British Literature 1640-1789

Robert DeMaria, Jr is the Henry Noble MacCracken Professor of English Literature at Vassar College, USA. He is the General Editor of the Yale edition of the Works of Samuel Johnson, and editor of the Johnsonian News Letter. He is the author of numerous books including The Life of Samuel Johnson (Wiley Blackwell, 1993), and Samuel Johnson and the Life of Reading (1997); and is the editor of British Literature 1640-1789: A Critical Reader (1998), Classical Literature and Its Reception: An Anthology (with Robert D. Brown, 2007), and A Companion to British Literature in four volumes (with Heesok Chang and Samantha Zacher, 2014), all published by Wiley Blackwell.

“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)

• List of Authors xvii Chronology xixThematic Table of Contents xxviIntroduction xxxviEditorial Principles xlvPreface to the Fourth Edition xlviiAcknowledgments xlixBallads and Newsbooks from the Civil War (1640–1649) 1The World is Turned Upside Down (1646) 1The King’s Last farewell to the World, or The Dead King’s Living Meditations, at the approach of Death denounced against Him (1649) 3The Royal Health to the Rising Sun (1649) 6from A Perfect Diurnal of Some Passages in Parliament (1649) 7Number 288, 29 January–5 February 1649 7from Mercurius Pragmaticus (1649) 8Number 43, 30 January–6 February 1649 8Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) 10from Leviathan (1651) 10Chapter XIII: Of the NATURAL CONDITION of Mankind, as concerning their Felicity, and Misery 10Robert Herrick (1591–1674) 14from Hesperides (1648) 14The Argument of His Book 14To Daffodils 15The Night-piece, to Julia 15The Hock-Cart, or Harvest Home 16Upon Julia’s Clothes 17When he would have his verses read 18Delight in Disorder 18To the Virgins, to make much of Time 18His Return to London 19The Bad Season Makes the Poet Sad 19The Pillar of Fame 20John Milton (1608–1674) 21from 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) 23Book I: The Preface 23from Chapter I 26from Chapter VI 26from Areopagitica; A Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing, to the Parliament of England (1644) 27from Poems (1673) 44Sonnet 18 (1655) On the Late Massacre in Piemont 44Sonnet 19 (1652?) “When I Consider how my Light is Spent” 44Sonnet 16 [To the Lord General Cromwell, 1652] 45from Paradise Lost (1667) 45The Verse 47Book I 47Book II 66Book IV 91Book IX 116Abraham Cowley (1618–1667) 145Anacreontiques: Or, Some Copies of Verses Translated Paraphrastically out of Anacreon 145To the Royal Society 152Andrew Marvell (1621–1678) 157from Miscellaneous Poems (1681) 158The Coronet 158The Picture of Little T.C. in a Prospect of Flowers 158Bermudas (1653?) 159The Mower to the Glo-Worms (1651–2?) 161An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell’s Return from Ireland (1650) 161The Garden (1651–2?) 164On a Drop of Dew (1651–2?) 167To his Coy Mistress (c.1645) 168Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle (1623–1673) 170from Poems and Fancies (1653) 170Poets have most Pleasure in this Life 170from The Description of a New World, called the Blazing World (1666) 171John Bunyan (1628–1688) 179from Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666) 179John Dryden (1631–1700) 183To My Honoured Friend, Dr Charleton, on his learned and useful Works; and more particularly this of STONE-HENGE, by him Restored to the trueFounders (1663) 184Mac Flecknoe (1676?) 