Combe, William (1741–1823)

English poet. He contributed doggerel verses to accompany a series of Thomas Rowlandson's illustrations in the Poetical Magazine in 1809. They were collected as The Tour of Dr Syntax in Search of the Picturesque (1812); there were two sequels. He also published a satire, The Diaboliad (1776).

Combe was born in Bristol and studied at Oxford. Afterwards he travelled in France and Italy, lived in princely style, and was known as Count Combe. Lean years followed, however, and he was successively a soldier, waiter, and cook, and spent much time in a debtors' prison.

Dr Syntax reappeared in A Second Tour in Search of Consolation (1820) and Third Tour in Search of a Wife (1821).