DYER (John):

Poems. Viz. I. Grongar Hill. II. The Ruins of Rome. III. The Fleece, in Four Books.

London: Printed by John Hughs For Messrs. R. and J. Dodsley..., 1761. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. [vi], 9 - 188, 3 full-page engraved plates, D3 signed D2, contemporary calf, gilt spine, morocco label; upper and lower front joint slightly cracked, but a very good copy. Writing to Sir David Dalrymple on 3 February 1760, Horace Walpole remarked that he regarded "The Fleece" as a "very insipid poem.... I could never get through [it]." Dr. Johnson echoed his sentiments: "The subject, Sir, cannot be made poetical. How can a man write poetically of serges and druggets?" A more sympathetic modern critic describes it as "one of the most interesting of the formal georgics.... The aim of all this effort was to show the work as part of a larger pattern, natural or moral. It may seem ridiculous, or even objectionable, that poets should have felt a need to dignify labour in this way. But where have we a comparable poetry of turbines or nuclear reactors? Eighteenth-century georgics served a valuable function by combining poetical pleasure with enough information to allow intelligent readers to take an interest in manufacture and trade, and enter into their aims with patriotic enthusiasm" (Alastair Fowler: A History of English Literature [1987]).

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 4352

Catalogue: Pastoral

Keywords: pastoral poetry literature

PHILIPS (Ambrose):

Pastorals, Epistles, Odes, and other Original Poems, With Translations from Pindar, Anacreon, and Sappho.

London: Printed for J. and R. Tonson..., 1765. 8vo, pp. [xii], 174, disbound. This title was first used by Philips (1674 - 1749) in 1748; this is the second edition, and the text has been entirely re-set.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 4444

Catalogue: Pastoral

Keywords: pastoral poetry literature

THEOCRITUS.

The Idylliums of Theocritus with Rapin's Discourse upon Pastorals. Made English by Mr. Creech. The Second Edition. To which is prefix'd, The Life of Theocritus. By Basil Kennet.

London: Printed for E. Curll..., 1713. 12mo (in 6s), pp. [ii], iv, 105 [106 - 108 Contents, 109 - 112 adverts], engraved portrait of Theocritus as frontispiece, contemporary calf; upper joints cracked, top and base of spine chipped. With the autograph and date of Henry Samuel Partridge (1772 - 1858), Magdalen College, Oxford, 23 January 1802, on the front paste-down end-paper. Creech's translation of Theocritus was first published in 1684, just two years after his very successful translation of Lucretius. Straus, p. 221.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 5151

Catalogue: Pastoral

Keywords: pastoral classics literature