to the end of the 1787 Bill of Mortality verses, then omits those for 1788, The Poplar Field and Translation (all of which are in vol. i.), ending with Epitaph on a Hare. Epitaphium Alterum (not in Contents). Note. Bensley's imprint is in both volumes. This edition has been followed generally as far as it goes; see preface, pp. iv-vi. After 1800, editions followed at frequent intervals; I have seen copies of editions dated 1803, 1805, 1806 (2), 1808, 1810, 1811, 1812, 1815 (ed. John Johnson: see No. 19, below), 1817, and later. Of these one of the most important is that of 1808, which apparently received some editorial attention; the following poems were added: On a mischievous bull. Hymn for the Sunday school at Olney. Annus Memorabilis, 1789. In 1806 (the 4to edition) the Olney Hymns and the translations from Madame Guion were for the first time printed uniformly with the rest of Cowper's poems. 16 TRANSLATIONS FROM MADAME GUION, 12mo, 1801. [For title-page and dedication see p. 478; for preface see p. 660]. Quoted as Bull. 17 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WILLIAM COWPER, by William Hayley, 4 vols. 4to, 1803-6. (The first two volumes are dated 1803, the third 1804; and a supplement at the end of the third volume is dated 1806: it has a preface explaining that Hayley, while reprinting the whole Life in 8vo with additions, is at the same time reprinting in 4to for purchasers of the first edition the supplement containing The Colubriad and some new letters). Further editions in 8vo followed in 1806, 1809, 1812 and later. Different readings appear from time to time in these editions; see preface, p. vi. I have generally followed the 1803 edition. Quoted as Hayley. 18 TRANSLATION OF MILTON'S LATIN AND ITALIAN POEMS, 4to, 1808; edited by Hayley. [See p. 579.] 19 POEMS, 3 vols. 12mo, 1815; edited by John Johnson. The third volume contains a certain number of new poems, and versions of others slightly differing from those that had already appeared in Hayley's Life. Quoted as 1815. 20 PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE OF WILLIAM COWPER, ESQ., with several of his most intimate friends, 2 vols. 8vo, 1824; edited by John Johnson. This includes a few new poems. Quoted as 1824. 21 POEMS, the early productions of William Cowper, 16mo, 1825; edited by James Croft. [For Croft's preface, see p. 643.] The poems contained in this interesting volume were almost all hitherto unpublished; they will be found mainly on pp. 264-283 of this volume. Quoted as Croft. 22 THE LIFE AND WORKS OF WILLIAM COWPER, by Robert Southey; 15 vols. foolscap 8vo, 1835-1837. Vols. i-vii. contain the life and letters, with a few poems interspersed ; vols. viiix. the bulk of the poems and the translation of Adamo; vols. xi-xiv. the translations of Homer; vol. xv. additional letters, Cowper's papers in the Connoisseur, and his fragmentary commentary on Paradise Lost. Southey reprinted everything written by Cowper that was then accessible, and produced what will probably long remain the most complete edition of his works. Quoted as Southey. 23 POEMS, 3 vols. foolscap 8vo [1863]; edited by John Bruce. This contains some valuable notes of variant readings. Quoted as Bruce. 24 THE POETICAL WORKS OF WILLIAM COWPER, 8vo, 1870; edited by Canon Benham. 25 THE LIFE OF WILLIAM COWPER, by Thomas Wright, 8vo. 1892; containing new facts which help to date Cowper's poems more accurately, and a few more poems. 26 THE UNPUBLISHED AND UNCOLLECTED POEMS OF WILLIAM COWPER, 8vo, 1900; edited by Thomas Wright. The new poems were printed mainly from the Ash MSS. and from MSS. in the Cowper museum at Olney. 27 THE CORRESPONDENCE OF WILLIAM COWPER, 4 vols. 8vo, 1904; edited by Thomas Wright. Mr. Wright gives the letters for the first time in chronological order, including more than 100 new letters, some of which contain impromptu poems. Cowper's autobiographic MEMOIR (1816) contained one unpublished poem (see p. 289), and Grimshawe in his unnecessary eight-volume edition (1836) printed one (see p. 421) not till then included in any edition of Cowper's poems, but which had appeared in Cowper, illustrated by a series of views (1804). ADELPHI (1802) is of purely biographical interest. Corry in his Life of Cowper printed four of the lines given on p. 428 of this edition. This list of works consulted has of course no pretensions to be a bibliography of Cowper; it professes to mention only those works which supply material of especial value to an editor whose object is to give a complete and correct text of the poems, and may prevent him from wasting much time and labour on the innumerable textually worthless editions which appeared between 1800 and 1870. The signs used in the footnotes for the editions explain themselves (1782, etc.). The Ash MSS. are quoted as A., the British Museum MSS. (Add. MSS. 24,155-6, consisting of letters mostly addressed to Unwin) as BM. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE containing the chief events of Cowper's life, and some important dates in the lives of contemporary writers. A.D. ET. 1715-18 1716 1726 1727-38 1728 1730 1731 1732 1 [Pope's translation of Homer's Iliad.] [Pope's translation of Homer's Odyssey. John Cowper, D.D., Rector of Great Berkhamstead, Chaplain to George II, married Ann Donne. (1) Their children were :--three who died in (2) infancy (Spencer born 1729, Ann and (3) John born 1730). [Pope's Dunciad.] [Thomson's Autumn. Gay's Beggar's Opera. Goldsmith born.] (4) WILLIAM COWPER, born November 20. [Charles Churchill born.] [Pope's Essay on Man, Part I. Gay died.] 1733 2 (5) Theodore C. (died young). [R. Lloyd born. Pope's Epistle to Lord Cobham.] 