Archibald Campbell (
fl.
''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...
1767) was a Scottish
satirist
This is an incomplete list of writers, cartoonists and others known for involvement in satire – humorous social criticism. They are grouped by era and listed by year of birth. Included is a list of modern satires.
Early satirical authors
*Aes ...
.
Life
Campbell was the son of the philosopher
Archibald Campbell. The younger Campbells' works prove that he was a classical scholar and he, himself, states that he had "all his lifetime dabbled in books". He became
purser
A purser is the person on a ship principally responsible for the handling of money on board. On modern merchant ships, the purser is the officer responsible for all administration (including the ship's cargo and passenger manifests) and supply. ...
on a
man-of-war
In Royal Navy jargon, a man-of-war (also man-o'-war, or simply man) was a powerful warship or frigate of the 16th to the 19th century, that was frequently used in Europe. Although the term never acquired a specific meaning, it was usually rese ...
and remained at sea, leading "a wandering and unsettled life". In 1745,
William Falconer, author of the ''Shipwreck'', who was serving on board the same ship with as campbell, became his servant and received some educational help from him. About 1760, being on a long voyage, Campbell read the ''Ramblers'' and, staying shortly thereafter at
Pensacola
Pensacola ( ) is a city in the Florida panhandle in the United States. It is the county seat and only city in Escambia County. The population was 54,312 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Pensacola metropolitan area, which ha ...
, wrote his ''Lexiphanes'' and ''Sale of Authors''. The works remained in manuscript for two years till he reached England. ''Lexiphanes, a Dialogue in imitation of Lucian'', with a subtitle, saying it was "to correct as well as expose the affected style ... of our English Lexiphanes, the Rambler", was issued anonymously in March 1767 and was attributed by
Hawkins to
Kenrick. The ''Sale of Authors'' followed it in June of the same year. Campbell called
Johnson
Johnson may refer to:
People and fictional characters
*Johnson (surname), a common surname in English
* Johnson (given name), a list of people
* List of people with surname Johnson, including fictional characters
*Johnson (composer) (1953–2011) ...
"the great corrupter of our taste and language", and says, "I have endeavour'd to ... hunt down this great unlick'd cub". In the ''Sale of Authors,'' the "sweetly plaintive
Gray" was put up to auction, with
Whitefield,
Hervey,
Sterne,
Hoyle, etc. to determine their relative worth as writers.
Other works
''Lexiphanes'' itself found an imitator in 1770 in
George Colman, who used that signature to a philological
squib, and a fourth edition of the real work, which still anonymous, was issued at Dublin in 1774. After this there is no evidence of anything relating to this author. ''The History of the Man alter God’s own Heart'', issued anonymously in 1761, generally attributed to
Peter Annet, is asserted to have been written by Archibald Campbell, and this view has been adopted in the 1883 edition of
Halkett and
Laing’s ''Dictionary of Anonymous and Pseudonymous Literature '', ii. 1160. If so, the ''Letter to the Rev. Dr. Samuel Chandler, from the Writer of the History of the Man after God's own Heart'', is also Campbell’s.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Campbell, Archibald
Year of birth missing
Year of death missing
Scottish satirists
18th-century Scottish people
Scottish sailors