ANNOTATED EDITION

OF THE

ENGLISH POETS.

BY

ROBERT BELL,

AUTHOR OF

'THE HISTORY OF RUSSIA,' 'LIVES OF THE ENGLISH POETS,' ETC.

In Monthly Volumes, 2s. 6d. each, in cloth.

LONDON:

JOHN W. PARKER AND SON, WEST STRAND.

1854.

NCL

Already Published,

POETICAL WORKS OF JOHN DRYDEN, including the most complete collection of his Prologues and Epilogues hitherto published. Edited, with a Biographical Memoir, containing New Facts and Original Letters of the Poet, now printed for the first time, with Notes, Critical and Historical. Three Volumes, containing 904 pp. 78. 6d.

POETICAL WORKS OF THE EARL OF SURREY, OF MINOR CON

TEMPORANEOUS POETS, AND OF SACKVILLE, LORD BUCKHURST. With Notes and Memoirs. In One Volume. 2s. 6d.

POETICAL WORKS OF WILLIAM COWPER, together with Illustrative Selections from the Works of Lloyd, Cotton, Brooke, Darwin, and Hayley. With Notes and Memoirs, and Original Letters of Cowper, now first published. Three Volumes. 78. 6d.

SONGS FROM THE DRAMATISTS. With Notes, Memoirs, and Index. In One Volume.

2s. 6d.

2s. 6d.

POETICAL WORKS OF SIR THOMAS WYATT. In One Volume. With Notes and Memoir.

POETICAL WORKS OF JOHN OLDHAM. In One Volume. With

POETICAL WORKS OF GEOFFREY CHAUCER.

and Notes. Vol. I. on the First of December.

With Memoir

Annotated Edition of the English Poets.

THE

'HE necessity for a revised and carefully Annotated Edition of the English Poets may be found in the fact, that no such publication exists. The only Collections we possess consist of naked and frequently imperfect Texts, put forth without sufficient literary supervision. Independently of other defects, these voluminous Collections are incomplete as a whole, from their omissions of many Poets whose works are of the highest interest, while the total absence of critical and illustrative Notes renders them comparatively worthless to the Student of our National Literature.

A few of our Poets have been edited separately by men well qualified for the undertaking, and selected Specimens have appeared, accompanied by notices, which, as far as they go, answer the purpose for which they were intended. But these do not supply the want which is felt of a Complete Body of English Poetry, edited throughout with judgment and integrity, and combining those features of research, typographical elegance, and economy of price, which the present age demands. The Edition now proposed will be distinguished from all preceding Editions in many important respects. It will include the works of several Poets entirely omitted from previous Collections, especially those stores of Lyrical and Ballad Poetry in which our Literature is richer than that of any other Country, and which, independently of their poetical claims, are peculiarly interesting as illustrations of Historical Events and National Customs.

By the exercise of a strict principle of selection, this Edition will be rendered intrinsically more valuable than any of its precessors. The Text will in all instances be scrupulously col