Includes useful resources such as an alternative list of contents by theme, and a chronolgy of literary and political events, providing valuable historical and cultural context
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“This commitment to the restoration of many overlooked and sidelined writers makes it an essential intervention, and a valuable contribution to the changing face of eighteenth-century literary studies. On this front, it is to be hoped that editors of future anthologies follow DeMaria’s example.” -- The Year’s Work in English Studies, Volume 98 (2019)
Table of Contents
List of Authors xvii Chronology xix
Thematic Table of Contents xxvi
Introduction xxxvi
Editorial Principles xlv
Preface to the Fourth Edition xlvii
Acknowledgments xlix
Ballads and Newsbooks from the Civil War (1640–1649) 1
The World is Turned Upside Down (1646) 1
The King’s Last farewell to the World, or The Dead King’s Living Meditations, at the approach of Death denounced against Him (1649) 3
The Royal Health to the Rising Sun (1649) 6
from A Perfect Diurnal of Some Passages in Parliament (1649) 7
Number 288, 29 January–5 February 1649 7
from Mercurius Pragmaticus (1649) 8
Number 43, 30 January–6 February 1649 8
Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) 10
from Leviathan (1651) 10
Chapter XIII: Of the NATURAL CONDITION of Mankind, as concerning their Felicity, and Misery 10
Robert Herrick (1591–1674) 14
from Hesperides (1648) 14
The Argument of His Book 14
To Daffodils 15
The Night-piece, to Julia 15
The Hock-Cart, or Harvest Home 16
Upon Julia’s Clothes 17
When he would have his verses read 18
Delight in Disorder 18
To the Virgins, to make much of Time 18
His Return to London 19
The Bad Season Makes the Poet Sad 19
The Pillar of Fame 20
John Milton (1608–1674) 21
from The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce; Restored to the Good of Both Sexes, From the bondage of Canon Law, and other mistakes, to Christian freedom, guided by the Rule of Charity. Wherein also many places of Scripture, have recovered their long-lost meaning. Seasonable to be now thought on in the Reformation intended. (1643) 23
Book I: The Preface 23
from Chapter I 26
from Chapter VI 26
from Areopagitica; A Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing, to the Parliament of England (1644) 27
from Poems (1673) 44
Sonnet 18 (1655) On the Late Massacre in Piemont 44
Sonnet 19 (1652?) “When I Consider how my Light is Spent” 44
Sonnet 16 [To the Lord General Cromwell, 1652] 45
from Paradise Lost (1667) 45
The Verse 47
Book I 47
Book II 66
Book IV 91
Book IX 116
Abraham Cowley (1618–1667) 145
Anacreontiques: Or, Some Copies of Verses Translated Paraphrastically out of Anacreon 145
To the Royal Society 152
Andrew Marvell (1621–1678) 157
from Miscellaneous Poems (1681) 158
The Coronet 158
The Picture of Little T.C. in a Prospect of Flowers 158
Bermudas (1653?) 159
The Mower to the Glo-Worms (1651–2?) 161
An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell’s Return from Ireland (1650) 161
The Garden (1651–2?) 164
On a Drop of Dew (1651–2?) 167
To his Coy Mistress (c.1645) 168
Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle (1623–1673) 170
from Poems and Fancies (1653) 170
Poets have most Pleasure in this Life 170
from The Description of a New World, called the Blazing World (1666) 171
John Bunyan (1628–1688) 179
from Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666) 179
John Dryden (1631–1700) 183
To My Honoured Friend, Dr Charleton, on his learned and useful Works; and more particularly this of STONE-HENGE, by him Restored to the true
Founders (1663) 184
Mac Flecknoe (1676?) 186
Absalom and Achitophel: A Poem (1681) 192
To the Memory of Mr. Oldham (1684) 217
To the Pious Memory of the Accomplished Young LADY Mrs. Anne Killigrew, Excellent in the two Sister-Arts of Poesy, and Painting. An Ode (1686) 218
Song for St. Cecilia’s Day (1687) 223
Alexander’s Feast 225
from Fables Ancient and Modern (1700) 230
Pygmalion and the Statue 230
Secular Masque 232
Katherine Philips (1632–1664) 237