186Absalom and Achitophel: A Poem (1681) 192To the Memory of Mr. Oldham (1684) 217To the Pious Memory of the Accomplished Young LADY Mrs. Anne Killigrew, Excellent in the two Sister-Arts of Poesy, and Painting. An Ode (1686) 218Song for St. Cecilia’s Day (1687) 223Alexander’s Feast 225from Fables Ancient and Modern (1700) 230Pygmalion and the Statue 230Secular Masque 232Katherine Philips (1632–1664) 237from Poems by the most deservedly Admired Mrs. Katherine Philips, the matchless Orinda (1667) 237Friendship 237Friendship’s Mystery, To my dearest Lucasia 238Epitaph On her Son H. P. at St. Syth’s Church where her body also lies Interred 240The Virgin 240Upon the graving of her Name upon a Tree in Barnelmes Walks 241To the truly competent Judge of Honour, Lucasia, upon a scandalous Libel made by J. J. 241To Mrs. Wogan, my Honoured Friend, on the Death of her Husband 243Orinda to Lucasia 244Parting with Lucasia, A Song 245To Antenor, on a Paper of mine which J. J. threatens to publish to prejudice him 246John Locke (1632–1704) 247from An Essay concerning the True Original, Extent and End of Civil Government (1690) 248from Chapter 1 248from Chapter 2 Of the State of Nature 248from Chapter 4 Of Slavery 250from Chapter 5 Of Property 251Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) 253from Diary 255July 1665 255August 1665 258Aphra Behn (1640?–1689) 260from Poems upon Several Occasions (1684) 261The Golden Age: A Paraphrase on a Translation out of French 261The Disappointment 266from Lycidus: or the Lover in Fashion (1688) 270To the Fair Clarinda, Who Made Love to Me,Imagined More than Woman 270The Rover: Or, The Banished Cavaliers (1677) 270Oroonoko: or, the Royal Slave. A True History (1688) 333John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester (1647–1680) 376The Imperfect Enjoyment 376A Ramble in Saint James’s Park 378A Satyr against Reason and Mankind 382The Disabled Debauchee 387Lampoon 389[Signior Dildo] 389A Satire on Charles II 391A Letter from Artemiza in the Town to Chloe in the Country 392Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) 399from An Essay upon Projects (1698) 400An Academy for Women 400from The True-Born Englishman: A Satire (1700) 406Part I 406The Shortest-Way with the Dissenters: Or Proposals for the Establishment of the Church (1702) 415A 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) 425from the London Gazette 431Monday, 11 January to Thursday, 14 January 1702 431Anne Kingsmill Finch, Countess of Winchilsea (1661–1720) 432The Introduction 432Life’s Progress 434Adam Posed 435The Petition for an Absolute Retreat 436To the Nightingale 442A Poem for the Birth-day of the Right Honourable the Lady Catharine Tufton 443The Atheist and the Acorn 445The Unequal Fetters 446The Answer (to Pope’s Impromptu) 447The Spleen: A Pindaric Poem (1701; revised 1713) 448Mary Astell (1666–1731) 452from A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, for the Advancement of their True and Greatest Interest. By a Lover of her Sex (1694) 452Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) 455A Tale of a Tub Written for the Universal Improvement of Mankind (1704) 457A 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) 527A Description of the Morning (1709) 533The Lady’s Dressing Room (1732) 534A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed Writtenfor the Honour of the Fair Sex (1734) 537A Description of a City Shower (1710) 539Stella’s Birth-Day (13 March 1719) 541Delarivier Manley (c.1670–1724) 542from Secret Memoirs and Manners of Several Persons of Quality of Both Sexes. From the New Atalantis, an Island in the Mediterranean (1709) 543William Congreve (1670–1729) 556The Way of the World (1700) 557Joseph Addison (1672–1719) and Richard Steele (1672–1729) 619from the Spectator 620Number 11, Tuesday, March 13, 1711 [Inkle and Yarico] 620Number 159, Saturday, September 1, 1711 [The Visions of Mirzah] 622Isaac Watts (1674–1748) 626from Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language for the Use of Children (1715) 626Against Quarrelling and Fighting 626The Sluggard 627Allan Ramsay (1684–1758) 628from