The Library Edition of the British Poets was the title given to a 48-volume edition of the works of British poets, published between 1853 and 1860 by James Nichol of Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

, edited, with lives of the authors, critical dissertations and explanatory notes, by the Rev. George Gilfillan

George Gilfillan

George Gilfillan was a Scottish author and poet. He was one of the spasmodic poets, and an editor and commentator of earlier British poetry. He was born at Comrie, Perthshire, where his father, the Rev. Samuel Gilfillan, the author of some theological works, was for many years minister of a...

. All the poets included were dead by the date of publication, and nearly all were born before 1770. The English Romantic poets were thus omitted from the collection.

Publication took place in issues of six volumes, each issue costing one guinea

Guinea (British coin)

The guinea is a coin that was minted in the Kingdom of England and later in the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United Kingdom between 1663 and 1813...

 by subscription, as follows.

• 1853-1854

Milton

John Milton

John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...

's Poetical Works (2 volumes)

Thomson's Poetical Works

The Poetical Works of George Herbert

George Herbert

George Herbert was a Welsh born English poet, orator and Anglican priest.Being born into an artistic and wealthy family, he received a good education that led to his holding prominent positions at Cambridge University and Parliament. As a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, Herbert excelled in...

Young

Edward Young

Edward Young was an English poet, best remembered for Night Thoughts.-Early life:He was the son of Edward Young, later Dean of Salisbury, and was born at his father's rectory at Upham, near Winchester, where he was baptized on 3 July 1683. He was educated at Winchester College, and matriculated...

's Night Thoughts

Night Thoughts (poem)

The Complaint: or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality, better known simply as Night-Thoughts, is a long poem by Edward Young published in nine parts between 1742 and 1745.The poem is written in blank verse...

The Poetical Works of Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith was an Irish writer, poet and physician known for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield , his pastoral poem The Deserted Village , and his plays The Good-Natur'd Man and She Stoops to Conquer...

, Collins

William Collins (poet)

William Collins was an English poet. Second in influence only to Thomas Gray, he was an important poet of the middle decades of the 18th century...

, and T. Warton

Thomas Warton

Thomas Warton was an English literary historian, critic, and poet. From 1785 to 1790 he was the Poet Laureate of England...

• 1854

The Poetical Works of William Cowper

William Cowper

William Cowper was an English poet and hymnodist. One of the most popular poets of his time, Cowper changed the direction of 18th century nature poetry by writing of everyday life and scenes of the English countryside. In many ways, he was one of the forerunners of Romantic poetry...

 (2 volumes)

The Poetical Works of Samuel Butler

Samuel Butler (poet)

Samuel Butler was a poet and satirist. Born in Strensham, Worcestershire and baptised 14 February 1613, he is remembered now chiefly for a long satirical burlesque poem on Puritanism entitled Hudibras.-Biography:...

 (2 volumes)

The Poetical Works of William Shenstone

William Shenstone

William Shenstone was an English poet and one of the earliest practitioners of landscape gardening through the development of his estate, The Leasowes.-Life:...

The Poetical Works of Beattie

James Beattie (writer)

Professor James Beattie FRSE was a Scottish poet, moralist and philosopher.He was born the son of a shopkeeper and small farmer at Laurencekirk in the Mearns, and educated at Aberdeen University. In 1760, he was appointed Professor of moral philosophy there as a result of the interest of his...

, Blair

Robert Blair (poet)

Robert Blair was a Scottish poet.-Biography:He was the eldest son of the Rev. Robert Blair, one of the king's chaplains, and was born at Edinburgh. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh and in the Netherlands, and in 1731 was appointed to the living of Athelstaneford in East Lothian...

, and Falconer

William Falconer

William Falconer was a Scottish poet.Falconer was the son of a barber in Edinburgh, where he was born, became a sailor, and was thus thoroughly competent to describe the management of the storm-tossed vessel, the career and fate of which are described in his poem, The Shipwreck , a work of...

 (complete text at Gutenberg)

• 1855

The Poetical Works of John Dryden

John Dryden

John Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.Walter Scott called him "Glorious John." He was made Poet...

 (2 volumes)

The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles

William Lisle Bowles

William Lisle Bowles was an English poet and critic.-Life and career:He was born at King's Sutton, Northamptonshire, where his father was vicar. At the age of fourteen he entered Winchester College, the headmaster at the time being Dr Joseph Warton...

