James Miller (Q387601)

Overall: Like a horse on his back legs all his life, Miller was a rather critical satirist whose life involved his embezzling a baker early on, and infuriating politicans later by savage critique. He translated quite a bit, it seems, having adapted both Voltaire and Moliere for the English stage; according to the ODNB, he also did much work on them, oftentimes diluting the original author with other sources, in some cases heightening character and versimiltude. Well liked by Pope, the latter's name even appears on one piece of critique by Miller. Pope especially liked his poem "Of Politeness".