reckon twenty and just crept into a bachelor's degree;’ but the second part of this sentence is probably an exaggeration. He was elected a scholar of his college 28 Sept. 1676, and took the following degrees: B.A. 27 Oct. 1680, M.A. 13 June 1683, and B.D. 18 March 1696. Hearne has put on record the statement that when Creech ‘was of Wadham, being chamber-fellow of Hump. Hody, he was an extreme hard student,’ and there remains considerable evidence in support of this statement. From the same authority we find that ‘when Bach. of Arts he was Collector and making a speech as is usual for ye Collectors to do he came off with great applause, wch gained him great Reputation, wch was shortly after [1682] highly rais'd by his incomparable translation into English verse of Lucretius.’ He was one of the first scholars to benefit by Sancroft's reforms in the elections for fellowships at All Souls' College. When he put himself forward in the competition, there was nothing to recommend him but his talents; but according to Anthony à Wood he ‘gave singular proof of his classical learning and philosophy before his examiners,’ and was elected a fellow about All Saints day 1683. That Creech was ‘an excellt scholar in all parts of learning, especially in divinity, and was for his merits made fellow of All Souls,’ is the corroborative testimony of Hearne. His industry in study continued for some time after his election to this preferment, but he grew lazy at last, and the faults of his character became more and more marked. For two years (1694–6) he was the head-master of Sherborne School, but he then returned to Oxford, where his strangeness of manner was noticed by a shrewd don in 1698, and for six months before his death he had studied the easiest mode of self-destruction. It was probably with the object of shaking off this growing melancholia that he accepted the college living of Welwyn, to which he was instituted 25 April 1699, but the disease had by this time taken too strong a hold upon his mind, and he never entered into residence. After he had been missing for five days he was discovered (in June 1700) in a garret in the house of Mr. Ives, an apothecary, with whom he lodged. A circumstantial account of his suicide is given in the journal of Mr. John Hobson (Yorkshire Diaries, Surtees Society, 1877, p. 272). ‘He had prepared a razor and a rope, with the razor he had nick't his throat a little, which hurt him so much that he desisted; then he tooke the corde and tied himself up so low that he kneeled on his knees while he was dead.’ At the coroner's inquest Creech was found non compos mentis, but the precise reasons which had brought about this mental aberration were much debated at the time. One rumour current in his day was that he had committed suicide through sympathy with the principles of Lucretius, but this may be dismissed at once. The actual reasons were less fanciful. He wished to marry Miss Philadelphia Playdell of St. Giles, Oxford, but her friends would not consent to the marriage. Creech's constancy to this lady is shown in his will. It was dated 18 Jan. 1699, and proved 28 June 1700, and by it he divided his means, such as they were, into two parts, one of which he left to his sister Bridget Bastard for the use of his father during his lifetime and afterwards for herself, while he left the other moiety to Miss Playdell and appointed her sole executrix. She afterwards married Ralph Hobson, butler of Christ Church, and died in 1706, aged 34. Another and hardly less powerful motive was his want of money. Colonel Christopher Codrington, his brother-fellow at All Souls, had often proved his benefactor in money matters, and it is clear from Codrington's interesting letter to Dr. Charlett, which is printed in ‘Letters from the Bodleian,’ that with a little patience on Creech's part he would have again received from his friend the assistance which was expected. These two calamities, a disappointment in love and the pressure of pecuniary difficulties, were the strongest factors in unhinging the mind, naturally gloomy and despondent, of a man contemptuous of the abilities of others and fretting at his want of preferment. There were printed after his death two tracts: 1. ‘A Step to Oxford, or a Mad Essay on the Reverend Mr. Tho. Creech's hanging himself (as 'tis said) for love. With the Character of his Mistress,’ 1700. 2. ‘Daphnis, or a Pastoral Elegy upon the unfortunate and much-lamented death of Mr. Thomas Creech,’ 1700; second edition (corrected) 1701, and it is also found in ‘A Collection of the best English Poetry,’ vol. i. 1717. The first of these tracts is a catchpenny production; the second has higher merits. His portrait, three-quarters oval in a clerical habit, was given by Humphrey Bartholomew to the picture gallery at Oxford. It was engraved by R. White and also by Van der Gucht. The sale catalogue of his library, which was sold at Oxford on 9 Nov. 1700, is preserved in the Bodleian Library; but it contained no rarities, and the books fetched small prices.
Creech's translation of Lucretius vied in popularity with Dryden's Virgil and Pope's Homer. The son of one of his friends is reported to have said that the translation was made in Creech's daily walk round the parks in Oxford in sets of fifty lines, which he
