The Hilliad - Background

Background

During 1751, Smart was involved with the Old Woman's Oratory and devoted a substantial portion of his time putting together that production and his other comedic works. However, the Oratory was controversial and caused Smart a great deal of stress. It was under these conditions that he tried to publish his collection of poems, Poems on Several Occasions, 1752. Before the publication of the Poems, Henry Fielding and John Hill were involved with a dispute involving many London writers.

Henry Fielding started a "paper war" in the first issue of The Covent-Garden Journal (4 January 1752) against "hack writers". In response, John Hill claimed in the London Daily Advertiser (9 January 1752) that Henry Fielding proposed a fake paper war that would involve them "giving Blows that would not hurt, and sharing the Advantage in Silence." Such an event is believed to have occurred (if it occurred) on 28 December 1751. Regardless of the merits of either sides' claims, a war began that drew in many authors, such as Christopher Smart, Bonnell Thornton, William Kenrick, Arthur Murphy, and Tobias Smollett.

However, both Hill and Fielding had previously attacked Philip D'Halluin, and D'Halluin hired Bonnell Thorton, a friend of Smart's, to respond in kind. Not far after Thorton's involvement in the dispute, a pamphlet in the London Daily Advertiser called The March of the Lion, 29 January 1752, introduces Smart via a reference to his "Mrs. Mary Midnight" pseudonym, although Smart was not yet a participant.

During this conflict, Smart tried to publish his first collection, and the 851 people subscribers to Smart's Poems could not keep it from coming under attack. In the August 1752 Monthly Review, Hill derided the Poems and singled out The Hop-Garden for a particularly harsh review. Combined with other attacks, Hill began to provoke Smart into a literary conflict. On 11 November 1752, Smart announced his production of The Hilliad in the Gray's-Inn Journal.

Before the dispute, Smart had a mix relationship with Hill, but had a generally positive, lighthearted view of Fielding and his works. Although Smart previously wrote "pro" and "anti" Fielding articles, it is possible that Smart was pushed towards writing The Hilliad by Arthur Murphy or Fielding. By December of 1752, Smart was reading excerpts of the mock-epic poem "at Alehouses and Cyder Cellars" according to The Inspector of 7 December 1752. The Hilliad was first published on 1 February 1753 (London) and later in May (Dublin).

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