# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wolcot, John

​WOLCOT, JOHN (1738–1819), satirist and poet, under the title of Peter Pindar, was the son and fourth child of Alexander Wolcot, by Mary Ryder, his wife. He was born at Dodbrooke, near Kingsbridge, Devon, and baptised on 9 May 1738 (Baptismal Register, Dodbrooke). His father, who was a country surgeon and son of a surgeon, died on 14 June 1751, and the future poet fell under the care of his uncle, John Wolcot of Fowey. He was educated at Kingsbridge grammar school, and afterwards at Liskeard and Bodmin. In or about 1760 he was sent on his uncle's advice for twelve months to France to learn the language. He, however, acquired no love for the French, of whom he afterwards wrote:
I hate the shrugging dogs, I've lived among them, ate their frogs
(Coll. Works, i. 107). Medicine being determined on as a profession, Wolcot went in 1762 to London for the purpose of study, and lodged with his uncle by marriage, Mr. Giddy of Penzance. In 1764 he returned to his uncle at Fowey, with whom he lived, acting as assistant till 1767. On 8 Sept. of this year he graduated M.D. at Aberdeen (Notes and Queries, 6th ser. xi. 94). Wolcot was well acquainted and distantly connected with Sir William Trelawny of Trelawne, Fowey [see under Trelawny, Edward], and, on Trelawny's appointment as governor of Jamaica in 1767, Wolcot was chosen to accompany him as physician. Finding, however, that medical prospects in Jamaica were not encouraging, he returned home in 1769 for the purpose of taking orders, with a view to securing the valuable living of St. Anne, which was in the gift of his patron, and then apparently soon likely to become vacant. He was without difficulty admitted by the bishop of London deacon on 24 June 1769, and priest on the following day (Register of Bishopric of London). Thus equipped he returned to Jamaica in March 1770, but found the hoped-for living was not vacant. He was granted the incumbency of Vere, but lived most of his time at the governor's house, ​performing his almost nominal duties by deputy. Reverting to his original profession, he was appointed physician-general to the horse and foot in the island on 21 May 1770. He lived on terms of close friendship with the Trelawny family, and one of the first of his poems published in London was an elegy on the death of Miss Anne Trelawny, ‘the Nymph of Tauris’ (Annual Register, 1773, p. 240). On the death of Trelawny he obtained leave of absence from the new governor, Dalling, on 20 Feb. 1773, and returned to England in company with Lady Trelawny, whose death shortly afterwards possibly robbed him of a future wife (Redding, Recollections, Literary and Personal, i. 258).
Dropping his clerical profession very completely, Wolcot now settled at Truro, where he established himself in a house on the Green, with the view of practising as a doctor. His peculiar medicinal methods, which consisted in encouraging his fever patients to drink cold water, and his opinion that a physician could do little more than watch nature and ‘give her a shove on the back if he sees her inclined to do right’ (ib. i. 253), involved him in disputes with his professional brethren. He quarrelled also with the corporation of Truro, and when that body attempted to revenge the lampoons he had written upon their ill management by planting a parish apprentice upon him, the doctor removed to Helstone (November 1779), leaving behind a characteristic letter: ‘Gentlemen,—Your blunderbuss has missed fire,—Yours, John Wolcot.’ He remained at Helstone and Exeter for the next two years, but the success of some songs set to music by Jackson of Exeter, and of a small number of poems, with a ‘supplicating Epistle to the Reviewers,’ published in London in 1778, inclined him to abandon medicine and remove to the metropolis. Another reason was his friendship with John Opie [q. v.], whose developing genius was now ready for the town. Wolcot first became acquainted with the young painter at the house of Mr. Zankwell at Mithian in 1775 (Boase, Collectanea Cornubiensia), and instantly detected his abilities. He took him into his own house at Truro, provided all necessary material, and gave instruction and advice, and, when fully satisfied with the genius of the artist, persuaded him to move to London in 1781. In the first instance there appears to have been an agreement between the two to share equally all profits made by the painter, and for a time they lived together in London, but after a quarrel separated, and were never again cordially united. The origin of the quarrel is sometimes attributed to Opie's frank criticism of Wolcot's paintings, but is more likely to have arisen owing to the painter, on becoming fashionable, refusing to carry out the arrangement as to profits. There is, however, no doubt that Opie's immediate success in town was due to Wolcot, who introduced him to Mrs. Boscawen, and extolled his genius in verse. In 1782 appeared ‘Lyric Odes to the Royal Academicians by Peter Pindar, Esq., a distant relative of the Poet of Thebes and Laureat to the Academy.’ The instant success of this amusing criticism on the academicians and their works made Wolcot repeat the publication in 1783, 1785, and, with his ‘Farewell Odes’ on the same subject, in 1786. Benjamin West [q. v.] was the especial butt of the poet's humour, which was generally coarse, and not infrequently profane; few of the academicians escaped punishment at Peter's hands. His highly expressed appreciation of the landscapes of Gainsborough and Richard Wilson [q. v.] proved his discrimination.
