Title:  The Lives of the Most Famous English Poets (1687)

Author:  William Winstanley

Commentator:  William Riley Parker

Release Date:  March 25, 2005 [EBook #15461]

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

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  The lives
  Of the Most Famous
  English Poets.

  (1687)

  By
  William Winstanley.

A facsimile reproduction with an introduction by William Riley Parker

  Gainesville, Florida
  scholars’ facsimiles & reprints
  1963

  Scholars’ facsimiles & reprints
  1605 N.W. 14th Ave. 
  Gainesville, Florida, U.S.A.

  Harry R. Warfel, general editor

  Reproduced from A copy owned by
  Harry R. Warfel

  L.C.  Catalog card number:  63-7095

  Manufactured in the U.S.A.

  Letterpress by J.N.  ANZEL, Inc. 
  Photolithography by Edwards Brothers
  binding by Universal-Dixie bindery

Introduction

This book merits more attention and respect from literary historians than thus far have been accorded it.  The case must be stated carefully.  The work has obvious faults and limitations, which probably account for its never having been reprinted since its appearance in 1687.  Almost forty percent of it is largely or entirely derivative.  Its author, William Winstanley (1628?-1698), was undoubtedly a compiler and a hack-writer; his attitudes and methods can hardly be termed “scholarly.”  Nevertheless, this pioneer in biographical and bibliographical research was more nearly a scholar than the man he is usually alleged to have plagiarized; he wanted to see the books that Edward Phillips was often content merely to list by title in his Theatrum Poetarum (1675), and altogether, for his own enjoyment and that of his readers, he quoted from the works of more than sixty poets.  Moreover, unlike Phillips, he tried to arrange his authors in chronological order, from Robert of Gloucester to Sir Roger L’Estrange.