Laurence Eusden

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Laurence Eusden

Laurence Eusden (1688 - September 27, 1730), was a rather unremarkable English poet who nevertheless became Poet Laureate in 1718.

1 Life
2 Poetry and Criticism
3 References
4 External links
5 Notes

[edit] Life

Laurence Eusden was born in Spofforth in North Yorkshire in 1688 (date unknown) to the Rev. Laurence Eusden, rector of Spofforth, Yorkshire. Eusden was baptized on 6 September 1688. He received his education at St Peter's School, York, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. He became a minor fellow of his college in 1711, and in the next year was admitted to a full fellowship.

Early on, Eusden had decided upon building a career through influence. For someone like him, well-educated, with a fellowship at Trinity, but without family money and without well-placed relations, there was no other way to advance in the world. He begin to write, -- to versify might be the better word, -- with the intention of using his ability to attract notice to himself.^[1] And with Newcastle's marriage he succeeded, as he was made Poet Laureate in 1718 by the Lord Chamberlain, Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle, as a reward for a flattering poem on Pelham-Holles' marriage.^[2]

Eusden, who was thirty years-old at the time of his appointment was also the youngest Poet Laureate. Eusden secured this post due to the death of the previous Poet Laureate, Nicholas Rowe, and the recommendation of Joseph Addison. Upon his appointment, Eusden churned out Birthday and New Year Odes for twelve years. ^[3]

The last few years of his life were rather miserable to say the least. ^[4] While Eusden was likely enjoyed his ordination as a cleric in the 1720s,^[5] and his assumption of the office of rector of Coningsby, Lincolnshire, his elevation to Poet Laureate brought him little but derision from his peers, both social and literary. ^[6]. A heavy drinker,^[7] Eusden died at Coningsby on 27 September 1730.^[8]

[edit] Poetry and Criticism

In order to read Eusden's works today, one would need to search doggedly through the depths of the British Library, as it is unlikely much if any of Eusden's work is available anywhere else.^[9] Nevertheless, one poem is available online, The Origin Of The Knights Of The Bath. ^[10] The first 12 lines of that poem give one a sense of the dullness^[11] of Eusden's poetry:

The Origin Of The Knights Of The Bath
1: Hail glorious Off-spring of a glorious Race! 2: Britannia's other Hope, and blooming Grace! 3: Thou smil'st already on the burnish'd Shield, 4: And thy weak Hand the little Sword can wield: 5: Already, clad in Arms, Thou mov'st along, 6: The Love, and Wonder of each ravish'd Throng! 7: A-while vouchsafe, young Hero, to retire 8: 'Mid' Streams, and Grottos, and th'Aonian Choir: 9: Apollo, God of Fore-sight, who with Ease 10: Thy distant, ripen'd Years, as present, sees, 11: Bids all the Muses Thee receive with Pride, 12: To all the Muses by all Arts ally'd.

Eusden's name is rarely remembered for his translations and gratulatory poems, but rather by the numerous satirical allusions of Pope, e.g. "Know, Eusden thirsts no more for sack or praise; He sleeps among the dull of ancient days." Little-read today, he is one of several poets called "dull" in Alexander Pope's satire The Dunciad ^[12]

In fact, there is very little to be said of Eusden except at his expense, and since Alexander Pope -- his infinitely greater contemporary -- started this fun we might as well enjoy it. In The Dunciad (published 1728), Pope's wonderful slash and burn explosion against all that was preposterous and pretentious and pompous and absurd, few escaped and Eusden was not one of them.^[13]

In The Dunciad Eusden rates only one line (Book 1 line 104) but from that line flows a whole page of small-print notes that drip acid and provide the entertainment -- Pope's intention all along.

Eusden, a laurel'd Bard, by fortune rais'd,

By very few was read, by fewer prais'd...^[14]

Pope quotes these lines -- not by him -- with relish; and follows it with more, though not in verse, on the subject of that fortune which 'rais'd' Eusden so high, meaning his highly-placed supporters:

"That the putting the Laurel on the head of one who writ such verses, will give futurity a very lively idea of the judgment and justice of those who bestowed it."^[15]

In addition to Pope's skewering of Eusden's abilities, Thomas Gray, author of "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard", said that "Eusden set out well in life, but afterwards turned out a drunkard and besotted his faculties".^[16]

As a number of Eusden's critics have noted, it would be better to describe Eusden as a verse-writer or verse-maker, and definitely one of the lesser lights in English poetry.^[17]