 (2 volumes) (text of volume 1 at Gutenberg)

The Poetical Works of Charles Churchill

The Poetical Works of Johnson

Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...

, Parnell

Thomas Parnell

Thomas Parnell was a poet and clergyman, born in Dublin and educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He was a friend of both Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift. He participated in the Scriblerus Club, contributing to The Spectator, and he also aided Pope in his translation of The Iliad...

, Gray

Thomas Gray

Thomas Gray was a poet, letter-writer, classical scholar and professor at Cambridge University.-Early life and education:...

, and Smollett

Tobias Smollett

Tobias George Smollett was a Scottish poet and author. He was best known for his picaresque novels, such as The Adventures of Roderick Random and The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle , which influenced later novelists such as Charles Dickens.-Life:Smollett was born at Dalquhurn, now part of Renton,...

 (complete text at Gutenberg)

• 1856

The Poetical Works of Robert Burns

Robert Burns

Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide...

 (2 volumes)

The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...

 (2 volumes) (text of volume 1 at Gutenberg) (text of volume 2 at Gutenberg)

The Poetical Works of Henry Kirke White

Henry Kirke White

Henry Kirke White was an English poet, who died at a young age.White was born in Nottingham, the son of a butcher, a trade for which he was himself intended. However, he was greatly attracted to book-learning...

 and James Grahame

James Grahame

James Grahame was a Scottish poet.He was born in Glasgow, the son of a successful lawyer. After completing his literary course at the University of Glasgow, Grahame went in 1784 to Edinburgh, where he worked as a legal clerk, and was called to the Scottish bar in 1795...

The Poetical Works of William Shakspeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

 and the Earl of Surrey

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey

Henry Howard, KG, , known as The Earl of Surrey although he never was a peer, was an English aristocrat, and one of the founders of English Renaissance poetry.-Life:...

• 1857

The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott

Walter Scott

Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....

 (3 volumes)

The Poetical Works of Mark Akenside

Mark Akenside

Mark Akenside was an English poet and physician.Akenside was born at Newcastle upon Tyne, England, the son of a butcher. He was slightly lame all his life from a wound he received as a child from his father's cleaver...

 (complete text at Gutenberg)

The Poetical Works of Edmund Waller

Edmund Waller

Edmund Waller, FRS was an English poet and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1624 and 1679.- Early life :...

 and Sir John Denham

John Denham (poet)

Sir John Denham was an English poet and courtier. He served as Surveyor of the King's Works and is buried in Westminster Abbey....

The Poetical Works of Richard Crashaw

Richard Crashaw

Richard Crashaw , English poet, styled "the divine," was part of the Seventeenth-century Metaphysical School of poets.-Life:...

 and Quarles

Francis Quarles

Francis Quarles was an English poet most famous for his Emblem book aptly entitled Emblems.-Career:Francis was born in Romford, Essex, , and baptised there on 8 May 1592. He traced his ancestry to a family settled in England before the Norman Conquest with a long history in royal service...

' Emblems

• 1858

Reliques of Ancient English Poetry

Reliques of Ancient English Poetry

The Reliques of Ancient English Poetry is a collection of ballads and popular songs collected by Thomas Percy and published in 1765.-Sources:...

 by Thomas Percy (3 volumes)

The Poetical Works of Matthew Prior

Matthew Prior

Matthew Prior was an English poet and diplomat.Prior was the son of a Nonconformist joiner at Wimborne Minster, East Dorset. His father moved to London, and sent him to Westminster School, under Dr. Busby. On his father's death, he left school, and was cared for by his uncle, a vintner in Channel...

The Poetical Works of Sir Thomas Wyatt

Thomas Wyatt (poet)

Sir Thomas Wyatt was a 16th-century English lyrical poet credited with introducing the sonnet into English. He was born at Allington Castle, near Maidstone in Kent – though his family was originally from Yorkshire...

The Poetical Works of Armstrong

John Armstrong (poet)

Dr. John Armstrong was a poet. He was the son of the minister of Castleton, Roxburghshire, Scotland and studied medicine, which he practised in London....

, Dyer

John Dyer

John Dyer was a painter and Welsh poet turned clergyman of the Church of England who maintained an interest in his Welsh ancestry...

, and Green

Matthew Green (poet)

Matthew Green was a British poet born of Nonconformist parents. For many years he held a post in the custom house. The few anecdotes that have been preserved show him to have been as witty as his poems would lead one to expect: on one occasion, when the government was about to cut off funds that...

