PREFACE.

THE first collection of British Poetry was made by Dr. Blair, of Edinburgh, in 1773. It consisted of forty-two volumes, 12mo.; and contained the works of Milton, Cowley, Butler, Dryden, Waller, Garth, Prior, Addison, Parnell, Pope, Swift, Gay, Young, Thomson, Shenstone, Gray, and Lyttelton. Not only were all the earlier writers entirely omitted, but of some, who found a place in the collection, many valuable poems were overlooked. In 1776, Mr. Bell, a bookseller of London, undertook another collection, which was to occupy one hundred and nine miniature volumes, accompanied by engravings; and to include, besides the authors in Dr. Blair's edition, the works of Chaucer, Spencer, Donne, Denham, Roscommon, Buckingham, Lansdown, King, Pomfret, Congreve, Rowe, Watts, J. Philips, Smith, Hughes, Fenton, Tickell, Somerville, Broome, Savage, Pitt, A. Philips, Dyer, G. West, Hammond, Collins, Moore, Armstrong, R. West, Mallet, Cunningham, and Churchill. As the parts of this edition were published at distant intervals, (some of the last volumes appeared more than

ten years after its commencement,) scarcely a complete set is any where to be found. The type is very diminutive; the errors of the press frequent; and, upon the whole, Mr. Bell is not considered as having made a very valuable present to the English library.

Indirectly, however, he was the means of procuring us an edition of the poets, and, more especially, a work of biography and criticism, for which, perhaps, we cannot be sufficiently grateful. His own collection was to be printed in Edinburgh, and sold in London. The booksellers of the latter place considered it as the invasion of what (says Mr. Dilly, in a letter to Mr. Boswell, of Sept. 26, 1777,) they called their literary property;' and, as the statute of Queen Anne would necessarily prohibit Mr. Bell from publishing the more recent poets, it was resolved to supersede his edition altogether, by a 'more elegant and accurate' collection of all the celebrated versifiers from Chaucer to the present time.' One committee was appointed to wait on Dr. Johnson, and solicit him to furnish a concise account' of each author; another, to engage 'Bartolozzi, Sherwin, Hall, &c.' for the engraving; a third to give directions concerning the paper, printing, and other parts of the typography; and nothing was clearer to the sanguine undertakers, than that they were about to produce a work, which, in splendour of execution, as well as in extent and value of matter, would far exceed every other English publication of the same kind. It consisted of sixty small octavo volumes, and appeared in 1779. All the English poets of reputation, from Chaucer to the present time,' were found to begin at Cowley, and

terminate with Lyttelton; comprising only four more than were in the collection, which it was designed to supersede; and being, in fact, little better than a new edition of Bell, on the model of Dr. Blair. This default in the booksellers, however, was more than compensated by the supererogation of Dr. Johnson;* who, though he, at first, intended to furnish merely a series of short Advertisements, was afterwards induced to enlarge his plan, by the honest desire of giving useful pleasure.'

This collection was reprinted in 1790; when it received an accession of fifteen volumes, by the addition of Moore, Cawthorne, Churchill, Falconer, Lloyd, Cunningham, Green, Goldsmith, P. Whitehead, Armstrong, Langhorne, Johnson, W. Whitehead, and Jenyns. Two years afterwards, some booksellers of Edinburgh conceived the plan of publishing the whole collection in six large octavo volumes; but, as it was still so very incomplete, from the total omission of the earlier writers, and as Dr. Anderson undertook to make a selection of these, and to furnish biographical and critical prefaces to all, it was at length determined to comprise the work in double that number of volumes. He included forty-five authors, that were never printed in any former collection; and the whole number amounts to one hundred and fourteen:-Chaucer, Surrey, Wyat, Sackville, Spencer, Shakespeare,

* He was ever ready to elude censure for the incompleteness of the edition, by protesting, that he had nothing to do with it, any farther than to write the lives of such authors as the booksellers should select. But he confessed, that Pomfret, Yalden, Blackmore, and Watts were inserted at his instance; and it was idle for him to pretend, that any others would not have been included, had he chosen to take the responsibility of giving his fiat.

Daniel, G. Fletcher, Davies, Carew, Drayton, Donne, Jonson, Suckling, W. Browne, P. Fletcher, Drummond, Creshaw, Hall, Davenant, Cowley, Denham, Milton, Butler, Rochester, Roscommon, Otway, Waller, Pomfret, Dryden, Dorset, Stepney, J. Philips, Walsh, Smith, Duke, Sprat, Halifax, Parnell, Garth, Rowe, Addison, Hughes, Sheffield, Prior, Pattison, Congreve, Blackmore, Fenton, Gay, Granville, Yalden, Green, Tickell, Hammond, Somerville, R. West, Savage, Swift, Pope, Broome, Blair, Pitt, Thomson, Watts, A. Philips, Boyce, Hill, Hamilton, G. West, Collins, Moore, Dyer, Cawthorne, Shenstone, Young, Dodsley, Lloyd, Churchill, Mallet, Brown, Grainger, Bruce, Falconer, Cooper, Akenside, Chatterton, Gray, Smart, Smollet, Thompson, Wilkie, Graeme, Lyttelton, Harte, Cunningham, P. Whitehead, Goldsmith, Lovebond, Langhorne, Armstrong, Penrose, Jago, J. Scott, Johnson, Glover, W. Whitehead, Jenyns, Headly, Logan, Cotton, Russel, Michel, Wharton, Blacklock, Lovell.

This new foray of the Edinburgh booksellers appears to have given those of London another alarm; and, in 1810, Mr. Chalmers commenced the publication of the Poets, upon the same plan, though in three more volumes. Dr. Anderson professed to give new biographies to all the poets; but he often copied the language of Johnson, word for word. Mr. Chalmers retains the Lives of Johnson entire; and has only furnished new lives to such authors, as were not included in Johnson's edition. His work extends, also, as low as Cowper; and includes several of the earlier poets, that are not to be found in Anderson.

Since this reprint, another edition has been pub