The revd. gentleman met with some remonstrances from his friends, for indulging so splenetic a temper, when he was writing in the cause of religion, as to wish any man accursed.  Of this censure he was not insensible; in the next edition of his poems, he softened the sarcasm, by declaring, in a note, that he had no enmity to the author’s person, and that when he wished him accursed, be meant not the man, but the author, which are two very distinct considerations; for an author may be accursed, that is, damned to fame, while the man may be in as fair a way to happiness as any body; but, continues he, I should not have expected such prophanation from a clergyman.

The Circassian, however, is a beautiful poem, the numbers are generally smooth, and there is a tender delicacy in the dialogue, though greatly inferior to the noble original.

Mr. Croxall had not long quitted the university, e’er he was instituted to the living of Hampton in Middlesex; and afterwards to the united parishes of St. Mary Somerset, and St. Mary Mounthaw, in the city of London, both which he held ’till his death.  He was also chancellor, prebend, and canon residentiary and portionist of the church of Hereford.  Towards the latter end of the reign of Queen Anne he published two original Cantos, in imitation of Spenser’s Fairy Queen, which were meant as a satire on the earl of Oxford’s administration.  In the year 1715 he addressed a poem to the duke of Argyle, upon his obtaining a Victory over the Rebels, and the same year published The Vision, a poem, addressed to the earl of Halifax.  He was concerned, with many others, in the translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, of which the following were performed by him: 

The Story of Nisus and Scylla, from the sixth Book.

The Labyrinth, and Daedalus and Icarus, from the eighth Book.

Part of the Fable of Cyparissus from the tenth Book.

Most part of the eleventh Book, and The Funeral of Memnon, from the thirteenth Book.

He likewise performed an entire Translation of AEsop’s Fables.

Subjoined to the Fair Circassian are several Poems addressed to Sylvia; Naked Truth, from the second Book of Ovid’s Fastorum; Heathen Priestcraft, from the first Book of Ovid’s Fastorum; A Midsummer’s Wish; and an Ode on Florinda, seen while she was Bathing.  He is also author of a curious work, in one Volume Octavo, entitled Scripture Politics:  being a view of the original constitution, and subsequent revolutions in the government of that people, out of whom the Saviour of the World was to arise:  As it is contained in the Bible.

In consequence of his strong attachment to the Whig interest, he was made archdeacon of Salop 1732, and chaplain in ordinary to his present Majesty.

As late as the year 1750, Dr. Croxall published a poem called The Royal Manual, in the preface to which he endeavours to shew, that it was composed by Mr. Andrew Marvel, and found amongst his MSS. but the proprietor declares, that it was written by Dr. Croxall himself.  This was the last of his performances, for he died the year following, in a pretty advanced age.  His abilities, as a poet, we cannot better display, than by the specimen we are about to quote.