from Poems by the most deservedly Admired Mrs. Katherine Philips, the matchless Orinda (1667) 237
Friendship 237
Friendship’s Mystery, To my dearest Lucasia 238
Epitaph On her Son H. P. at St. Syth’s Church where her body also lies Interred 240
The Virgin 240
Upon the graving of her Name upon a Tree in Barnelmes Walks 241
To the truly competent Judge of Honour, Lucasia, upon a scandalous Libel made by J. J. 241
To Mrs. Wogan, my Honoured Friend, on the Death of her Husband 243
Orinda to Lucasia 244
Parting with Lucasia, A Song 245
To Antenor, on a Paper of mine which J. J. threatens to publish to prejudice him 246
John Locke (1632–1704) 247
from An Essay concerning the True Original, Extent and End of Civil Government (1690) 248
from Chapter 1 248
from Chapter 2 Of the State of Nature 248
from Chapter 4 Of Slavery 250
from Chapter 5 Of Property 251
Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) 253
from Diary 255
July 1665 255
August 1665 258
Aphra Behn (1640?–1689) 260
from Poems upon Several Occasions (1684) 261
The Golden Age: A Paraphrase on a Translation out of French 261
The Disappointment 266
from Lycidus: or the Lover in Fashion (1688) 270
To the Fair Clarinda, Who Made Love to Me,
Imagined More than Woman 270
The Rover: Or, The Banished Cavaliers (1677) 270
Oroonoko: or, the Royal Slave. A True History (1688) 333
John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester (1647–1680) 376
The Imperfect Enjoyment 376
A Ramble in Saint James’s Park 378
A Satyr against Reason and Mankind 382
The Disabled Debauchee 387
Lampoon 389
[Signior Dildo] 389
A Satire on Charles II 391
A Letter from Artemiza in the Town to Chloe in the Country 392
Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) 399
from An Essay upon Projects (1698) 400
An Academy for Women 400
from The True-Born Englishman: A Satire (1700) 406
Part I 406
The Shortest-Way with the Dissenters: Or Proposals for the Establishment of the Church (1702) 415
A True Relation of the Apparition of one Mrs. Veal, The next Day after Her Death: To One Mrs. Bargrave at Canterbury. The 8th of September, 1705 (1706) 425
from the London Gazette 431
Monday, 11 January to Thursday, 14 January 1702 431
Anne Kingsmill Finch, Countess of Winchilsea (1661–1720) 432
The Introduction 432
Life’s Progress 434
Adam Posed 435
The Petition for an Absolute Retreat 436
To the Nightingale 442
A Poem for the Birth-day of the Right Honourable the Lady Catharine Tufton 443
The Atheist and the Acorn 445
The Unequal Fetters 446
The Answer (to Pope’s Impromptu) 447
The Spleen: A Pindaric Poem (1701; revised 1713) 448
Mary Astell (1666–1731) 452
from A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, for the Advancement of their True and Greatest Interest. By a Lover of her Sex (1694) 452
Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) 455
A Tale of a Tub Written for the Universal Improvement of Mankind (1704) 457
A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burden to Their Parents or the Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public (1729) 527
A Description of the Morning (1709) 533
The Lady’s Dressing Room (1732) 534
A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed Written
for the Honour of the Fair Sex (1734) 537
A Description of a City Shower (1710) 539
Stella’s Birth-Day (13 March 1719) 541
Delarivier Manley (c.1670–1724) 542
from Secret Memoirs and Manners of Several Persons of Quality of Both Sexes. From the New Atalantis, an Island in the Mediterranean (1709) 543
William Congreve (1670–1729) 556
The Way of the World (1700) 557
Joseph Addison (1672–1719) and Richard Steele (1672–1729) 619
from the Spectator 620
Number 11, Tuesday, March 13, 1711 [Inkle and Yarico] 620
Number 159, Saturday, September 1, 1711 [The Visions of Mirzah] 622
Isaac Watts (1674–1748) 626
from Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language for the Use of Children (1715) 626
Against Quarrelling and Fighting 626
The Sluggard 627
Allan Ramsay (1684–1758) 628
from The Poems of Allan Ramsay (1800) 628
Polwart on the Green (1721) 628
Give Me a Lass with a Lump of Land (1721) 629
