Author: DALE (Thomas):
Title: The Outlaw of Taurus. A Poem. To which are added, Scenes from Sophocles.
Description: London: Printed for J. M. Richardson..., 1820. ?FIRST EDITION. Tall 8vo, 233 x 137 mms., pp. [ii] [5] - 120 [121 -122 adverts], with blank leaf before half-title and a blank leaf at end of text, original wrappers, uncut; edges and wrappers a bit soiled, spine defective, but a good copy of an uncommon book as issued, with the autograph "Mr. Ashton" on inside front cover. In 1821, The British Review, and London Critical Journal reviewed the work at length (24 pages), commenting on Dale's "other very interesting poem, The Widow of Nain" and concludes, "From the foregoing remarks and extracts, the reader will have inferred that the poem before us is one of respectable merit, and still greater promise. We would, however, gently caution our under-graduate of Benet's [Corpus Christi College in Cambridge was known as "Benet's College," in the] 19th century] to take care that, while he is dallying with the Muses on the margins of the Cayster, he does not lose the race among his competitors on the banks of Cam. Poetry is a delightful Companion, but a very bad Cambridge tutor, and a mortal enemy to diagrams and demonstrations." The notice in The Monthly Review for 1821 was more impressed by the "Scenes from Sophocles": "We decidedly encourage this author to proceed in his honourable task. The more Greek Tragedians, especially Sophocles, are studied, the better; - the better for classical taste, and for cultivated intellect. In 'The Outlaw of Taurus,' which rests on a strange story in Eusebius, we discover many most poetical indications: but we think Mr. Dale is best qualified for the imitation of the classics, if he puts out all his strength. Let him leave Lord Byron, and the posse comitatus of his followers, to their own honours." According to the entry in ODNB, Thomas Dale (1797 - 1870) when the Church of England clergyman and university teacher, "Dale went up to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in 1817, having already published The Widow of Nain and other Poems, which was favourably reviewed by Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine and went through six editions. Together with The Outlaw of Taurus (1818) and other poems, this publication both financed his university career and generated employment as a tutor." Neither Copac nor OCLC locate any edition published in 1818. The "Advertisement" after the title-page is dated August 18, 1820. Copac locates copies of this 1820 edition, the earliest that I could find, in BL and Cambridge only. OCLC adds Columbia, Wake Forest, Pennsylvania, Emory, Harvard, Duke, and Nebraska.

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