Samuel Garth

Ivor Griffiths, Poet, Novelist & Short Story Writer

:: Poet Home :: Poetry :: Short Stories :: Contact ::

Sir Samuel Garth (1661 - 1719) was an English physician and poet.

Garth was born in Bolam in County Durham and educated at the University of Cambridge. He settled as a physician in London and soon acquired a large practice. He was a zealous Whig, the friend of Addison and, though of different political views, of Pope. He ended his career as physician to George I, who knighted home in 1714.

He is remembered as the author of The Dispensary, a satire which had great popularity in its day, and of Claremont, a descriptive poem. He also edited a translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, to which Addison, Pope, and others contributed. His intervention ensured an honourable burial for John Dryden and he pronounced a eulogy at the funeral in Westminster Abbey.

For a while, he owned the manor of Edgcott in Buckinghamshire.

This article incorporates public domain text from: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London, J.M. Dent & sons; New York, E.P. Dutton.