• 1859

The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognised as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy, and one of the greatest poets in the English...

 (5 volumes)

The Poetical Works of Joseph Addison

Joseph Addison

Joseph Addison was an English essayist, poet, playwright and politician. He was a man of letters, eldest son of Lancelot Addison...

; Gay

John Gay

John Gay was an English poet and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club. He is best remembered for The Beggar's Opera , set to music by Johann Christoph Pepusch...

's Fables; Somerville

William Somervile

William Somervile or Somerville was an English poet.-Ancestry:The name Somervile is derived from a town near Caen in Normandy subsequently named Somervile....

's Chase

• 1860

Specimens with Memoirs of the Less-known British Poets — volume I (complete text at Gutenberg)

First Period

The following poets: John Gower

John Gower

John Gower was an English poet, a contemporary of William Langland and a personal friend of Geoffrey Chaucer. He is remembered primarily for three major works, the Mirroir de l'Omme, Vox Clamantis, and Confessio Amantis, three long poems written in French, Latin, and English respectively, which...

; John Barbour; Andrew Wyntoun; Blind Harry

Blind Harry

Blind Harry , also known as Harry, Hary or Henry the Minstrel, is renowned as the author of The Actes and Deidis of the Illustre and Vallyeant Campioun Schir William Wallace, also known as The Wallace...

; James I of Scotland

James I of Scotland

James I, King of Scots , was the son of Robert III and Annabella Drummond. He was probably born in late July 1394 in Dunfermline as youngest of three sons...

; John the Chaplain

John the Chaplain

John was an early 12th century Tironensian cleric. He was the chaplain and close confident of King David I of Scotland, before becoming Bishop of Glasgow and founder of Glasgow Cathedral. He was one of the most significant religious reformers in the history of Scotland...

—Thomas Occleve

Thomas Occleve

Thomas Hoccleve or Occleve was an English poet and clerk.-Biography:Hoccleve is thought to have been born in 1368/9 as he states when writing in 1421/2 Thomas Hoccleve or Occleve (c. 1368–1426) was an English poet and clerk.-Biography:Hoccleve is thought to have been born in 1368/9 as he...

; John Lydgate

John Lydgate

John Lydgate of Bury was a monk and poet, born in Lidgate, Suffolk, England.Lydgate is at once a greater and a lesser poet than John Gower. He is a greater poet because of his greater range and force; he has a much more powerful machine at his command. The sheer bulk of Lydgate's poetic output is...

; Harding

John Hardyng

John Hardyng , English chronicler, was born in the north.As a boy he entered the service of Sir Henry Percy , with whom he was present at the Battle of Shrewsbury . He then passed into the service of Sir Robert Umfraville, under whom he was constable of Warkworth Castle, Northumberland, and Kyme...

, Kay

John Kay (poet)

John Kay was a fifteenth-century English poet who described himself as the versificator regis to Edward IV of England. If it ever existed, none of his poetic work remains....

, &c; Robert Henryson

Robert Henryson

Robert Henryson was a poet who flourished in Scotland in the period c. 1460–1500. Counted among the Scots makars, he lived in the royal burgh of Dunfermline and is a distinctive voice in the Northern Renaissance at a time when the culture was on a cusp between medieval and renaissance sensibilities...

; William Dunbar

William Dunbar

William Dunbar was a Scottish poet. He was probably a native of East Lothian, as assumed from a satirical reference in the Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie , where, too, it is hinted that he was a member of the noble house of Dunbar....

; Gavin Douglas

Gavin Douglas

Gavin Douglas was a Scottish bishop, makar and translator. Although he had an important political career, it is for his poetry that he is now chiefly remembered. His principal pioneering achievement was the Eneados, a full and faithful vernacular translation of the Aeneid of Virgil and the first...

; Hawes

Stephen Hawes

Stephen Hawes was a popular English poet during the Tudor period who is now little known. He was probably born in Suffolk owing to the commonness of the name in that area and, if his own statement of his age may be trusted, was born about 1474. It has been suggested that he was an illegitimate...

, Barclay

Alexander Barclay

Dr Alexander Barclay was an English/Scottish poet.-Biography:Barclay was born in about 1476. His place of birth is matter of dispute, but William Bulleyn, who was a native of Ely, and probably knew him when he was in the monastery there, asserts that he was born "beyonde the cold river of Twede"...

, &c; Skelton

John Skelton

John Skelton, also known as John Shelton , possibly born in Diss, Norfolk, was an English poet.-Education:...

