‘Unassisted Hill’: Churchill’s Satire and the Fate of the Virtuoso

Abstract

The references to Sir John Hill by Charles Churchill during his short poetic career (from 1761–64) are characteristic of that outspoken satirist: in the The Rosciad (1761), Churchill criticises Hill for being ‘Actor, Inspector, Doctor, Botanist’, with the strong implication that to attempt to cover so many areas of expertise is to be master of none. Later references show more direct antagonism born of the campaign by Wilkes and Churchill against the ministry of Hill’s patron, John Stuart, Third Earl of Bute. In The Prophecy of Famine (1763), Hill is one of many useful idiots supported by Bute—and, it is implied, a plagiarist. In the final part of Churchill’s long, Shandean poem, The Ghost (1763), Hill is akin to a quack doctor. Churchill’s shifting depictions of Hill, from pretentious all-rounder to irredeemable charlatan open up the central argument of this essay: Hill is presented as amateur and dilettante, suggesting Churchill’s adherence to a developing process of professionalism, and specialisation, both cultural and scientific. The essay will look at Churchill’s barbs as ways in which a public life such as Hill’s could be perceived in the mid-eighteenth century, part of a larger narrative where well-known figures were characterised by over-extended ambitions and consistent mediocrity. Churchill’s criticism of the allegedly meretricious nature of his various talents reflects how a certain sort of multi-faceted career was increasingly defined: not to the benefit of figures such as Hill.