The Poems of Allan Ramsay (1800) 628Polwart on the Green (1721) 628Give Me a Lass with a Lump of Land (1721) 629John Gay (1685–1732) 630The Beggar’s Opera (1728) 631Alexander Pope (1688–1744) 678An Essay on Criticism (1711) 679The RAPE of the LOCK. An Heroi-Comical Poem (1714) 696Eloisa to Abelard (1717) 717from The Dunciad Variorum (1729) 725Martinus Scriblerus, of the Poem 725Dunciados Periocha: or, Arguments to the Books 727The Dunciad, Book the First 729from Letters 738To Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1 September 1718) 738Mary Collier (1688?–1762) 741The Woman’s Labour: An Epistle To Mr. Stephen Duck; In Answer to his late Poem, called The Thresher’s Labour… (1739) 741Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689–1762) 748from 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 748To the Lady X —— 749To the Lady —— 750[To Lady Mar] 752To Mr. [Alexander] Pope 755To Mr. [Alexander] P[ope] 756The Lover (1721–5) 758The Reasons that Induced Dr. S[wift] to Write a Poem Called the Lady’s Dressing Room (1732–4) 759To the Memory of Mr Congreve (1729?) 761[A Summary of Lord Lyttelton’s advice to a Lady] (1731–3) 762Trials at the Old Bailey (1722–1727) 763from Select TRIALS at the Sessions House in the Old Bailey (1742) 763H —— J ——, for a Rape, 1722 763Gabriel Lawrence, for Sodomy, April, 1726 765Mary Picart, alias Gandon, for Bigamy, June, 1725 766Richard Savage, James Gregory, and William Merchant, for Murder, Thursday, Dec. 7, 1727 767Eliza Fowler Haywood (1693–1756) 772Fantomina: OR, Love in a Maze (1724) 772James Thomson (1700–1748) 791Winter. A Poem (1726) 791Stephen Duck (1705–1756) 802from Poems on Several Subjects (1730) 802from The Thresher’s Labour 802Mary Jones (1707–1778) 805from Miscellanies in Prose and Verse (1750) 805Soliloquy, on an Empty Purse 805After the Small Pox 806Her Epitaph 807Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) 809from The Life of Mr. Richard Savage, Son of the Earl of Rivers (1744) 811The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749) 816from the Rambler 825Number 2, Saturday, 24 March 1750 825Number 28, Saturday, 23 June 1750 828Number 207, Tuesday, 10 March, 1752 831From the Idler 834Number 22, Saturday, 9 September 1758 834Number 81, Saturday, 3 November 1759 836from the Preface to A Dictionary of the English Language (1755) 837The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia (1759) 845from the Preface to The Plays of William Shakespeare (1765) 906David Hume (1711–1776) 914from Essays Moral and Political (1742) 914Of the Liberty of the Press 914from Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects (1777) 917My Own Life 917Jane Collier (1714/15–1755) 923from An Essay on the Art of Ingeniously Tormenting; with Proper Rules for the Exercise of that Pleasant Art (1753) 923Thomas Gray (1716–1771) 932Letter to Richard West (1741) 933Sonnet [on the Death of Mr Richard West] (1742) 934Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat (1748) 934An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church Yard (1751) 936The Progress of Poesy: A Pindaric Ode (1768) 939William Collins (1721–1759) 944from Odes on Several Descriptive and Allegoric Subjects (1747) 944Ode to Fear 944Epode 945Antistrophe 946Ode on the Poetical Character 946from A Collection of Poems by Several Hands (1748) 949Ode to Evening 949Mary Leapor (1722–1746) 951from Poems on Several Occasions (1748) 951The Month of August 951An Epistle to a Lady 953Mira’s Will 955from Poems on Several Occasions (1751) 956An Essay on Woman 956Crumble-Hall 958Man the Monarch 962Christopher Smart (1722–1771) 965from Jubilate Agno (c.1758–63) 966from Fragment A (c.1758–9) 966from Fragment B (1759–60) 966Samson Occom (1723–1792) 970from A Sermon Preached at the Execution of Moses Paul, an Indian 970The PREFACE 970INTRODUCTION 971SERMON 971John Newton (1725–1807) 982HYMN XLI [Amazing Grace] 982Oliver Goldsmith (1728?