; Sir David Lyndsay

David Lyndsay

Sir David Lyndsay of the Mount, was a Scottish Lord Lyon and poet of the 16th century, whose works reflect the spirit of the Renaissance.-Biography:...

; Thomas Tusser

Thomas Tusser

Thomas Tusser was an English poet and farmer, best known for his instructional poem Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, published in 1557. It contains the lines...

; Vaux

Thomas Vaux, 2nd Baron Vaux of Harrowden

Thomas Vaux, 2nd Baron Vaux of Harrowden , English poet, was the eldest son of Nicholas Vaux, 1st Baron Vaux and Anne Green, daughter of Sir Thomas Green and Lady Joan Fogge.-Life:...

, Edwards

Richard Edwardes

Richard Edwardes was an English poet and playwright; he was made a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, and was master of the singing boys...

, &c; George Gascoigne

George Gascoigne

George Gascoigne was an English poet, soldier, artist, and unsuccessful courtier. He is considered the most important poet of the early Elizabethan era, following Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey and leading to the emergence of Philip Sidney...

; Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst and Earl of Dorset; John Harrington; Sir Philip Sidney; Robert Southwell; Thomas Watson

Thomas Watson (poet)

Thomas Watson , English lyrical poet, was the son of William Watson and Anne Lee . He was educated at Winchester College and OxfordUniversity. He then spent 7 years in France and Italy before studying law in London...

; Thomas Turberville

George Turberville

George Turberville, or Turbervile was an English poet, second son of Henry Turberville of Winterborne Whitechurch, Dorset, and nephew of James Turberville, Bishop of Exeter...

; Unknown.

Second Period — From Spenser to Dryden

The following poets: Francis Beaumont

Francis Beaumont

Francis Beaumont was a dramatist in the English Renaissance theatre, most famous for his collaborations with John Fletcher....

; Sir Walter Raleigh; Joshua Sylvester

Joshua Sylvester

Joshua Sylvester was an English poet.-Biography:Sylvester was the son of a Kentish clothier. In his tenth year he was sent to school at King Edward VI School, Southampton, where he gained a knowledge of French...

; Richard Barnfield

Richard Barnfield

Richard Barnfield , English poet, was born at Norbury, Staffordshire, and brought up in Newport, Shropshire.He was baptized on 13 June 1574, the son of Richard Barnfield, gentleman. His obscure though close relationship with Shakespeare has long made him interesting to scholars...

; Alexander Hume

Alexander Hume

Alexander Hume was a Scottish poet.The son of Patrick, 5th Lord Polwarth, he was educated at the University of St. Andrews and on the Continent. He was originally destined for the law, but devoted himself to the service of the church, and became minister of Logie in Stirlingshire...

; Other Scottish poets; Samuel Daniel

Samuel Daniel

Samuel Daniel was an English poet and historian.-Early life:Daniel was born near Taunton in Somerset, the son of a music-master. He was the brother of lutenist and composer John Danyel. Their sister Rosa was Edmund Spenser's model for Rosalind in his The Shepherd's Calendar; she eventually married...

; Sir John Davies; Giles Fletcher

Giles Fletcher

Giles Fletcher was an English poet chiefly known for his long allegorical poem Christ's Victory and Triumph ....

; John Donne

John Donne

John Donne 31 March 1631), English poet, satirist, lawyer, and priest, is now considered the preeminent representative of the metaphysical poets. His works are notable for their strong and sensual style and include sonnets, love poetry, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs,...

; Michael Drayton

Michael Drayton

Michael Drayton was an English poet who came to prominence in the Elizabethan era.-Early life:He was born at Hartshill, near Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England. Almost nothing is known about his early life, beyond the fact that in 1580 he was in the service of Thomas Goodere of Collingham,...

; Edward Fairfax

Edward Fairfax

Edward Fairfax was a translator, the natural son of Sir Thomas Fairfax the elder, of Denton in Yorkshire, and thus a half-brother of Sir Thomas Fairfax.Fairfax lived at New Hall, Fewston...

; Sir Henry Wotton; Richard Corbet

Richard Corbet

Richard Corbet was an English bishop in the Church of England. He was also a poet of the metaphysical school who, although highly praised in his own lifetime, is relatively obscure today.-Life:...

; Ben Jonson

Ben Jonson

Benjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems...

; Vere

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford was an Elizabethan courtier, playwright, lyric poet, sportsman and patron of the arts, and is currently the most popular alternative candidate proposed for the authorship of Shakespeare's works....

