesbury. It is the most northerly town in the c ...
to a
Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...
family that had been active in support of the Royalist side during the
English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I (" Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of r ...
. While one of Charles's cousins, Joseph, would become a Catholic priest, Charles's parents fled to France, and Charles was educated at
Douai Douai (, , ,; pcd, Doï; nl, Dowaai; formerly spelled Douay or Doway in English) is a city in the Nord département in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. Located on the river Scarpe some from Lille and from Arras, Dou ...
. 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. His first known literary employer was
John Dunton John Dunton (4 May 1659 – 1733) was an English bookseller and author. In 1691 he founded The Athenian Society to publish '' The Athenian Mercury'', the first major popular periodical and first miscellaneous periodical in England. In 1693, for f ...
, who used Gildon for the ''Athenian Mercury'' (''see Restoration literature for a discussion of this periodical'') and to write ''The History of the Athenian Society'' in 1692. In the same year, Gildon wrote a biography of
Aphra Behn Aphra Behn (; bapt. 14 December 1640 – 16 April 1689) was an English playwright, poet, prose writer and translator from the Restoration era. As one of the first English women to earn her living by her writing, she broke cultural barrie ...
, claiming to have been a close friend of hers. Inasmuch as he and Behn were both probably from Dorset and royalists (although only Gildon's family had been active during the
Interregnum An interregnum (plural interregna or interregnums) is a period of discontinuity or "gap" in a government, organization, or social order. Archetypally, it was the period of time between the reign of one monarch and the next (coming from Latin '' ...
, 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 demonstrable errors in it (including a wholly credulous reading of '' Oroonoko''). At the time, however, he was a social correspondent with
John Dryden '' John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the p ...
and William Wycherley, as well as Behn, and he lived a courtly lifestyle. He was a Deist around 1693–1698, and
Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe (; born Daniel Foe; – 24 April 1731) was an English writer, trader, journalist, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel '' Robinson Crusoe'', published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its ...
attacked him as a
rake Rake may refer to: * Rake (stock character), a man habituated to immoral conduct * Rake (theatre), the artificial slope of a theatre stage Science and technology * Rake receiver, a radio receiver * Rake (geology), the angle between a feature on a ...
who had six well-fed whores and a starving wife. Gildon edited the ''Works of Charles Blount'' in 1693 and added his own Deist tract, ''Oracles of Reason,'' to the edition. In 1695, he produced a ''Life'' of Blount that made his subject heroic. At the same time, he wrote a defense of Dryden's modernism against
Thomas Rymer Thomas Rymer (c. 1643 – 14 December 1713) was an English poet, critic, antiquary and historian. His lasting contribution was to compile and publish 16 volumes of the first edition of ''Foedera'', a work in 20 volumes conveying agreements betwe ...
in 1694. Between 1696 and 1702, Gildon wrote four blank verse tragedies that failed. He also converted to
Anglicanism Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of t ...
in 1698 and wrote, later, ''The Deist's Manual'' (1705), to attack Deism. He also 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. Gildon's ''The Golden Spy'' (1709) has been regarded by modern scholars as "the first, fully-fledged it-narrative in English". But for his contemporaries, it tends to be read as "a Menippean satire, a re-adaptation of Apuleius's ''The Golden Ass'' and a sequel to ''The New Metamorphosis'' .e. Gildon's adaptation of ''The Golden Ass'' in 1708. In 1706, Gildon, a staunch Whig by this point (in contrast to his family's Toryism and Jacobitism), published letters to the Electress Sophia to come visit England, with an eye toward being on hand to take the throne upon Queen Anne's death. The government prosecuted him for seditious libel. Prominent Whigs came to his aid, and
Richard Steele Sir Richard Steele (bap. 12 March 1672 – 1 September 1729) was an Anglo-Irish writer, playwright, and politician, remembered as co-founder, with his friend Joseph Addison, of the magazine ''The Spectator''. Early life Steele was born in D ...
wrote his appeal. When Gildon was found guilty and fined 100 pounds,
Arthur Mainwaring Sir Arthur Mainwaring (c. 1580 – 1648) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1624 to 1626. Life Mainwaring was the eldest son of Sir George Mainwaring of Ightfield, Shropshire and Ann More, daughter of William Mor ...
paid the fine for him. The letters were sufficient provocation to carry a prison term or the
pillory The pillory is a device made of a wooden or metal framework erected on a post, with holes for securing the head and hands, formerly used for punishment by public humiliation and often further physical abuse. The pillory is related to the sto ...