John Gay (1685–1732) 630
The Beggar’s Opera (1728) 631
Alexander Pope (1688–1744) 678
An Essay on Criticism (1711) 679
The RAPE of the LOCK. An Heroi-Comical Poem (1714) 696
Eloisa to Abelard (1717) 717
from The Dunciad Variorum (1729) 725
Martinus Scriblerus, of the Poem 725
Dunciados Periocha: or, Arguments to the Books 727
The Dunciad, Book the First 729
from Letters 738
To Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1 September 1718) 738
Mary Collier (1688?–1762) 741
The Woman’s Labour: An Epistle To Mr. Stephen Duck; In Answer to his late Poem, called The Thresher’s Labour… (1739) 741
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689–1762) 748
from LETTERS Of the Right Honourable Lady M–y W—y M—u: Written, during her Travels in EUROPE, ASIA and AFRICA, TO Persons of Distinction, Men of Letters, &c. in different Parts of Europe. WHICH CONTAIN, Among other CURIOUS Relations, Accounts of the POLICY and MANNERS of the TURKS; Drawn from Sources that have been inaccessible to other Travellers 748
To the Lady X —— 749
To the Lady —— 750
[To Lady Mar] 752
To Mr. [Alexander] Pope 755
To Mr. [Alexander] P[ope] 756
The Lover (1721–5) 758
The Reasons that Induced Dr. S[wift] to Write a Poem Called the Lady’s Dressing Room (1732–4) 759
To the Memory of Mr Congreve (1729?) 761
[A Summary of Lord Lyttelton’s advice to a Lady] (1731–3) 762
Trials at the Old Bailey (1722–1727) 763
from Select TRIALS at the Sessions House in the Old Bailey (1742) 763
H —— J ——, for a Rape, 1722 763
Gabriel Lawrence, for Sodomy, April, 1726 765
Mary Picart, alias Gandon, for Bigamy, June, 1725 766
Richard Savage, James Gregory, and William Merchant, for Murder, Thursday, Dec. 7, 1727 767
Eliza Fowler Haywood (1693–1756) 772
Fantomina: OR, Love in a Maze (1724) 772
James Thomson (1700–1748) 791
Winter. A Poem (1726) 791
Stephen Duck (1705–1756) 802
from Poems on Several Subjects (1730) 802
from The Thresher’s Labour 802
Mary Jones (1707–1778) 805
from Miscellanies in Prose and Verse (1750) 805
Soliloquy, on an Empty Purse 805
After the Small Pox 806
Her Epitaph 807
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) 809
from The Life of Mr. Richard Savage, Son of the Earl of Rivers (1744) 811
The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749) 816
from the Rambler 825
Number 2, Saturday, 24 March 1750 825
Number 28, Saturday, 23 June 1750 828
Number 207, Tuesday, 10 March, 1752 831
From the Idler 834
Number 22, Saturday, 9 September 1758 834
Number 81, Saturday, 3 November 1759 836
from the Preface to A Dictionary of the English Language (1755) 837
The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia (1759) 845
from the Preface to The Plays of William Shakespeare (1765) 906
David Hume (1711–1776) 914
from Essays Moral and Political (1742) 914
Of the Liberty of the Press 914
from Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects (1777) 917
My Own Life 917
Jane Collier (1714/15–1755) 923
from An Essay on the Art of Ingeniously Tormenting; with Proper Rules for the Exercise of that Pleasant Art (1753) 923
Thomas Gray (1716–1771) 932
Letter to Richard West (1741) 933
Sonnet [on the Death of Mr Richard West] (1742) 934
Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat (1748) 934
An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church Yard (1751) 936
The Progress of Poesy: A Pindaric Ode (1768) 939
William Collins (1721–1759) 944
from Odes on Several Descriptive and Allegoric Subjects (1747) 944
Ode to Fear 944
Epode 945
Antistrophe 946
Ode on the Poetical Character 946
from A Collection of Poems by Several Hands (1748) 949
Ode to Evening 949
Mary Leapor (1722–1746) 951
from Poems on Several Occasions (1748) 951
The Month of August 951
An Epistle to a Lady 953
Mira’s Will 955
from Poems on Several Occasions (1751) 956
An Essay on Woman 956
Crumble-Hall 958
Man the Monarch 962
Christopher Smart (1722–1771) 965
from Jubilate Agno (c.1758–63) 966
from Fragment A (c.1758–9) 966
from Fragment B (1759–60) 966
Samson Occom (1723–1792) 970
from A Sermon Preached at the Execution of Moses Paul, an Indian 970