, Storrer, &c; Thomas Randolph

Thomas Randolph (poet)

Thomas Randolph was an English poet and dramatist. He was baptized on 18 June 1605 and was the uncle of American colonist William Randolph.-Education:...

; Robert Burton

Robert Burton (scholar)

Robert Burton was an English scholar at Oxford University, best known for the classic The Anatomy of Melancholy. He was also the incumbent of St Thomas the Martyr, Oxford, and of Segrave in Leicestershire.-Life:...

; Thomas Carew

Thomas Carew

Thomas Carew was an English poet, among the 'Cavalier' group of Caroline poets.-Biography:He was the son of Sir Matthew Carew, master in chancery, and his wife, Alice daughter of Sir John Rivers, Lord Mayor of the City of London and widow of Ingpen...

; Sir John Suckling

John Suckling (poet)

Sir John Suckling was an English poet and one prominent figure among those renowned for careless gaiety, wit, and all the accomplishments of a Cavalier poet; and also the inventor of the card game Cribbage...

; William Cartwright; William Browne; William Alexander, Earl of Stirling; William Drummond

William Drummond of Hawthornden

William Drummond , called "of Hawthornden", was a Scottish poet.-Life:Drummond was born at Hawthornden Castle, Midlothian. His father, John Drummond, was the first laird of Hawthornden; and his mother was Susannah Fowler, sister of William Fowler, poet and courtier...

; Phineas Fletcher

Phineas Fletcher

Phineas Fletcher was an English poet, elder son of Dr Giles Fletcher, and brother of Giles the younger. He was born at Cranbrook, Kent, and was baptized on 8 April 1582.-Life:...

.

Specimens with Memoirs of the Less-known British Poets — volume II (complete text at Gutenberg)

Second Period — From Spenser to Dryden (continued)

The following poets: William Habington

William Habington

William Habington was an English poet.He was born at Hindlip Hall, Worcestershire, and belonged to a well-known Catholic family...

; Joseph Hall, Bishop of Norwich; Richard Lovelace

Richard Lovelace

Richard Lovelace was an English poet in the seventeenth century. He was a cavalier poet who fought on behalf of the king during the Civil war. His best known works are To Althea, from Prison, and To Lucasta, Going to the Warres....

; Robert Herrick

Robert Herrick (poet)

Robert Herrick was a 17th-century English poet.-Early life:Born in Cheapside, London, he was the seventh child and fourth son of Julia Stone and Nicholas Herrick, a prosperous goldsmith....

; Sir Richard Fanshawe; Abraham Cowley

Abraham Cowley

Abraham Cowley was an English poet born in the City of London late in 1618. He was one of the leading English poets of the 17th century, with 14 printings of his Works published between 1668 and 1721.-Early life and career:...

; George Wither

George Wither

George Wither was an English poet, pamphleteer, and satirist. He was a prolific writer who adopted a deliberate plainness of style; he was several times imprisoned. C. V...

; Sir William Davenant; Dr. Henry King

Henry King (poet)

-Life:The eldest son of John King, Bishop of London, and his wife Joan Freeman, he was baptised at Worminghall, Buckinghamshire, 16 January 1592. He was educated at Lord Williams's School, Westminster School and in 1608 became a student of Christ Church, Oxford...

; John Chalkhill

John Chalkhill

John Chalkhill was an English poet.Two songs by him are included in Izaak Walton's Compleat Angler, and in 1683 appeared Thealma and Clearchus. A Pastoral History in smooth and easie Verse...

; Catharine Phillips

Katherine Philips

Katherine Philips was an Anglo-Welsh poet.-Biography:Katherine Philips was the first Englishwoman to enjoy widespread public acclaim as a poet during her lifetime. Born in London, she was daughter of John Fowler, a Presbyterian, and a merchant of Bucklersbury, London. Philips is said to have read...

; Margaret, Duchess of Newcastle; Thomas Stanley

Thomas Stanley (author)

Sir Thomas Stanley was an English author and translator.-Life:He was born in Cumberlow, Hertfordshire, the son of Sir Thomas Stanley of Cumberlow, Hertfordshire and his wife, Mary Hammond. Mary was the cousin of Richard Lovelace, and Stanley was educated in company with the son of Edward Fairfax,...

; Andrew Marvell

Andrew Marvell

Andrew Marvell was an English metaphysical poet, Parliamentarian, and the son of a Church of England clergyman . As a metaphysical poet, he is associated with John Donne and George Herbert...

