PHILIPS, John, an English poet of considerable eminence, was born in 1676. He was educated at Winchester and Oxford, where he became acquainted with Milton, whom he studied with great application, and traced in all his successful translations from the ancients. The first poem by which he distinguished himself was his Splendid Shilling, which in the Tatler is styled the "finest burlesque poem in the English language." His next was entitled Blenheim, which he wrote at the request of the Earl of Oxford, and Mr Henry St John, afterwards Lord Bolingbroke, on the victory obtained by the Duke of Marlborough in the year 1704. It was published in 1705; and the year after, he finished another poem upon cider, the first book of which had been written at Oxford. It is on the model of Virgil's Georgics, and is thought a very excellent piece. We have no more of Philips' except a Latin ode to Mr Henry St John, which is esteemed a masterpiece. He was contriving greater things, when he was seized with the illness of which he died, at Hereford, on the 15th of February 1708, before he had attained his thirty-third year. It deserves to be remarked, that there were other two poets of the same name who flourished in his time. One of these was Milton's nephew, who wrote several things, particularly some memoirs of his uncle, and part of Virgil Tragedy. The other was the author of two political farces, which were both printed in 1716, viz. The Earl of Marr Married, with the Humours of Jockey the Highlander; and the Pretender's Flight, or a Mock Coronation, with the Humours of the facetious Harry St John.