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The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
John Arbuthnot (1667–1735)
Arbuthnot, John. A Scottish humorist; born near Arbuthnot Castle, Kincardineshire, Scotland, April 29, 1667; died in London, Feb. 27, 1735. He was physician to Queen Anne. His literary fame rests mainly on ‘The History of John Bull’ (1712), at first attributed to Swift, but proved to have been the work of Arbuthnot. Primarily designed to satirize the Duke of Marlborough, and to oppose the continuance of the War of the Spanish Succession, this work was the means of fastening the sobriquet and the typical character of John Bull upon the English nation. He was associated with Pope, Swift, and others in the Scriblerus Club. (See Critical and Biographical Introduction).