; Izaak Walton

Izaak Walton

Izaak Walton was an English writer. Best known as the author of The Compleat Angler, he also wrote a number of short biographies which have been collected under the title of Walton's Lives.-Biography:...

; John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester; The Earl of Roscommon

Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon

Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon , was an English poet.-Background and education:Dillon was born in Ireland about 1630...

; Charles Cotton

Charles Cotton

Charles Cotton was an English poet and writer, best known for translating the work of Michel de Montaigne from the French, for his contributions to The Compleat Angler, and for the highly influential The Compleat Gamester which has been attributed to him.-Early life:He was born at Beresford Hall...

; Dr. Henry More

Henry More

Henry More FRS was an English philosopher of the Cambridge Platonist school.-Biography:Henry was born at Grantham and was schooled at The King's School, Grantham and at Eton College...

; William Chamberlayne; Henry Vaughan

Henry Vaughan

Henry Vaughan was a Welsh physician and metaphysical poet.Vaughan and his twin brother the hermetic philosopher and alchemist Thomas Vaughan, were the sons of Thomas Vaughan and his wife Denise of 'Trenewydd', Newton, in Brecknockshire, Wales...

; Dr. Joseph Beaumont

Joseph Beaumont

Joseph Beaumont was an English clergyman, academic and poet.-Life:The son of John Beaumont, clothier, and of Sarah Clarke, his wife, he was born at Hadleigh, Suffolk, on March 13, 1616. He was educated at Hadleigh grammar school, and proceeded to Cambridge in 1631, where he was admitted as a...

; Miscellaneous pieces, from Robert Heath

Robert Heath

Sir Robert Heath was an English lawyer and judge.-Early life:He was educated at Tunbridge Wells grammar school, St John's College, Cambridge from age 14 and Clifford's Inn from age 17; and became a barrister of the Inner Temple in 1603. He was an MP for the City of London in 1620, and became...

 and by various authors.

Specimens with Memoirs of the Less-known British Poets — volume III (complete text at Gutenberg)

Third Period — From Dryden to Cowper

The following poets: Sir Charles Sedley; John Pomfret

John Pomfret

John Pomfret was an English poet and clergyman.John Pomfret was the son of Thomas Pomfret, vicar of Luton, and went to school in Bedford...

; The Earl of Dorset

Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset

Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset and 1st Earl of Middlesex was an English poet and courtier.-Early Life:He was son of Richard Sackville, 5th Earl of Dorset...

; John Philips

John Philips

John Philips was an 18th century English poet.- Early life and education :Philips was born at Bampton, Oxfordshire, the son of Rev. Stephen Philips, later archdeacon of Salop, and his wife Mary Wood. He was at first taught by his father and then went to Winchester College...

; Walsh, Gould

Robert Gould

Robert Gould was a significant voice in Restoration poetry in England.He was born in the lower classes and orphaned when he was thirteen. It is possible that he had a sister, but her name and fate are unknown. Gould entered into domestic service...

, &c; Sir Samuel Garth

Samuel Garth

Sir Samuel Garth FRS was an English physician and poet.Garth was born in Bolam in County Durham and matriculated at Peterhouse, Cambridge in 1676, graduating B.A. in 1679 and...

; Sir Richard Blackmore; Elijah Fenton

Elijah Fenton

-Life:Born in Shelton , and educated at Jesus College, Cambridge, for a time he acted as secretary to the Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery in Flanders, and was then Master of Sevenoaks Grammar School.In 1707, Fenton published a book of poems...

; Robert Crawford; Thomas Tickell

Thomas Tickell

Thomas Tickell was a minor English poet and man of letters.-Life:The son of a clergyman, he was born at Bridekirk near Cockermouth, Cumberland. He was educated at St Bees School 1695-1701, and in 1701 entered the Queen's College, Oxford, taking his M.A. degree in 1709...

; James Hammond; Sewell, Vanbrugh, &c; Richard Savage

Richard Savage

Richard Savage was an English poet. He is best known as the subject of Samuel Johnson's Life of Savage , on which is based one of the most elaborate of Johnson's Lives of the English Poets....

; Thomas Warton, the Elder; Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St...

; Isaac Watts

Isaac Watts

Isaac Watts was an English hymnwriter, theologian and logician. A prolific and popular hymnwriter, he was recognised as the "Father of English Hymnody", credited with some 750 hymns...

