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Walpole, Sir Robert, first earl of Orford

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From: The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature
Date: 20030101
Author:MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER

Walpole, Sir Robert, first earl of Orford (1676–1745), father of Horace Walpole , and the leader of the Whig party, was prime minister and chancellor of the exchequer 1715–17, and again 1721–42. His long-standing relationship with his mistress Maria Skerrett (whom he married on his wife's death in 1737) is satirized in Gay's The Beggar's Opera . In 1737, provoked by this and other satirical attacks in the threatre (by Fielding in particular), he introduced the Licensing Act, which has been blamed for the decline of the drama in the 18th cent.

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