, but Gildon's connections saved him. Arthur Mainwaring, an enemy already of
Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Du ...
's, aided Gildon again, and Steele introduced him to other periodical work. Gildon's 1710 ''Life of Thomas Betterton'' was dedicated to Steele in return. Gildon's essay on "The Art of Poetry" was published anonymously in John Brightland's ''A Grammar of the English Tongue'', which was first published in 1711; Gildon later expanded this essay into his book ''The Complete Art of Poetry'' in 1718. Brightland's ''Grammar'' also included Gildon's treatise on "Logic; or, The Art of Reasoning". Gildon's "Logic" is an unattributed translation of a large part of Jean Le Clerc's ''Logica'' of 1692. Much of Gildon's translation of Le Clerc was appropriated by
Ephraim Chambers Ephraim Chambers ( – 15 May 1740) was an English writer and encyclopaedist, who is primarily known for producing the '' Cyclopaedia, or a Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences''. Biography Chambers was born in Milton near Kendal, Westmo ...
when Chambers composed his '' Cyclopaedia''.For the definitive attribution of the authorship of Brightland's ''Grammar'' 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.), ''Grammars, grammarians and grammar-writing in eighteenth-century England'' (Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2008), pp. 81–100. In 1711, John Brightland hired Gildon to run ''The British Mercury.'' For six months, Gildon conducted a series of 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 ''The British Mercury'' folded, he launched another attack on Pope in a play called ''A New Rehearsal'' (1714) and in the body of ''Memoirs of the Life of William Wycherley'' (one of Pope's mentors) in 1718. Also in 1718, Gildon switched literary sides in ''Complete Art of Poetry,'' which he dedicated to the Duchess of Buckingham. In it, he reiterated Rymer's dicta of neo-classicism, which he had disapproved of earlier in his career, with Dryden. By 1719, Gildon was blind and in great poverty. Alexander Pope suggested, in his correspondence, that the blindness was due to
syphilis Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium '' Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms of syphilis vary depending in which of the four stages it presents (primary, secondary, latent, a ...
. However, Gildon was in danger of starvation. In 1721, the Duchess of Buckingham gave him some relief. The same year, Robert Harley (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
Thomas Southerne Thomas Southerne (12 February 166026 May 1746) was an Irish dramatist. Biography Thomas Southerne, born on 12 February 1660, in Oxmantown, near Dublin, was an Irish dramatist. He was the son of Francis Southerne (a Dublin brewer) and Margar ...
's ''Oroonoko'' was probably intended for him. Gildon is also involved with the biographies of women writers. He is assumed to be the biographer who masqueraded as "One of the Fair Sex" of ''Memoirs on the Life of Mrs. Behn'' which appears at the beginning of the first edition of ''The Histories and Novels or the Late Ingenious Mrs. Behn'' (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 ''The Adventures of Rivella'' (1714). He also published the pamphlet titled The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Mr. D––– De F , of London, Hosier (1719) just after The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. This humorous pamphlet includes the dialogue between Defoe and his characters Robinson Crusoe and Friday, in which Gildon exposes narrative inconsistencies in the novel. In the ending of this pamphlet, Crusoe and Friday made Defoe swallow his own big books as a punishment for his unfair depiction of characters, saying "if you will make such large Compositions, you must take them for your Pains". Daniel Defoe defends himself against Gildon's attacks in his preface to the Serious ''Reflections'', the final sequel to Robinson Crusoe. He died in London on 1 January 1724.


References

*Sambrook, James. In, Matthew, H.C.G. and Brian Harrison, eds. ''The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.'' vol. 22, 225–6. London: Oxford UP, 2004. ''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'':
Leslie Stephen, "Gildon, Charles", in John Stevens and Sidney Lee, eds., ''The Dictionary of National Biography'' (1908), vol. 7, p. 1226.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gildon, Charles 1665 births 1724 deaths Converts to Anglicanism from Roman Catholicism English biographers People from Gillingham, Dorset Fabulists 17th-century English writers 17th-century English male writers 18th-century English writers 18th-century English male writers