In the first instance the lyric odes did not prove a source of profit, costing their author some 40l. (Taylor, Records of my Life, i. 228), but he soon discovered a more paying enterprise in ridiculing the private life of the king. The first of the five cantos of the ‘Lousiad, an heroi-comic poem,’ appeared in 1785, and the last in 1795. In 1787 the poet pursued the same fruitful subject in ‘Ode upon Ode, or a Peep at St. James and Instructions to a celebrated Laureat, being a comic Account of the Visit of the Sovereign to Whitbread's Brewery.’ In all these three productions, though the satire was coarse, it was often extremely humorous, and great sales were effected. Peter Pindar was well supplied with information as to the doings of the royal household (Jerdan, Autobiography, ii. 264), and he described with much point the king's plainness of mind and body, his pride, his parsimony, and his mannerisms of speech. On the other hand, the vices of the Prince of Wales were treated as virtues in the ‘Expostulatory Odes’ (ode iii.), and an obvious bid made for his favour by the poet. Whether or no ‘the king as well as the nation delighted in the bard’ (Hazlitt, 8th Lecture, English Comic Writers), the popular conception of royalty was doubtless affected by his writings. The queen seems by Peter's confession to have checked his attentions by the action of her solicitor (ode ix., Expostulatory Odes), and the government attempted to secure silence by the bestowal of a pension of 300l. (Jerdan, Autobiography, ii. 264). This appears to have ​been actually settled, Yorke acting as intermediary (ib.) But the arrangement came abruptly to an end, owing to a difference of opinion as to the amount in question and the duties involved (Taylor, Records of my Life, i. 228). Whether from fear of prosecution or promise of pension, he certainly in 1790 confined himself to smaller game, such as Sir Joseph Banks [q. v.], Sylvanus Urban, and James Bruce (1730–1794) [q. v.], the African traveller. The same year he vented his opinions on social matters in a ‘Rowland for an Oliver,’ but he returned in 1792 to the king as a more profitable subject for ridicule, and his verses addressed to Pitt from this time forward he contrived to make as offensive as possible. In 1793 he sold for an annuity of 250l. the copyright of his existing works to J. Walker, the publisher, and it was at the same time stipulated that the refusal of his future work should rest with the same publisher. Disputes and eventually litigation arose with respect to the agreement, but the poet was completely successful, and the annuity was paid him to the end of his long life.
After running a free course for twenty years the satirist was, however, to meet with more than his match. In vol. iv. art. xxvi. of the ‘Anti-Jacobin’ his ‘Nil admirari, or a Smile at a Bishop,’ was savagely considered, and a review of the author's life given, in which he was termed ‘this disgustful subject, the profligate reviler of his sovereign and impious blasphemer of his God.’ Peter was quite unable to stand his ground with Gifford, the savagery of whose ‘Epistle to P. Pindar’ (1800, 4to) was equalled only by its dexterity [see Gifford, William, 1756–1826]. Wolcot was so infuriated that he sought a personal encounter with the author. The two met in Wright's shop in Piccadilly, 18 Aug. 1800, when a scuffle took place, in which Wolcot was the aggressor, and undoubtedly got the worst of it (cf. The Battle of the Bards by Mauritius Moonshine; Peter's Æsop, a St. Giles's Eclogue, &c.) The commonplace offensiveness of Peter's ‘Cut at a Cobbler’ fell flat. But Peter was by no means silenced. The resignation of Pitt gave him an opportunity of expressing his rejoicing in ‘Out at Last! or the Fallen Minister,’ 1801. Canning also was specially singled out for abuse.
