Gifford, William (1756–1826)

English poet and critic. His Baviad 1794 and Maeviad 1795 were powerful satires directed respectively against the Della Cruscans and the ineptitudes and corruption of contemporary drama. Gifford was the first editor of the Quarterly Review, with which he was connected 1809–24. His partisanship secured it an ever-increasing circulation, but he attacked the works of many writers, including Keats's Endymion and the writings of Shelley, Lamb, and Hazlitt, among others.

He was born in Ashburton, Devon. Left an orphan, he was sent to school by a local surgeon and afterwards to Oxford University. He was appointed tutor to Lord Grosvenor's son and lived at his home 1782, devoting himself to writing.