Paul Whitehead (satirist)
Paul Whitehead (1710–1774) was a British satirist and a secretary to the infamous Hellfire Club.
Biography
He was born on 6 February 1710 in Castle Yard, Holborn in London where his father was a prosperous tailor. He may attended a school at Hitchin he was apprenticed to a mercer in the city, but, showing little disposition for business, he may have taken chambers in the Temple as a law student. He was, however, obliged, apparently for a series of years, to transfer his residence to the neighbouring Fleet Prison, having backed a bill which the theatrical manager Charles Fleetwood had failed to meet.
From prison Whitehead is said to have put forth his first literary efforts in the shape of political squibs. His first more elaborate production, "State Dunces", a satire in heroic couplets, was published in 1733. It was inscribed to Pope, the first of whose ‘Imitations of Horace’ dates from the same year, and whose Dunciad had appeared in 1728. Pope's rhythm, together with certain other characteristics of his satirical verse, is perhaps as successfully reproduced by Whitehead as by any contemporary writer; but he is altogether lacking in concentration and in anything like seriousness of purpose. The chief "State Dunce" is Walpole (Appius); others are Francis Hare, bishop of Chichester, and the Whig historian James Ralph The poem, which provoked an answer under the title of A Friendly Epistle, was sold to Dodsley for £10
