About: An English Garner by Edited by Professor Arber and Thomas Seccombe

AN ENGLISH GARNER

Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Keren Vergon, Beth Trapaga and PGDistributed Proofreaders

AN ENGLISH GARNER

CRITICAL ESSAYSANDLITERARY FRAGMENTS

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BYJ. CHURTON COLLINS

1903

PUBLISHERS' NOTE

The texts contained in the present volume are reprinted with very slightalterations from the _English Garner_ issued in eight volumes (1877 1890,London, 8vo.) by Professor Arber, whose name is sufficient guarantee forthe accurate collation of the texts with the rare originals, the oldspelling being in most cases carefully modernised. The contents of theoriginal _Garner_ have been rearranged and now for the first timeclassified, under the general editorial supervision of Mr. ThomasSeccombe. Certain lacunae have been filled by the interpolation of freshmatter. The Introductions are wholly new and have been written speciallyfor this issue. The references to volumes of the _Garner_ (other than thepresent volume) are for the most part to the editio princeps, 8 vols.1877 90.

CONTENTS

I. Extract from Thomas Wilson's _Art of Rhetoric_, 1554II. Sir Philip Sidney's _Letter to his brother Robert_, 1580III. Extract from Francis Meres's _Palladis Tamia_, 1598IV. Dryden's _Dedicatory Epistle to the Rival Ladies_, 1664 V. Sir Robert Howard's _Preface to four new Plays_, 1665VI. Dryden's _Essay of Dramatic Poesy_, 1668VII. Extract from Thomas Ellwood's _History of Himself_, describing his relations with Milton, 1713VIII. Bishop Copleston's Advice to a Young Reviewer, 1807IX. The Bickerstaff and Partridge Tracts, 1708 X. Gay's _Present State of Wit_, 1711XI. Tickell's Life of Addison, 1721XII. Steele's Dedicatory Epistle to Congreve, 1722XIII. Extract from Chamberlayne's Angliae Notitia, 1669XIV. Eachard's Grounds and Occasions of the Contempt of the Clergy and of Religion, 1670XV. Bickerstaff's Miseries of the Domestic Chaplain, 1710XVI. Franklin's Poor Richard Improved, 1757

INTRODUCTION

The miscellaneous pieces comprised in this volume are of interest andvalue, as illustrating the history of English literature and of animportant side of English social life, namely, the character and statusof the clergy in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Theyhave been arranged chronologically under the subjects with which they arerespectively concerned. The first three the excerpt from Wilson's _Art ofRhetoric_, Sir Philip Sidney's _Letter_ to his brother Robert, and thedissertation from Meres's _Palladis Tamia_ are, if minor, certainlycharacteristic examples of pre Elizabethan and Elizabethan literarycriticism. The next three the _Dedicatory Epistle to the Rival Ladies_,Howard's _Preface to Four New Plays_, and the _Essay of DramaticPoesy_ not only introduce us to one of the most interesting criticalcontroversies of the seventeenth century, but present us, in the lastwork, with an epoch marking masterpiece, both in English criticism and inEnglish prose composition. Bishop Copleston's brochure brings us to theearly days of the _Edinburgh Review_, and to the dawn of the criticismwith which we are, unhappily, only too familiar in our own time.

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