; Ambrose Philips

Ambrose Philips

-Life:He was born in Shropshire of a Leicestershire family. He was educated at Shrewsbury School and St John's College, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow in 1699. He seems to have lived chiefly at Cambridge until he resigned his fellowship in 1708, and his pastorals were probably written in...

; William Hamilton

William Hamilton (Jacobite poet)

William Hamilton was a Scottish poet associated with the Jacobite movement.He was born at the family seat in Ecclesmachan, West Lothian, Scotland. He began his literary career by contributing verses to Allan Ramsay's Tea Table Miscellany. He joined Charles Edward Stuart in 1745, andcelebrated the...

; Allan Ramsay

Allan Ramsay (poet)

Allan Ramsay was a Scottish poet , playwright, publisher, librarian and wig-maker.-Life and career:...

; Dodsley

Robert Dodsley

Robert Dodsley was an English bookseller and miscellaneous writer.-Life:He was born near Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, where his father was master of the free school....

, Brown

John Brown (essayist)

John Brown was an English divine and author.His father, a descendant of the Browns of Coalston, near Haddington, became Vicar of Wigton in that year...

, &c; Isaac Hawkins Browne

Isaac Hawkins Browne (poet)

Isaac Hawkins Browne is remembered as the author of some clever imitations of contemporary poets on the theme of A Pipe of Tobacco, somewhat analogous to the Rejected Addresses of a later day...

; William Oldys

William Oldys

William Oldys was an English antiquarian and bibliographer.The illegitimate son of Dr William Oldys, chancellor of Lincoln, London was probably his place of birth. His father had held the office of advocate of the admiralty, but lost it in 1693 because he would not prosecute as traitors and...

; Robert Lloyd

Robert Lloyd (poet)

Robert Lloyd was an English poet and satirist.-Life:Robert Lloyd was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1755 and M.A. in 1758. He was author of the popular poem The Actor and the comic opera The Capricious Lovers , first performed at Drury Lane just...

; Henry Carey

Henry Carey (writer)

Henry Carey was an English poet, dramatist and song-writer. He is remembered as an anti-Walpolean satirist and also as a patriot. Several of his melodies continue to be sung today, and he was widely praised in the generation after his death...

; David Mallett

David Mallet (writer)

David Mallet was a Scottish dramatist.He was educated at the University of Edinburgh, and went to London in 1723 to work as a private tutor...

; James Merrick

James Merrick

James Merrick was an English poet and scholar; M.A. Trinity College, Oxford, 1742: fellow, 1745: ordained, but lived in college. It is said that "[h]e entered into holy orders, but never could engage in parochial duty, from being subject to excessive pains in his head"...

; Dr. James Grainger

James Grainger

James Grainger Scottish doctor, poet and translator, is well-known figure in 18th century English literature. Grainger graduated in medicine from the University of Edinburgh in 1753. He is best known for his poem "Sugar-Cane" . He lived in St. Kitts from 1759 on...

; Michael Bruce; Christopher Smart

Christopher Smart

Christopher Smart , also known as "Kit Smart", "Kitty Smart", and "Jack Smart", was an English poet. He was a major contributor to two popular magazines and a friend to influential cultural icons like Samuel Johnson and Henry Fielding. Smart, a high church Anglican, was widely known throughout...

; Thomas Chatterton

Thomas Chatterton

Thomas Chatterton was an English poet and forger of pseudo-medieval poetry. He died of arsenic poisoning, either from a suicide attempt or self-medication for a venereal disease.-Childhood:...

; Lord Lyttelton

George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton

George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton PC , known as Sir George Lyttelton, Bt between 1751 and 1756, was a British politician and statesman and a patron of the arts.-Background and education:...

; John Cunningham

John Cunningham (poet and dramatist)

John Cunningham , whose parents came from Scotland, was an Irish pastoral poet and dramatist, who gained in his time some popularity. He started to write in the age of twelve, and at the age of 17 he wrote the play Love in a Mist...

; Robert Fergusson

Robert Fergusson

Robert Fergusson was a Scottish poet. After formal education at the University of St Andrews, Fergusson followed an essentially bohemian life course in Edinburgh, the city of his birth, then at the height of intellectual and cultural ferment as part of the Scottish enlightenment...

; Dr. Walter Harte

Walter Harte

Walter Harte was a British poet and historian. He was a friend of Alexander Pope, Oxford don, canon of Windsor, and vice-principal of St. Mary's Hall, Oxford....

