For nearly three decades during the mid eighteenth century--a turbulent time that saw the Seven Years' War, the American Revolution, and the reigns of two controversial kings (George II and George III)--William Whitehead served as poet laureate of England. As a remnant of the earlier Augustan style, Whitehead's verse reflects little of the enormous social changes then evolving in Europe. If his poems made an inconsequential impression on English literary history, Whitehead did much to repair the dignity of the post of laureate. What had too often for his predecessors been the instrument of a Court party or an organ of flattery became under Whitehead the expression of a generalized patriotism. Poet, playwright, and confidant of nobles, he was well aware of the limitations of his powers. His works ought not to be judged according to standards of greatness to which they do not aspire.

Whitehead was...