The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) eBook

Theodore Watts-Dunton
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 352 pages of information about The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753).

The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) eBook

Theodore Watts-Dunton
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 352 pages of information about The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753).

A Review of Her Royal Highness Princess Sophia’s Letters to the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, and that of Sir Rowland Gwynn’s, to the Right Hon. the Earl of Stamford, 8vo. 1706.

Canons, or the Vision; a Poem, addressed to the Right Hon. James Earl of Carnarvon, &c. 1717.

The Laws of Poetry, as laid down by the Duke of Buckingham in his Essay on Poetry, by the Earl of Roscommon in his Essay upon Translated Verse; and by Lord Lansdown on Unnatural Flights in Poetry, explained and illustrated, &c. 8vo. 1721.

A Continuation of Langbain’s Lives of the Poets.

Mr. Coxeter has imputed to him a piece called Measure for Measure, or Beauty the best Advocate; altered from Shakespear, and performed at the Theatre in Lincoln’s Inn-Fields 1700, with the addition of several Entertainments of Music.  Prologue and Epilogue by Mr. Oldmixon.

The Deist’s Manual, or Rational Enquiry into the Christian Religion, with some Animadversions on Hobbs, Spinosa, the Oracles of Reason, Second Thoughts, &c. to which is prefixed a Letter from the Author of the Method with the Deists, 1705.

Complete Art of Poetry.

Mr. Gildon died on the 12th of January 1723, and in the words of Boyer’s Political State, vol. xxvii. p. 102. we shall sum up his character.

’On Sunday, January 12, died Mr. Charles Gildon, a person of great literature, but a mean genius; who having attempted several kinds of writing, never gained much reputation in any.  Among other treatises, he wrote the English Art of Poetry, which he had practised himself very unsuccessfully in his dramatic performances.  He also wrote an English Grammar, but what he seemed to build his chief hopes of fame upon, was, his late Critical Commentary on the Duke of Buckingham’s Essay on Poetry, which last piece was perused, and highly approved, by his grace.’

* * * * *

THOMAS D’URFEY,

Was born in the county of Devon, and was first bred to the law; but we have not heard from what family he was descended, nor in what year he was born.  He has written upwards of thirty plays, with various success, but had a genius better turned to a ballad, and little irregular odes, than for dramatic poetry.  He soon forsook the profession of the law, and threw himself upon the public, by writing for the stage.——­That D’Urfey was a man of some abilities, and, enjoyed the esteem and friendship of men of the greatest parts in his time, appears from the favourable testimony of the author of the Guardian:  And as the design of this work is to collect, and throw into one view, whatever may be found concerning any poet of eminence in various books, and literary records, we shall make no scruple of transcribing what that ingenious writer has humorously said concerning our author.

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The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.