–1774) 984The Revolution in Low Life (1762) 984The Deserted Village, a Poem (1770) 986Edmund Burke (1729–1797) 997from A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful (1757), Part 2 998Section 1, Of the Passion caused by the SUBLIME 998Section 2, TERROR 998Section 3, OBSCURITY 998Section 4, Of the difference between CLEARNESS and OBSCURITY with regard to the passions 999Section [5], The same subject continued 1000Section 13, Beautiful objects small 1002Section 14, SMOOTHNESS 1002Section 15, Gradual VARIATION 1003Section 16, DELICACY 1004from Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event In a LetterIntended to have been sent to a Gentleman In Paris (1790) 1004William Cowper (1731–1800) 1019On a Goldfinch Starved to Death in his Cage (1782) 1020Epitaph on an Hare (1784) 1020To the Immortal Memory of the Halibut on which I Dined this Day (1784) 1021The Negro’s Complaint (1789) 1022On a Spaniel Called Beau Killing a Young Bird (1793) 1024Beau’s Reply 1024On the Ice Islands Seen floating in the German Ocean (1799) 1025The Castaway (1799) 1027James Macpherson (1736–1796) 1029from 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) 1029from Book IV 1029Thomas Paine (1737–1809) 1032from Common Sense (1776) 1033Of the Origin and Design of Government in General, with Concise Remarks on the English Constitution 1033from The American Crisis (1777) 1036Number 1 1036from The Rights of Man: being an Answer to Mr. Burke’s Attack on the French Revolution (1791) 1037The American Declaration of Independence (1776) 1040James Boswell (1740–1795) 1044from The Life of Dr Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1791) 1044Hester Lynch Thrale Piozzi (1741–1821) 1058from Anecdotes of the Late Samuel Johnson, LL.D. during the Last Twenty Years of his Life (1786) 1058from Correspondence with Samuel Johnson (1773–5) 1060Anna Laetitia Aiken Barbauld (1743–1825) 1063from Poems (1792) 1063The Mouse’s Petition 1063Verses Written in an Alcove 1065from the Monthly Magazine (1797) 1066Washing-Day 1066Olaudah Equiano (1745?–1797) 1069from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African (1789) 1069Chapter 5 1069Hannah More (1745–1833) 1082from Sensibility (1782) 1082from The Slave Trade (1790) 1084Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) 1088The School for Scandal (1777) 1088Thomas Chatterton (1752–1770) 1137from Poems, Supposed to have been Written at Bristol, ByThomas Rowley, and Others, in the Fifteenth Century (1777) 1137An Excelente Balade of Charitie: As wroten bie the gode Prieste Thomas Rowley, 1464 1137Frances Burney (later d’Arblay) (1752–1840) 1141from Journals and Letters 114227–8 March 1777 114222 March 1812 1144Ann Cromartie Yearsley (1753–1806) 1154from Poems on Several Occasions (1785) 1154On Mrs. Montagu 1154from Poems on Various Subjects (1787) 1156To Indifference 1156To those who accuse the Author of Ingratitude 1157William Blake (1757–1827) 1159from Songs of Innocence (1789) 1159Introduction 1159The Lamb 1160The Little Black Boy 1161The Chimney Sweeper 1161Holy Thursday 1162Infant Joy 1162from Songs of Experience (1794) 1163Introduction 1163Holy Thursday 1163The Chimney Sweeper 1164The Tyger 1164Ah! Sun-Flower 1165Robert Burns (1759–1796) 1166from Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (1786) 1166Epistle to Davie, A Brother Poet 1166To a Mouse, On turning her up in her Nest, with the Plough, November 1785 1171Address to the Deil 1172Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797) 1177from 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) 1177Index of Titles and First Lines 1180Index to the Introductions and Footnotes 1184