English Playwright Aaron Hill is Born - 1685

English dramatist and poet Aaron Hill was born on February 10, 1685 in Wiltshire, England. He was the son of a country gentleman and was educated at Westminster School,, and afterwards travelled in the East. He was the author of 17 plays, some of them, such as his versions of Voltaire’s Zaire and Merope, being adaptations. He also wrote poetry, which is of variable quality. Having written some satiric lines on Alexander Pope, he received in return a mention in The Dunciad, which led to a controversy between the two writers. Afterwards reconciliation took place. He was a friend and correspondent of Samuel Richardson, whose Pamela he highly praised. In addition to his literary pursuits Hill was involved in many commercial schemes, usually unsuccessful. Hill was the manager of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane when he was 24 years old, and before being summarily fired for reasons unknown, he staged the premier of George Frideric Handel’s Rinaldo, the first Italian opera designed for a London audience. He died on February 8, 1750 and a posthumous collection of his essays, letters and poems was published in 1753. His Dramatic Works were published in 1760.

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of Great Britain’s Literary Legends. The book can be pre-ordered from Amazon through the following links:

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