1734 3 (6) Thomas C. (died young). 1735 4 1737 1738 1739 [Somerville's The Chase. Beattie born (died 6 (7) John C., born November 7. (Ann Cowper 8 1740 9 1741 10 C. goes to Westminster (Dr. Nicholls Headmaster) where he remains till 1748. (See Tirocinium, 11. 296-345, Table Talk, 11. 506-19, and under year 1747 below.) 1742 11 1743 12 1744 13 1745 23 [Fielding's Joseph Andrews. Collins' Persian Eclogues.] [Blair's Grave.] [Akenside's Pleasures of Imagination. Young's Night Thoughts completed. W. C. 14 C. has smallpox, which cures his affection of A.D. ET. 1747 16 C's. last year at Westminster. While there he formed friendships with two of the masters, Vincent Bourne, 'slovenly, dirty, and goodnatured', fifth form master (1695-1747, see pp. 546-561), and Pierson Lloyd (see p. 561); and with several of his schoolfellows, especially (1) Robert Lloyd, author of The Actor (see p. 266); (2) Charles Churchill the satirist (see p. 15); (3) Colman the elder (1732-1794), author of The Jealous Wife; (4) Bonnell Thornton (1724-1768), translator of Plautus; (5) most intimate of all, Sir William Russell, (see p. 284). Other schoolfellows were Warren Hastings, Elijah Impey, and Cumberland. C's. chief reading was in Homer, Milton, and Cowley. [Collins' Odes.] 1748 17 C. leaves Westminster, spends nine months at Berkhamstead. Entered at Middle Temple, writes On the Heel of a Shoe, first extant poem, in imitation of Philips' Splendid Shilling. [Richardson's Clarissa Harlowe. Smollett's Roderick Random. Thomson died.] 1749 18 During this and the two following years, C. is articled to Mr. Chapman, solicitor, of Ely Place, Holborn: leisure spent with his uncle, Ashley Cowper, Southampton Row, where he falls in love with his cousin Theodora Cowper (died 1825; see pp. 269-283). Fellowclerk is Edward Thurlow, afterwards Lord Chancellor (born 1731, died 1806). [Fielding's Tom Jones. Johnson's Irene and Vanity of Human Wishes. Ambrose Philips died.] [Gray's Elegy. Johnson's Rambler begun.] [Fielding's Amelia. Smollett's Peregrine Pickle.] C. visits Catfield (see This ev'ning, Delia, p. 272) and Mundesley. In residence in the Middle Temple. Loneliness, and first attack of melancholy; dispersed by visit to Southampton with Thomas Hesketh, engaged to Harriet Cowper (died 1807). [Chatterton born.] 1753 22 C. in Middle Temple. Richardson's Sir Charles Grandison published, on which C. writes an Ode (see p. 283). 1750 19 1751 20 1752 21 1754 23 C. called to the bar, Jan. 14. During this period is member of the Nonsense Club, consisting besides C., of Thornton, Colman, Lloyd, Joseph Hill, Bensley, and De Grey. [Crabbe born (died 1832).] 1755 24 C. in Middle Temple. [Johnson's Dictionary.] 1756 25 C. in Middle Temple; contributes five papers to Thornton and Colman's Connoisseur. He gives up any idea of marrying Theodora Cowper. (His father dies.) [Burke's Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful.] A.D. ET. 1757 26 C. in Middle Temple; translates two Satires of Horace in Duncombe's Horace (see pp. 521-9). [Gray's Pindaric Odes. Dyer's Fleece. Blake born (died 1827).] 1758 27 C. in Middle Temple; translates Voltaire's Henriade (translation not extant) with his brother John. Friendship with Clotworthy Rowley. [Dyer died.] 1759 28 C. removes to Inner Temple; is made Commissioner of Bankrupts, at £60 a year. Strong patriot. [Reynolds' Discourses on Painting begun. Johnson's Rasselas. Sterne's Tristram Shandy, i. and ii. Collins died. Burns born.] 1760 29 C. in Inner Temple. During this and the next two years his means became straitened; he seems never to have had a brief, and made no income but that of his commissionership. Reads much, but writes very little. Thurlow's jesting promise to 'provide for' C. when he is Lord Chancellor. 1761 30 C. 1762 31 C. 1763 32 C. 1765 34 C. in Inner Temple. [Churchill's Rosciad. Colman's Jealous Wife.] in Inner Temple. [Falconer's Shipwreck. Bowles born (died 1850).] in Inner Temple: is offered Clerkship of Journals of House of Lords by Major Cowper; breaks down under strain of approaching examination, and, after a two months' visit to Margate, on his return to London has a second and far more serious attack of melancholy, which, after three attempts at suicide, ends in actual insanity. (See Sapphics, p. 289, written after his attempted suicide.) Removed by his brother to Dr. Cotton's asylum at St. Albans. [Smart's David. Rogers born (died 1855).] 1764 33 C. at St. Albans. [Goldsmith's Traveller. Walpole's Castle of Otranto. Churchill died.] at St. Albans till June 27; adopts Dick Coleman; visits his brother at Cambridge (see Adelphi); resigns his commissionership, thus becoming entirely dependent on his friends for an income; moves to lodgings at Huntingdon. Correspondence with Lady Hesketh (Harriet Cowper) and Hill shows returning health. In Nov. moves from lodgings to the Unwins' house; begins to write the Memoir. [Percy's Reliques. Young died.] 1766 35 C. at Huntingdon with Unwins; financial helpcontinued for many years-from Major Cowper, Theodora, and the Heskeths; begins to interest himself in gardening. [Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield.] 1767 36 C. at Huntingdon with Unwins. (Death of Mor ley Unwin, July 2.) Moves Sept. 14, with |