The PREFACE 970
INTRODUCTION 971
SERMON 971
John Newton (1725–1807) 982
HYMN XLI [Amazing Grace] 982
Oliver Goldsmith (1728?–1774) 984
The Revolution in Low Life (1762) 984
The Deserted Village, a Poem (1770) 986
Edmund Burke (1729–1797) 997
from A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful (1757), Part 2 998
Section 1, Of the Passion caused by the SUBLIME 998
Section 2, TERROR 998
Section 3, OBSCURITY 998
Section 4, Of the difference between CLEARNESS and OBSCURITY with regard to the passions 999
Section [5], The same subject continued 1000
Section 13, Beautiful objects small 1002
Section 14, SMOOTHNESS 1002
Section 15, Gradual VARIATION 1003
Section 16, DELICACY 1004
from Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event In a Letter
Intended to have been sent to a Gentleman In Paris (1790) 1004
William Cowper (1731–1800) 1019
On a Goldfinch Starved to Death in his Cage (1782) 1020
Epitaph on an Hare (1784) 1020
To the Immortal Memory of the Halibut on which I Dined this Day (1784) 1021
The Negro’s Complaint (1789) 1022
On a Spaniel Called Beau Killing a Young Bird (1793) 1024
Beau’s Reply 1024
On the Ice Islands Seen floating in the German Ocean (1799) 1025
The Castaway (1799) 1027
James Macpherson (1736–1796) 1029
from Fingal, an Ancient Epic Poem in Six Books, together with Several other Poems composed by Ossian, the Son of Fingal, translated from the Gaelic Language (1762) 1029
from Book IV 1029
Thomas Paine (1737–1809) 1032
from Common Sense (1776) 1033
Of the Origin and Design of Government in General, with Concise Remarks on the English Constitution 1033
from The American Crisis (1777) 1036
Number 1 1036
from The Rights of Man: being an Answer to Mr. Burke’s Attack on the French Revolution (1791) 1037
The American Declaration of Independence (1776) 1040
James Boswell (1740–1795) 1044
from The Life of Dr Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1791) 1044
Hester Lynch Thrale Piozzi (1741–1821) 1058
from Anecdotes of the Late Samuel Johnson, LL.D. during the Last Twenty Years of his Life (1786) 1058
from Correspondence with Samuel Johnson (1773–5) 1060
Anna Laetitia Aiken Barbauld (1743–1825) 1063
from Poems (1792) 1063
The Mouse’s Petition 1063
Verses Written in an Alcove 1065
from the Monthly Magazine (1797) 1066
Washing-Day 1066
Olaudah Equiano (1745?–1797) 1069
from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African (1789) 1069
Chapter 5 1069
Hannah More (1745–1833) 1082
from Sensibility (1782) 1082
from The Slave Trade (1790) 1084
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) 1088
The School for Scandal (1777) 1088
Thomas Chatterton (1752–1770) 1137
from Poems, Supposed to have been Written at Bristol, By
Thomas Rowley, and Others, in the Fifteenth Century (1777) 1137
An Excelente Balade of Charitie: As wroten bie the gode Prieste Thomas Rowley, 1464 1137
Frances Burney (later d’Arblay) (1752–1840) 1141
from Journals and Letters 1142
27–8 March 1777 1142
22 March 1812 1144
Ann Cromartie Yearsley (1753–1806) 1154
from Poems on Several Occasions (1785) 1154
On Mrs. Montagu 1154
from Poems on Various Subjects (1787) 1156
To Indifference 1156
To those who accuse the Author of Ingratitude 1157
William Blake (1757–1827) 1159
from Songs of Innocence (1789) 1159
Introduction 1159
The Lamb 1160
The Little Black Boy 1161
The Chimney Sweeper 1161
Holy Thursday 1162
Infant Joy 1162
from Songs of Experience (1794) 1163
Introduction 1163
Holy Thursday 1163
The Chimney Sweeper 1164
The Tyger 1164
Ah! Sun-Flower 1165
Robert Burns (1759–1796) 1166
from Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (1786) 1166
Epistle to Davie, A Brother Poet 1166
To a Mouse, On turning her up in her Nest, with the Plough, November 1785 1171
Address to the Deil 1172
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797) 1177
from A Vindication of the Rights of Men, in a Letter to the Right Honourable Edmund Burke; occasioned by his Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) 1177
Index of Titles and First Lines 1180
Index to the Introductions and Footnotes 1184
