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Henry James Pye

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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HENRY JAMES PYE (1745-1813), English poet laureate, was born in London on the 10th of February 1745, and educated at Magdalen College, Oxford. His father, a Berkshire landowner, died in 1766, leaving him a legacy of debt amounting to f 50,000, and the burning of his home at Great Faringdon further increased his difficulties. In 1784 he was elected M.P. for Berkshire. He was obliged to sell the paternal estate, and, retiring from Parliament in 1790, became a police magistrate for Westminster. Although he had no command of language and was destitute of poetic feeling, his ambition was to obtain recognition as a poet, and he published many volumes of verse. Of all he wrote his prose Summary of the Duties of a Justice of the Peace out of Sessions (1808) is most worthy of record. He was made poet laureate in 1790, perhaps as a reward for his faithful support of Pitt in the House of Commons. The appointment was looked on as ridiculous, and his birthday odes were a continual source of contempt. His most elaborate poem was an epic, Alfred (1801). He was the first poet laureate to receive a fixed salary of X27 instead of the historic tierce of Canary wine. He died at Pinner, Middlesex, on the 11th of August 1813.