Editing Christopher Smart (section)

===London===
Although Smart seemed to turn his life around at Pembroke, he slowly abandoned the college for London. During 1749, he listed himself on Pembroke's "Liber Absentiae" and would occasionally return to Pembroke throughout 1749 and 1750.<ref name="Sherbo p. 57">{{harvnb|Sherbo|1967|p=57}}</ref> Because of his relationship with those at Pembroke, he was allowed to keep his name in the college's records, which allowed him to participate and be charged as a member of the college.<ref name="Sherbo p. 57" /> By 1750 he was living near St. James's Park and was busy familiarising himself with [[Grub Street]].<ref>{{harvnb|Sherbo|1967|pp=58–59}}</ref> It was this year that Smart developed a business relationship with [[John Newbery]].<ref>{{harvnb|Sherbo|1967|p=59}}</ref> He worked for Newbery and married his stepdaughter in 1752.<ref name="Price, Martin, 1920-2010 1973">{{harvnb|Price|1973}}</ref> It is unknown how Smart and Newbery met, but Smart's daughter claimed Charles Burney introduced the two.<ref name="Sherbo p. 62">{{harvnb|Sherbo|1967|p=62}}</ref> Newbery was looking for a contributory to his ''The Midwife'' and ''The Student'' magazines, and it is possible that Smart's winning of Cambridge's [[Seatonian Prize]] on 25 March 1750 brought his poetic abilities to Newbery's attention.<ref name="Sherbo p. 62" />

The Seatonian Prize was a contest for one English poem each year on the topic of "the Perfections or Attributes of the Supreme Being" and the prize would be the "Rent of the [Kislingbury, Northamptonshire] estate"<ref name="Sherbo p. 62" /> It was established by the will of Thomas Seaton, an "Anglican divine and hymn writer".<ref>{{harvnb|Curry|2005|p=7}}</ref> Smart wrote in the "poetical essay" tradition using Miltonic blank verse.<ref name="Curry p. 8" /> In 1750, the poem he won the prize with was ''On the Eternity of the Supreme Being''.<ref name="Sherbo p. 62" /> The prize was only worth 17 pounds each year before 7 pounds were deducted for the publication of the poem.<ref>{{harvnb|Sherbo|1967|p=67}}</ref> However, after the publication of the poem, Smart became a regular contributor in ''The Student''.<ref name="Sherbo p. 68">{{harvnb|Sherbo|1967|p=68}}</ref>

''The Student'', before Smart's work, was a serious magazine that included a few poems and critical essays.<ref name="Sherbo p. 68" /> However, once he joined and began writing under many pseudonyms, the magazine became filled with satire, parody, and humorous essays and poems.<ref name="Sherbo p. 68" /> Along with him composing 15 of the essays and the majority of the poems published in the two volumes of the magazine, he decided to append three of ''The Inspector'', a "humorous news report", to the second of the volumes.<ref name="Sherbo p. 69">{{harvnb|Sherbo|1967|p=69}}</ref> These reports included many "puff pieces" promoting Smart's works along with various stories written by his friends and associates, including the famous writers/poets [[Henry Fielding]], Samuel Johnson, [[William Collins (poet)|William Collins]], and [[Tobias Smollett]].<ref name="Sherbo p. 69" /> However, this was not the only important publication produced by him during this time.

During his time in London, Smart's work included ''Mother Midnight's Oratory'', a series of "wild tavern entertainments" to which Smart acted as writer and performer.<ref>{{Cite web |date=16 April 2018 |title=Christopher Smart - Intro |url=https://allenginsberg.org/2018/04/monday-march-26/ |access-date=12 December 2019 |website=The Allen Ginsberg Project |language=en-US}}</ref>