The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Lives of the Most Famous English Poets
(1687), by William Winstanley

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Title: The Lives of the Most Famous English Poets (1687)

Author: William Winstanley

Commentator: William Riley Parker

Release Date: March 25, 2005 [EBook #15461]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE LIVES
_Of the Most Famous_
_English Poets_.

(1687)

BY
_William Winstanley_.

A FACSIMILE REPRODUCTION
WITH AN INTRODUCTION
BY
_William Riley Parker_

GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA
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1963

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REPRODUCED FROM A COPY OWNED BY
HARRY R. WARFEL

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_Introduction_

This book merits more attention and respect from literary historians
than thus far have been accorded it. The case must be stated carefully.
The work has obvious faults and limitations, which probably account for
its never having been reprinted since its appearance in 1687. Almost
forty percent of it is largely or entirely derivative. Its author,
William Winstanley (1628?-1698), was undoubtedly a compiler and a
hack-writer; his attitudes and methods can hardly be termed
"scholarly." Nevertheless, this pioneer in biographical and
bibliographical research was more nearly a scholar than the man he is
usually alleged to have plagiarized; he wanted to _see_ the books that
Edward Phillips was often content merely to list by title in his
_Theatrum Poetarum_ (1675), and altogether, for his own enjoyment and
that of his readers, he quoted from the works of more than sixty poets.
Moreover, unlike Phillips, he tried to arrange his authors in
chronological order, from Robert of Gloucester to Sir Roger L'Estrange.