ed that the poem was the joint
production of George Colman, Bonnell Thornton and Robert Lloyd.
Churchill owned the authorship and immediately published an _Apology
addressed to the Critical Reviewers_, which, after developing the
subject that it is only the caste of authors that prey on their own
kind, repeats the fierce attack on the stage. Incidentally it contains
an enthusiastic tribute to Dryden, of whom Churchill was a not unworthy
scholar. In the _Rosciad_ he had given warm praise to Mrs Pritchard, Mrs
Cibber and Mrs Clive, but no leading London actor, with the exception of
David Garrick, had escaped censure, and in the _Apology_ Garrick was
clearly threatened. He deprecated criticism by showing every possible
civility to Churchill, who became a terror to the actors. Thomas Davies
wrote to Garrick attributing his blundering in the part of Cymbeline "to
my accidentally seeing Mr Churchill in the pit, it rendering me confused
and unmindful of my business." Churchill's satire made him many enemies,
and inquiries into his way of life provided abundant matter for retort.
In _Night, an Epistle to Robert Lloyd_ (1761), he answered the attacks
made on him, offering by way of defence the argument that any faults
were better than hypocrisy. His scandalous conduct brought down the
censure of the dean of Westminster, and in 1763 the protests of his
parishioners led him to resign his offices, and he was free to wear his
"blue coat with metal buttons" and much gold lace without remonstrance
from the dean. The _Rosciad_ had been refused by several publishers, and
was finally published at Churchill's own expense. He received a
considerable sum from the sale, and paid his old creditors in full,
besides making an allowance to his wife.

He now became a close ally of John Wilkes, whom he regularly assisted
with the _North Briton_. _The Prophecy of Famine: A Scots Pastoral_
(1763), his next poem, was founded on a paper written originally for
that journal. This violent satire on Scottish influence fell in with the
current hatred of Lord Bute, and the Scottish place-hunters were as much
alarmed as the actors had been. When Wilkes was arrested he gave
Churchill a timely hint to retire to the country for a time, the
publisher, Kearsley, having stated that he received part of the profits
from the paper. His _Epistle to William Hogarth_ (1763) was in answer to
the caricature of Wilkes made during the trial. In it Hogarth's vanity
and envy