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ILLIAM KING was born in London in 1663; the fon of Ezekiel King, a gen tleman He was allied to the family of Cla rendon.

From Westminster-school, where he was a scholar on the foundation under the care of Dr. Bufby, he was at eighteen elected to Chrift-church, in 1681; where he is faid to have profecuted his ftudies with fo much intenseness and activity, that, before he was eight years ftanding, he had read over, and made remarks upon, twenty-two thoufand odd hundred books and manufcripts. The books were certainly not very long, the manufcripts not very difficult, nor the remarks very large; for the calculator will find that he dispatched feven a day, for every day of his eight years, with a remnant that more than fatisfies moft other students. He took his degree in the most expenfive manner, as à VOL. III.

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grand

grand compounder; whence it is inferred that he inherited a confiderable fortune.

In 1688, the fame year in which he was made mafter of arts, he published a confutation of Varillas's ac count of Wicliffe; and, engaging in the ftudy of the Civil Law, became doctor in 1692, and was admitted advocate at Doctors Commons.

He had already made fome tranflations from the French, and written fome humorous and fatirical pieces; when, in 1694, Molefworth published his Account of Denmark, in which he treats the Danes and their monarch with great contempt; and takes the opportunity of infinuating those wild principles, by which he fuppofes liberty to be established, and by which his adverfaries fufpect that all fubordination and government is endangered.

This book offended prince George; and the Danish minifter prefented a memorial against it. The principles of its author did not pleafe Dr. King, and therefore he undertook to confute part, and laugh at the reft. The controverfy is now forgotten; and books of this kind feldom live long, when intereft and refentment have ceased.

In 1697 he mingled in the controverfy between Boyle and Bentley; and was one of those who tried what Wit could perform in oppofition to Learning, on on a question which Learning only could decide.

In 1699 was published by him A Journey to Lon don, after the method of Dr. Martin Lifier, who had published A Journey to Paris. And in 1700 he fatirised

Sir Hans Sloane their

the Royal Society, at leaft prefident, in two dialogues, intituled The Tranfac

tioneer.

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Though he was a regular advocate in the courts of civil and canon law, he did not love his profeffion; nor indeed any kind of bufinefs which interrupted his voluptuary dreams, or forced him to roufe from that indulgence in which only he could find delight. His reputation as a civilian was yet maintained by his judgements in the courts of Delegates, and raifed very high by the addrefs and knowledge which he difcovered in 1700, when he defended the earl of An glesea against his lady, afterwards dutchiefs of Buckinghamshire, who fued for a divorce, and obtain ed it.

The expence of his pleasures, and neglect of bufnefs, had now leffened his revenues; and he was willIng to accept of a fettlement in Ireland, where, about 1702, he was made judge of the admiralty, contmif fioner of the prizes, keeper of the record, in Birmingham's tower, and vicar-general to Dr. Marsh the primate.

But it is vain to put wealth within the reach of him who will not ftretch out his hand to take it. King foon found a friend, as idle and thoughtless as himfelf, in Upton, one of the judges, who had à pleasant houfe called Mountown, reaf Dublin, to which King frequently retired; delighting to neglect his intereft, forget his cares, and defert his duty.

Here he wrote Mully of Mountown, à poem; by which, though fanciful readers in the pride of fagacity have given it a political interpretation, was meant originally no more than it expreffed, as it was dictated only by the author's delight in the quict of Aican

town.

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In 1708, when lord Wharton was fent to govern Ireland, King returned to London, with his poverty, his idleness and his wit; and publifhed fome effays called Useful Tranfactions. His Voyage to the land of Cajamai is particularly commended. He then wrote the Art of Love, a poem remarkable, notwithstanding its title, for purity of fentiment; and in 1709 imitated Horace in an Art of Cookery, which he published, with fome letters to Dr. Lifter.

In 1710 he appeared, as a lover of the Church, on the fide of Sacheverell; and was fuppofed to have concurred at least in the projection of The Examiner. His eyes were open to all the operations of Whiggism; and he bestowed fome ftrictures upon Dr. Kennet's adulatory fermon at the funeral of the duke of Devonshire.

The Hiftory of the Heathen Gods, a book compofed. for fchools, was written by him in 1711. The work is ufeful; but might have been produced without the powers of King. The fame year he published Rufinus, an hiftorical effay, and a poem, intended to dispose the nation to think as he thought of the duke of Marlborough and his adherents.

In 1711, competence, if not plenty, was again put into his power. He was, without the trouble of attendance, or the mortification of a requeft, made gazetteer. Swift, Freind, Prior, and other men of the fame party, brought him the key of the gazetteer's office. He was now again placed in a profitable employment, and again threw the benefit away. An Act of Infolvency made his bufinefs at that time particularly troublefome; and he would not wait till hurry should be at an end, but impatiently refigned it, and returned to his wonted indigence and amufements.

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