Garth

SAMUEL GARTH (1661 - 1719)

Born in Bolam, near Bishop Auckland, Garth studied medicine and eventually became physician to King George I as well as physician-general to the army. He was knighted in 1714.

In 1697 Garth delivered the Harveian lecture, in which he advocated a scheme to provide dispensaries for the poor, as a protection against the greed of chemists. Garth also moved in literary circles and became a member of the celebrated Kit-Cat Club. His mock-heroic poem 'The Dispensary' (1699) returns to the theme of his lecture, and ridicules apothecaries and their allies among the doctors. The poem is written in smoothly elegant heroic couplets. here Garth describes the apothecary's inner sanctum:

Globes stand by globes, volumes on volumes lie,
And planetary schemes amuse the eye.
The Sage, in velvet chair, here lolls at ease,
To promise future health for present fees.

Garth wrote little else besides 'Claremont' (1715) a moralising topographical poem in the manner of Pope. He did, however, edit and part-translate, a composite edition of Ovid's Metamorphoses, published in 1717. Garth was a free-thinker, but his friend Pope called him 'the best good Christian without knowing it.'

Myers Literary Guide:	The North-East
SAMUEL GARTH (1661 - 1719) Born in Bolam, near Bishop Auckland, Garth studied medicine and eventually became physician to King George I as well as physician-general to the army. He was knighted in 1714. In 1697 Garth delivered the Harveian lecture, in which he advocated a scheme to provide dispensaries for the poor, as a protection against the greed of chemists. Garth also moved in literary circles and became a member of the celebrated Kit-Cat Club. His mock-heroic poem 'The Dispensary' (1699) returns to the theme of his lecture, and ridicules apothecaries and their allies among the doctors. The poem is written in smoothly elegant heroic couplets. here Garth describes the apothecary's inner sanctum: Globes stand by globes, volumes on volumes lie, And planetary schemes amuse the eye. The Sage, in velvet chair, here lolls at ease, To promise future health for present fees. Garth wrote little else besides 'Claremont' (1715) a moralising topographical poem in the manner of Pope. He did, however, edit and part-translate, a composite edition of Ovid's Metamorphoses, published in 1717. Garth was a free-thinker, but his friend Pope called him 'the best good Christian without knowing it.'
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