PHILIPS, Ambrose, an English poet of some note, was descended from an ancient and considerable family of that name in Leicestershire. He received his education at St John's College, Cambridge, and during his stay there wrote his pastorals, which at that time acquired him a high reputation. His next performance was the Life of Archbishop Williams, written, according to Mr Cibber, to make known his political principles, which in the course of it he had an opportunity of doing, as the archbishop, who is the hero of his work, was a strong opponent of the high-church party and their measures.
When he quitted the university and went to London, Philips became a constant attendant at, and one of the wits of, Button's coffee-house, where he obtained the friendship and intimacy of many celebrated men of that age, particularly of Sir Richard Steele, who, in the first volume of his Tatler, has inserted a little poem of Philips's, which he entitles a Winter Piece, dated from Copenhagen, and addressed to the Earl of Dorset, and on which he bestows the highest encomiums; and, indeed, so just are these commendations, that even Pope himself, who had a fixed aversion to the author, whilst he affected to despise his other works, used always to except this from his censure and contempt.
The first dislike Pope conceived against Philips proceeded from that jealousy of fame which was so conspicuous in his character; for Sir Richard Steele had taken so strong a liking to the pastorals of Philips, that he formed a design of instituting a critical comparison of them with those of Pope, in the conclusion of which the preference was to be given to Philips. This design, however, having come to the knowledge of Pope, the latter, who could not bear a rival near the throne, determined to ward off this stroke by a stratagem of the most artful kind; which was no other than taking the same task on himself. Accordingly, in a paper in the Guardian, he drew a similar comparison, and gave a like preference, but on principles of criticism so evidently fallacious, as to point out to all the absurdity of the decision. However, notwithstanding the ridicule which Philips drew upon himself by standing as it were in competition with so powerful an antagonist, it is allowed that in some parts of his pastorals there are certain touches of nature, and a degree of simplicity, which are much better suited to the purposes of pastoral than the more correctly-turned periods of Pope's versification. Philips and Pope being of different political principles, proved another cause of enmity between them, which at length rose to so great a height, that the former, finding his antagonist too hard for him at the weapon of wit, had determined upon making use of a rougher kind of argument; and for this purpose he even went so far as to hang up a rod at Button's for the chastisement of his adversary whenever he should come thither. Pope, however, declining to brave his antagonist, avoided the argumentum baculum, in which he would, no doubt, have found himself on the weaker side of the question. Our author also wrote several dramatic pieces, as the Briton, Distressed Mother, and Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, all of which met with success, and one of them still continues to be a standard entertainment at the theatres, being generally repeated several times in every season. Philips's circumstances were throughout his life not only easy, but rather affluent, in consequence of his being connected, by political principles, with persons of great rank and consequence. He was concerned with Dr Hugh Boulter, afterwards archbishop of Armagh, the Right Honourable Richard West, lord chancellor of Ireland, the Rev. Gilbert Burnet, and the Rev. Henry Stevens, in writing a series of papers under the title of the Free-thinker, which were all published together by Philips, in three volumes 12mo.
In the latter part of Queen Anne's reign, he was secretary to the Hanover Club, a set of noblemen and gentlemen who had formed an association in honour of that succession, and for the support of its interests, and who used particularly to distinguish in their toasts such of the fair sex as were most zealously attached to the illustrious house of Brunswick. Philips' station in this club, together with the zeal shown in his writings, recommended him to the notice and favour of the new government. Soon after the accession of George I., he was put into the commission of the peace, and appointed one of the commissioners of the lottery; and, on his friend Dr Boulter being made primate of Ireland, he accompanied that prelate across St George's Channel, where considerable preferments were bestowed on him, and he was elected a member of the Irish House of Commons, as representative for the county of Armagh. At length, having purchased an annuity for life of £400 per annum, he returned to England some time in the year 1748; but being in a very bad state of health, and, moreover, at an advanced age, he died soon afterwards, at his lodgings near Vauxhall, in Surrey.