Edward Ward,
A man of low extraction, and who never received any regular education. He was an imitator of the famous Butler, and wrote his Reformation, a poem, with an aim at the ſame kind of humour which has ſo remarkably diſtinguiſhed Hudibras. ‘Of late years, ſays Mr. Jacob, he has kept a public houſe in the city, but in a genteel way.’ Ward was, in his own droll manner, a violent antagoniſt to the Low Church Whigs, and in conſequence of this, drew to his houſe ſuch people as had a mind to indulge their ſpleen againſt the government, by retailing little ſtories of treaſon. He was thought to be a man of ſtrong natural parts, and poſſeſſed a very agreeable pleaſantry of temper. Ward was much affronted when he read Mr. Jacob’s account, in which he mentions his keeping a public houſe in the city, and in a book called Apollo’s Maggot, declared this account to be a great falſity, proteſting that his public houſe was not in the City, but in Moorfields[1]
The chief of this author's pieces are,
- Hudibras Redivivus, a political Poem.
- Don Quixote, tranſlated into Hudibraſtic Verſe.
- Eccleſiæ & Faſtio, a Dialogue between Bow ſteeple Dragon, and the Exchange Graſhopper.
- ↑ Notes on the Dunciad.
