Author: CARRINGTON (John):
Title: Gems of British Poesy, on Various Subjects, intended to Enforce the Practice of Virtue.
Description: London: Printed for the Author, By W. Day, 17, Goswell Streeet; Sold by G. Ford..., 1826, FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. 8vo,, 160 x 96 mms., pp. [v] vi - xi [xii blank], [9] 10 - 188, including half-title, engraved portrait (by J. Shurry after J. Palmen) as frontispiece, last two leaves printed as doubleton, contemporary half red morocco, gray boards, silver label on spine. A very good to fine copy, with ms. corrections which might be in Carrington's hand; the ones on pages 18 - 21 annotating Byron, are those stanzas 178 to 184 of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage and appear to be reversing printer's errors rather than being authorial substantive variants. How's this for a diffident opening to a preface: "The author of this Volume, has not much to say on this occasion." True to his word, the preface is less than two pages, affirming the principle enunciated in the title, "It is the peculiar property of Poetry to do good by stealth; to hid the thorny paths of instruction by covering it with flowers; and the veriest infidel in polite learning, must be something more than abandoned, if he will not visit the Temple of Instruction, when Pleasure leads the way to it." The volume appears to be mostly an anthology, though none of the original author's are credited, e. g., Cowper's poem, "The Negro's Complaint" (1788) is included, though without credit given to the author; the same is true of Wordsworth's "Crazy Jane." Carrington's preface is virtually identical to that in Thomas Tomkins Poems on Various Subjects (1804): "The Editor of this Collection has not much to say on the present occasion...[etc]." The only copy that I know of in a public repository is the one in the BL.

Keywords: anthology poetry literature


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