Gilbert West

Gilbert West (1703–1756) was a minor English poet, translator, and theologian in the early and middle eighteenth century. Samuel Johnson included him in his Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets.

Biography The son of Richard West, he was educated at Winchester, Eton and Christ Church, Oxford; his father intended a career in the Church for him. However, he was persuaded by his uncle, Lord Cobham to take a commission in the army in Kent and was appointed Treasurer of Chelsea Hospital, which provided him a modest income. Only late in his life did West achieve a measure of financial success when he was appointed to a clerkship of the Privy Council in 1752. He died four years later.

Works Stowe, the gardens of the Right Honourable Richard, Lord Viscount Cobham (1732) A canto of the Fairy Queen. Written by Spenser (1739) The institution of the order of the garter. A dramatick poem (1742) Observations on the history and evidence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1747) The odes of Pindar, with several other pieces translated (1749) Education: a poem in two cantos (1751) "The oration of Plato" (translation of the funeral oration in Plato's Menexenus). In Two orations in Praise of Athenians Slain in Battle (1759).

Note: Some publication dates are posthumous.