The appreciation once exhibited by the Prince of Wales, who is said to have had the poet's proof-sheets forwarded to him before publication (Jerdan, Autobiography, ii. 274), was not continued by the prince as regent, and the indignant Peter in 1811 expresses his feelings in being thus forsaken in ‘Carlton House Fête, or the Disappointed Bard.’ In 1807 a charge was made against him by his landlady which appears to have been entirely groundless, as on his trial before Lord Ellenborough on 27 June 1807, the jury found for him without leaving the box (Trial of Peter Pindar for Crim. Con. London, 1807). In Wolcot's later years he was afflicted by failure of sight, and in May 1811 was almost blind (Crabb Robinson, Diary, vol. i.); he, however, still continued to write and publish. His last work was an ‘Epistle to the Emperor of China,’ published in 1817 on the occasion of Lord Amherst's unfortunate embassy. Wolcot died on 14 Jan. 1819 at Montgomery Cottage, Somers Town, and was buried on 21 Jan. in St. Paul's Church, Covent Garden, where by his own wish his coffin was placed touching that of Samuel Butler (1612–1680) [q. v.], the author of ‘Hudibras.’
In appearance Wolcot was ‘a thick squat man with a large dark and flat face, and no speculation in his eye.’ He possessed considerable accomplishments, being a fair artist and good musician, and, despite the character of his compositions, his friends described him as of a ‘kind and hearty disposition.’ He was probably influenced in his writings by no real animosity towards royalty (Mrs. Robinson, Memoirs, 1801, vol. iv.), and himself confessed that ‘the king had been a good subject to him, and he a bad one to the king.’ His writings, despite their ephemeral interest, still furnish stock quotations.
In London he frequently changed his place of residence, living in 1793 in Southampton Row, Covent Garden; in 1794 at 13 Tavistock Row, Covent Garden; at 1 Chapel Street, Portland Place, in 1800; 8 Delany Place, Camden Town, in 1802; in 1807 he was at 94 Tottenham Court Road; and he moved to Somers Town in 1816.
There are at least eight portraits of Wolcot by Opie, one of which is now in the National Portrait Gallery, London; one was engraved by C. H. Hodges in 1787, and by G. Kearsley in 1788. A miniature on ivory, painted by W. E. Lethbridge, is now in the National Portrait Gallery, London. Among other existing engravings may be mentioned a bust in oval by Corner, in the ‘European Magazine’ (vol. xii.); half-length by Ridley, 1792, in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine;’ bust as frontispiece to an edition of works in three volumes (1794); and bust by K. Mackensie to the fourth edition of ‘Tales of the Hoy,’ 1798.
The following is a list of Wolcot's works: 1. ‘Poetical Epistle to Reviewers,’ London, 1778, 4to. 2. ‘Poems on various Subjects,’ ​London, 1778, 4to. 3. ‘The Noble Cricketers,’ 4to. 4. ‘Lyric Odes to the Royal Academicians for 1782,’ 1782, 4to. 5. ‘More Lyric Odes to the Royal Academicians for 1783,’ 1783, 4to. 6. ‘Lyric Odes for 1785,’ 1785, 4to. 7. ‘The Lousiad: an Heroi-comic Poem in Five Cantos,’ 1785–95, 4to. 8. ‘Farewell Odes to Academicians,’ 1786, 4to. 9. ‘A Congratulatory Epistle to James Boswell,’ 1786, 4to. 10. ‘Bozzy and Piozzi, or the British Biographers,’ 1786, 4to; 9th edit. 1788. 