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COLLECTANEA ANGLO-POETICA :

OR,

A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE

CATALOGUE

OF A PORTION OF A COLLECTION OF

EARLY ENGLISH POETRY,

WITH OCCASIONAL EXTRACTS AND REMARKS

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL.

BY THE

REV. THOMAS CORSER, M.A., F.S.A.,

RURAL DEAN; RECTOR Of stand, LANCASHIRE; AND

VICAR OF Norton, norTHAMPTONSHIRE.

LIBRARY

OF THE
UNIVERSITY

OF

PART I.

PRINTED FOR THE CHETHAM SOCIETY.

M.DCCC.LX.

INTRODUCTION.

THE

HE great use and importance of the study of Bibliography, more especially in connection with our early English literature, are too well known, and have been of late years too fully and generally acknowledged, to render any explanation or defence of it necessary. The labours of such men as Sir Egerton Brydges, Park, Ritson, Chalmers, Haslewood, Collier and others, have strongly conduced not only to excite in the public mind a taste for that pursuit, but also to encourage the diffusion of a general love for, and familiarity with, our ancient literature, and to create a better knowledge of the works of many little known but eminently gifted men.

The researches made of late years have added considerably to our previous literary stores, and have afforded sufficient proof that the study of poetical Bibliography is far from being exhausted, and that there is still room for further labours and exertions in this most interesting and attractive department of literature.

It is with this view, and in accordance with the wish of several of the Members, that the Compiler submits the present Part, which, with another shortly to follow, may

be taken as specimens of a Catalogue of a select portion of a Library of early English Poetry, which, having been formed during nearly a forty years' residence in Lancashire, and many of the Volumes in it acquired from the dispersion of the various fine Collections which have been disposed of in this and the adjoining County Palatine, may perhaps not be considered as entirely extraneous to the scope and jurisdiction of the CHETHAM SOCIETY.

In its character and general plan, saving that, with a few rare exceptions, it is intended to embrace early English Poetical Literature only, it will be found nearly resembling Mr. Collier's excellent Catalogue of a portion of the Bridgewater Library, which still remains—and it is somewhat to the discredit of our Bibliographical Literature that such should be the fact-almost the only example of the kind. The object of the Compiler has been to collect together the scattered notices from various sources bearing upon the particular subject or Author; to correct in some instances. the errors and mistakes made by former writers; to select the Volumes of less frequent occurrence; and to accompany the notices of them with Bibliographical and Biographical Illustrations, and with such extracts as, while they afford a fair specimen of each Author, may also possess interest either from their poetical excellence, from their reference to the writer's contemporaries and the manners of his time, or as shewing the progress of the language and the different schools of poetry which appeared in this country in the sixteenth and seventeenth Centuries.

If in some instances the extracts may appear longer than

necessary, it must not be forgotten that many of them are taken from works of great rarity and value, and that without a fair extent of quotation an accurate judgment can scarcely be formed of the style or characteristics of an Author; and, where the poetry extracted is not of the first order of excellence or interest, it may yet possess the merit of faithfully describing the manners and characters of the times, and of representing the general features of

the age.

The Volumes here selected and enumerated are described, it is hoped, with sufficient minuteness and accuracy; and great care has been taken in recording the size and paging, in referring to other authorities in which they are mentioned, and also in introducing such remarks and information as may, in any way, illustrate the nature or history of the work. To facilitate a reference to the various articles described, a Table of Contents has been prefixed, and a general Index to the whole will be given at the end of the Work. The Collations of the various Volumes have been made with great care and exactness, although it can hardly be expected that perfection in this point can be attained; and any peculiarities, whether of size, condition, or former ownership, which might give additional interest to the Works noticed, have been carefully mentioned.

Should the present and the succeeding Part, the labour connected with which has been of a most agreeable description, meet with the approval of the Members of the Chetham Society, it will afford the Compiler great pleasure, life and health permitting, to carry on the selection.

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