William Diaper

William Diaper (1685–1717) was an English poet of the Augustan era. Little is known about his life. He was born in Bridgwater, Somerset and attended Balliol College, Oxford as a pauper, where he took his BA in 1702. In 1709 he was ordained a deacon at Wells and became a curate in the parish of Brent, which he describes in disparaging terms in a poem of the same name, calling it "nature's gaol". By 1712, he had made contacts in the London literary world and become a protégé of Jonathan Swift, who refers to the poet several times in his Journal to Stella. In March 1712, Swift writes:

Here is a young fellow has writ some Sea Eclogues, poems of Mermen, resembling pastorals of shepherds, and they are very pretty, and the thought is new. Mermen are he-mermaids; Tritons, natives of the sea. Do you understand me? I think to recommend him to our Society to-morrow. His name is Diaper. P— on him, I must do something for him, and get him out of the way. I hate to have any new wits rise, but when they do rise I would encourage them; but they tread on our heels and thrust us off the stage.

In December 1712, he continued his account of Diaper's progress:

This morning I presented one Diaper, a poet, to Lord Bolingbroke, with a new poem, which is a very good one; and I am to give him a sum of money from my lord; and I have contrived to make a parson of him, for he is half one already, being in deacon’s orders, and serves a small cure in the country; but has a sword at his a—— here in town. ’Tis a poor little short wretch, but will do best in a gown, and we will make Lord Keeper give him a living.

In another letter, Swift refers to Diaper's being ill:

I was to see a poor poet, one Mr. Diaper, in a nasty garret, very sick. I gave him twenty guineas from Lord Bolingbroke, and disposed the other sixty to two other authors, and desired a friend to receive the hundred pounds for poor Harrison, and will carry it to him to-morrow morning. I sent to see how he did, and he is extremely ill; and I very much afflicted for him, for he is my own creature, and in a very honourable post, and very worthy of it. I dined in the City. I am in much concern for this poor lad. His mother and sister attend him, and he wants nothing.

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