View source for Scriblerus Club

{{Short description|18th Century association of English writers}}
[[File:St James's Palace, North Front, by Charles Wild, 1819 - royal coll 922161 257088 ORI 0.jpg|thumb|right|[[St James's Palace]], where the Scriblerus Club gathered]]
The '''Scriblerus Club''' was an informal association of authors, based in London, that came together in the early 18th century. They were prominent figures in the [[Augustan literature|Augustan Age]] of English letters. The nucleus of the club included the satirists [[Jonathan Swift]] and [[Alexander Pope]]. Other members were [[John Gay]], [[John Arbuthnot]], [[Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke|Henry St. John]] and [[Thomas Parnell (poet)|Thomas Parnell]]. The group was founded in 1714 and lasted until the death of the founders, finally ending in 1745. Pope and Swift are the two members whose reputations and work have the most long-lasting influence. Working collaboratively, the group created the persona of '''Martinus Scriblerus''', through whose writings they accomplished their satirical aims. Very little of this material, however, was published until the 1740s. [[Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer]] occasionally joined the club for meetings, though he is not known to have contributed to their literary output.  He, along with Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, contributed to the literary productions of the club.<ref name="bri3">{{Cite web |title=Scriblerus Club |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Scriblerus-Club |access-date=2021-04-10 |website=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |title=Scriblerus Club |date=2013-05-21 |work=The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature |editor-last=Birch |editor-first=Dinah |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780199608218.001.0001/acref-9780199608218-e-6800 |access-date=2024-04-26 |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi=10.1093/acref/9780199608218.001.0001 |isbn=978-0-19-960821-8 |editor2-last=Hooper |editor2-first=Katy|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

The club began as an effort to satirize the abuses of learning wherever they might be found, which led to ''[[The Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus]]''. The second edition of Pope's ''[[The Dunciad]]'' also contains work attributed to Martinus Scriblerus.

[[Richard Owen Cambridge]] wrote a [[mock epic]] poem, the ''Scribleriad'', where the hero is Martinus Scriblerus.

[[Henry Fielding]]'s play ''[[The Welsh Opera]]'' is presented as a tribute to the "Scriblerians".  Fielding's pen name was "Scriblerus Secundus".

==See also==
{{portal|Poetry}}
* [[18th century in literature]]
* [[Augustan poetry]]
* [[1712 in poetry]]
* [[1745 in poetry]]
* ''[[The Scriblerian and the Kit-Cats]]''

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Lewis, Peter, and Nigel Wood. ''John Gay and the Scriblerians''. London: Vision, 1989.
* Marshall, Ashley. ''The Practice of Satire in England, 1658-1770.'' Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013.

==External links==
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p003k9cm BBC audio file]. ''In our time'' Radio 4 discussion programme on the Scriblerus Club. 45 minutes.
* [https://books.google.com/books/about/Memoirs_of_the_life_of_Scriblerus.html?id=oGrQAAAAMAAJ Google Books] S---t, D. ''Memoirs of the Life of Scriblerus.'' London: A. Moore, 1723.

{{Alexander Pope}}
{{Jonathan Swift}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Writing circles]]
[[Category:English male poets]]
[[Category:Neoclassical writers|*]]
[[Category:Jonathan Swift]]
[[Category:Organizations established in the 1710s]]
[[Category:1745 disestablishments]]
[[Category:British parodists]]


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