11. ‘Ode upon Ode, or a Peep at St. James,’ 1787, 4to. 12. ‘Instructions to a Celebrated Laureat,’ 1787, 4to. 13. ‘An Apologetic Postscript to Ode upon Ode,’ 1787, 4to. 14. ‘Brother Peter to Brother Tom [i.e. T. Warton],’ 1788, 4to. 15. ‘Peter's Pension: a Solemn Epistle,’ 1788, 4to. 16. ‘Sir Joseph Banks and the Emperor of Morocco,’ 1788, 4to. 17. ‘Peter's Prophecy, or the President and Poet,’ 1788, 4to. 18. ‘Epistle to his Pretended Cousin Peter,’ 1788, 4to. 19. ‘Lyric Odes to the Academicians and Subjects for Painters,’ 1789, 4to. 20. ‘A Poetical Epistle to a Falling Minister [W. Pitt],’ 1789, 4to. 21. ‘Expostulatory Odes to a Great Duke and a Little Lord,’ 1789, 4to. 22. ‘A Benevolent Epistle to Sylvanus Urban,’ 1790, 4to. 23. ‘A Rowland for an Oliver,’ 1790, 4to. 24. ‘Advice to the Future Laureat,’ 1790, 4to. 25. ‘A Letter to the Most Insolent Man Alive,’ 1790, 4to. 26. ‘A Complimentary Letter to James Bruce, Esq., the Abyssinian Traveller,’ 1790, 4to. 27. ‘The Rights of Kings, or Loyal Odes to Disloyal Academicians,’ 1791, 4to. 28. ‘Odes to Mr. Paine, Author of “Rights of Man,”’ 1791, 4to. 29. ‘The Remonstrance,’ 1791, 4to. 30. ‘A Commiserating Epistle to James Lowther, Earl of Lonsdale,’ 1791, 4to. 31. ‘More Money, or Odes of Instruction to Mr. Pitt,’ 1792. 32. ‘The Tears of St. Margaret,’ 1792, 4to. 33. ‘Odes of Importance,’ 1792, 4to. 34. ‘A Pair of Lyric Epistles to Lord Macartney and his Ship,’ 1792, 4to. 35. ‘Odes to Kien Long, Emperor of China,’ 1792, 4to. 36. ‘A Poetical … Epistle to Pope,’ 1793, 4to. 37. ‘Pathetic Odes to the Duke of Richmond's Dog Thunder,’ 1794, 8vo. 38. ‘Celebration, or the Academic Procession to St. James,’ 1794, 4to. 39. ‘Hair-powder: a plaintive Epistle to Mr. Pitt,’ 1795, 4to. 40. ‘Pindariana,’ 1794, 4to. 41. ‘The Convention Bill: an Ode,’ 1795, 4to. 42. ‘The Cap: a Satiric Poem,’ 1795, 4to. 43. ‘The Royal Visit to Exeter,’ 1795. 44. ‘The Royal Tour and Weymouth Amusements,’ 1795, 4to. 45. ‘An Admirable Satire on Burke's Defence of his Pension,’ 1796, 4to. 46. ‘One Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety Six: a Satire,’ 1797, 4to. 47. ‘An Ode to the Livery of London,’ 1797, 4to. 48. ‘Picturesque Views with Poetical Allusions,’ 1797, fol. 49. ‘Tales of the Hoy,’ 1798, 4to. 50. ‘Nil Admirari, or a Smile at a Bishop,’ 1799, 4to. 51. ‘Lord Auckland's Triumph, or the Death of Crim. Con.,’ 1800, 4to. 52. ‘Out at last, or the Fallen Minister,’ 1801, 4to. 53. ‘Odes to the Ins and Outs,’ 1801, 4to. 54. ‘Tears and Smiles,’ 1801, 8vo. 55. ‘The Island of Innocence,’ 1802, 4to. 56. ‘Pitt and his Statue: an Epistle to the Subscribers,’ 1802, 4to. 57. ‘The Middlesex Election,’ 1802, 4to. 58. ‘The Horrors of Bribery,’ 1802, 4to. 59. ‘Great Cry and Little Wool,’ 1804, 4to. 60. ‘An Instructive Epistle to the Lord Mayor,’ 1804, 4to. 61. ‘Tristia, or the Sorrows of Peter,’ 1806, 4to. 62. ‘One more Peep at the Royal Academy,’ 1808. 63. ‘The Fall of Portugal, or the Royal Exiles: a Tragedy,’ 1808, 8vo. 64. ‘A Solemn Epistle to Mrs. Clark,’ 1809, 4to. 65. ‘Carlton House Fête, or the Disappointed Bard,’ 1811, 4to. 66. ‘An Address to be spoken at the opening of Drury Lane Theatre,’ 1813, 4to. 67. ‘Royalty Fog-bound, or the Perils of a Night,’ 1814, 8vo. 68. ‘The Regent and the King: a Poem,’ 1814, 8vo. 69. ‘A most Solemn Epistle to the Emperor of China,’ 1817, 4to.
Editions of his collected works were published—Dublin, 1788, 1 vol.; in 3 vols., Dublin, 1792, 12mo; in 4 vols., London, 1794–6, 8vo; in 5 vols., 1812, with a memoir and portrait; and selections from his works in 1824 and 1834, 12mo.
Wolcot edited in 1799 the ‘Dictionary of Painters’ of Matthew Pilkington [q. v.], 4to. He left a quantity of unpublished poems, some of which and a portion of his correspondence were sold on 17 May 1877 by Messrs. Puttick & Simpson.
Wolcot had many imitators; one, C. F. Lawler, wrote under the same name; others, under very similar names, such as ‘Peter Pindar jun.,’ ‘Peter Pindar minimus,’ ‘Peter Pindar the elder,’ ‘Peter Pindar the younger’ (Brit. Mus. Cat.)
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