; Edward Lovibond; Francis Fawkes

Francis Fawkes

Francis Fawkes was an English poet and translator. Fawkes translated Anacreon, Sappho, and other classics, modernised parts of the poems of Gavin Douglas, and was the author of the well-known song, The Brown Jug, and of two poems, Bramham Park and Partridge Shooting...

; John Langhorne; Sir William Blackstone; John Scott

John Scott of Amwell

John Scott , known as Scott of Amwell, was a poet and writer on the alleviation of poverty.He was a wealthy Quaker who lived at Amwell near Ware in Hertfordshire, England...

; Alexander Ross; Richard Glover

Richard Glover (Poet)

Richard Glover was an English poet and politician.-Life:The son of Richard Glover, a Hamburg merchant, was born in London. He was educated at Cheam in Surrey....

; William Whitehead

William Whitehead

__FORCETOC__William Whitehead was an English poet and playwright. He became Poet Laureate in 1757 after Thomas Gray declined the position.-Life:...

; William Julius Mickle

William Julius Mickle

William Julius Mickle was a Scottish poet.Son of the minister of Langholm, Dumfriesshire, he was for some time a brewer in Edinburgh, but failed. He moved to England where he worked as a corrector for the Clarendon Press at Oxford. In 1771-75 Mickle lodged at the manor house in Forest Hill,...

; Lord Nugent

Robert Nugent, 1st Earl Nugent

Robert Craggs-Nugent, 1st Earl Nugent PC was an Irish politician and poet.-Background:The son of Michael Nugent and Mary, daughter of Robert Barnewall, 9th Baron Trimlestown, he was born at Carlanstown, County Westmeath...

; John Logan

John Logan (minister)

John Logan was a minister in Leith, Scotland. He was born at Soutra, Midlothian, to farmer George Logan. He was presented the charge of South Leith in 1771, and was ordained in 1773.He published poems by Michael Bruce after Bruce's death....

; Thomas Blacklock

Thomas Blacklock

Thomas Blacklock was a Scottish poet.He was born near Annan, Dumfries and Galloway, of humble parentage, and lost his sight as a result of smallpox when six months old. He began to write poetry at the age of 12, and studied for the Church...

; Miss Elliot

Jean Elliot

Jean Elliot , also known as Jane Elliot, was a Scottish poet, and the third daughter of Sir Gilbert Elliot of Minto, Lord Justice Clerk of Scotland....

 and Mrs. Cockburn

Alison Cockburn

Alison Cockburn also Alison Rutherford, or Alicia Cockburn was a Scottish poet, wit and socialite who collected a circle of eminent friends in 18th century enlightenment Edinburgh including Walter Scott, Robert Burns and David Hume.-Life:Born at Fairnilee House, in the Scottish Borders, between...

; Sir William Jones; Samuel Bishop

Samuel Bishop

Samuel Bishop was a poet born in London, and educated at Merchant Taylors' School and Oxford University. He then took orders and served as Headmaster of Merchant Taylor's School . His poems on miscellaneous subjects fill two quarto volumes and the best of them are those to his wife and daughter....

; Susanna Blamire

Susanna Blamire

Susanna Blamire , poet, was of good Cumberland family, and received the sobriquet of The Muse of Cumberland. Her poems, which were not collected until 1842, depict Cumbrian life and manners with truth and vivacity...

; James Macpherson

James Macpherson

James Macpherson was a Scottish writer, poet, literary collector and politician, known as the "translator" of the Ossian cycle of poems.-Early life:...

; William Mason

William Mason (poet)

William Mason was an English poet, editor and gardener.He was born in Hull and educated at Hull Grammar School and St John's College, Cambridge. He was ordained in 1754 and held a number of posts in the church....

; John Lowe; Joseph Warton

Joseph Warton

Joseph Warton was an English academic and literary critic.He was born in Dunsfold, Surrey, England, but his family soon moved to Hampshire, where his father, the Reverend Thomas Warton, became vicar of Basingstoke. There, a few years later, Joseph's younger brother, the more famous Thomas Warton,...

; Miscellaneous.

The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer , known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey...

, by Thomas Tyrwhitt

Thomas Tyrwhitt

Thomas Tyrwhitt was an English classical scholar and critic.-Life:He was born in London, where he also died. He was educated at Eton and Queen's College, Oxford . In 1756 he was appointed under-secretary at war, in 1762 clerk of the House of Commons...

(3 volumes)