The Hilliad

The Hilliad was Christopher Smart's mock epic poem written as a literary attack upon John Hill on 1 February 1753.

In response, Smart wrote The Hilliad, claiming it as the "balance due" on Hill's treatment towards his person and poetry.

During 1751, Smart was involved with the Old Woman's Oratory and devoted a substantial portion of his time putting together that production and his other comedic works.

[3] In response, John Hill claimed in the London Daily Advertiser (9 January 1752) that Henry Fielding proposed a fake paper war that would involve them "giving Blows that would not hurt, and sharing the Advantage in Silence.

[5] Regardless of the merits of either sides' claims, a war began that drew in many authors, such as Christopher Smart, Bonnell Thornton, William Kenrick, Arthur Murphy, and Tobias Smollett.

[10] Before the dispute, Smart had a mix relationship with Hill, but had a generally positive, lighthearted view of Fielding and his works.

[14] Both seek to draw connections between The Hilliad and the works of Alexander Pope and Fielding that criticize the "corruption" of modern writers.

"[16] The "account" includes 12 essays, six by Hill that claims Smart as his "debtor" for various "praises" and six that are "per contra creditor" over "his abuse".

[23] There are various pseudonyms used in the extensive footnotes that more than double the length of the work: "Quinbus Flestrin", of Swift origins, is a play off of Samuel Derrick;[14] "Martinus Macularius, from the word "macula" and a combination of "Martinus Scriblerus" of Pope's The Dunciad and of "Margelina Scribelinda Macularia" of Kenrick's Old Woman's Dunciad, is a play off of Hill.

[14] Among the notes and verses, Smart praises various people, such as William Boyce, Fielding, Hogarth, and Garrick, while he attacked Henley and a Dr.

[27] Instead, Smart, in the prologue of Fielding's The Mock Doctor, claimed to "throw the mask aside" and to stop writing under pseudonyms or responding in his previous manner.

[27] The prologue was not allowed to be performed with The Mock Doctor from an order by the Lord Chamberlain's office after it almost caused a riot, but it was printed in the Public Advertiser.