Thomas Humphry Ward, The English Poets. Selections with Critical Introductions by Various Writers and a General Introdction by Matthew Arnold. 4 Volumes (London: Macmillan and Co., 1880)
Information about the collection: The editor has divided up the field so to speak and solicited the work of other critics for the critical introductions to each poet; the names of these other critics are listed in the TOC next to the authors on whom they concentrated. Each volume is around 600 pp.
[Volume 1: Chaucer to Donne][Volume 2: Ben Jonson to Dryden][Volume 3: Addison to Blake][Volume 4: Wordsworth to Dobell]
Preface to the Collection: The aim of this book is to supply an admitted want -- that of an anthology which may adequately represent the vast and varied field of English Poetry.
Nothing of the kind at present exists. There are great collections of the whole works of the poets, like that of Chalmers; there are innumerable volumes of 'Beauties' of a more or less unsatisfactory kind; there are Selections from single poets; there are a few admirable volumes, like that of Mr. Palgrave, which deal with special departments of our poetical literature. The only book which attempts to cover the whole ground on a large scale is Campbell's; and Campbell's, though the work of a true poet and, according to the standard of his time, a critic of authority, can no longer be regarded as sufficient. It is indeed impossible that a selection of the kind should be really well done, should be done with an approach to finality, if it is the work of one critic alone. The history of English poetry is so wide, its various selections and stages have become the objects of so special a study, that a book which aims at selecting the best from the whole field and pronouncing its judgments with some degree of authority, must not be the work of one writer, but of many. It was on this plan that M. Crepet's excellect book, Les poetes francais, was constructed twenty years ago; and what he there did for French poetry we here wish to do for English poetry -- to present a collection of what is best in it, chosen and judged by those whose tastes and studies specially qualify them for the several tasks they have undertaken.
Our design has not been to present a complete collection of all that may fairly be called masterpieces -- if it had been so, the volumes would of necessity have been three times as many as they are. Still less has it been to give a complete history of English poetry -- if it had been so, many names that we have passed over would have been admitted. It has been, to collect as many of the best and most characteristic of their writings as should fully represent the great poets, and at the same time to omit no one who is poetically considerable. There are writers who were famous in their day and who played a great part in the history of English literature, but who have faded from public notice and are no longer generally read; men like Sidney, and Cowley, and Waller. Again, there are writers who never were well known, but who wrote a few beautiful poems as it were by accident; men like some of the minor Elizabethans, or Lovelace, or Christopher Smart. We have endeavoured to do justice to both these classes; to gather from the former what may serve to explain why they were famous, and from the latter whatever they wrote that is of real poetical excellence.
We have not included the writings of the living poets, nor the drama, properly so called. Had we admitted the drama we should have been compelled to double our space; besides, in spite of Charles Lamb, we may venture to say that by the nature of the case a play lends itself to selection less than any other form of literature. But where a play is only a play in name, like Comus or the Gentle Shepherd, we have not excluded it; and songs from the dramatists have of course been admitted.
Two points seem to require a word of notice -- the order and the orthography. The first is approximately chronological; for in this matter it was found impossible to follow any rigid rule. To go uniformly by the date, either of birth or publication, would be in many cases misleading; for we often find a poet not beginning to write till after the death of some younger contemporary, and oftener still we find his poems only posthumously collected. A vague floruit circa is the only date that is often possible in literary history. With regard to the orthography, the principle adopted has been, to print according to contemporary spelling up to the time of Wyatt and Surrey -- the time of the Renascence -- and since that date to adopt the uniform modern spelling. The exceptions that we have made are in the case of the Scotch poets (though with them it is a matter of language than of orthography), and of Spenser, who is so intentionally archaic that his spelling is peculaiar, and is a part of himself. Spenser accordingly we have printed from Dr. Morris's text. ...
Table of Contents:
GENERAL INTRODUCTION BY MATTHEW ARNOLD
GEOFFREY CHAUCER
POEMS COMMONLY ATTRIBUTED TO CHAUCER
WILLIAM LANGLEY OR LANGLAND
JOHN GOWER
JOHN LYDGATE
THOMAS OCCLEVE
JAMES THE FIRST OF SCOTLAND
ROBERT HENRYSON
WILLIAM DUNBAR
GAWAIN DOUGLAS
STEPHEN HAWES
JOHN SKELTON
SIR DAVID LYNDESAY
BALLADS
SIR THOMAS WYATT
THE EARL OF SURREY
GEORGE GASCOIGNE
THOMAS SACKVILLE, LORD BUCKHURST
EDMUND SPENSER
SIR PHILIP SIDNEY
FULKE GREVILLE, LORD BROOKE
SIR EDWARD DYER
HENRY CONSTABLE
THOMAS WATSON
JOHN LYLY
GEORGE PEELE
ROBERT GREENE
CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE
THOMAS LODGE
WILLIAM WARNER
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
SAMUEL DANIEL
RICHARD BARNFIELD
ROBERT SOUTHWELL
SIR WALTER RALEIGH
ELIZABETHAN MISCELLANIES
GEORGE CHAPMAN
MICHAEL DRAYTON
JOSEPH HALL
JOHN MARSTON
SIR JOHN DAVIES
JOHN DONNE
BEN JONSON
WILLIAM DRUMMOND OF HAWTHORNDEN
SIR WILLIAM ALEXANDER
BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER
THOMAS DEKKER
JOHN FORD
WILLIAM BROWNE
GEORGE WITHER
GILES FLETCHER
SIR HENRY WOTTON
THOMAS CAREW
ROBERT HERRICK
WILLIAM HABINGTON
SIR JOHN SUCKLING
RICHARD LOVELACE
LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY
SANDYS, HERBERT, CRASHAW, VAUGHAN
JAMES SHIRLEY
THOMAS RANDOLPH
WILLIAM CARTWRIGHT
ABRAHAM COWLEY
EDMUND WALLER
SIR JOHN DENHAM
THOMAS STANLEY
SIR WILLIAM DAVENANT
JOHN MILTON
ANDREW MARVELL
SAMUEL BUTLER
THE EARL OF ROSCOMMON
THE EARL OF DORSET
SIR CHARLES SEDLEY
MRS. BEHN
THE EARL OF ROCHESTER
THOMAS OTWAY
JOHN OLDHAM
JOHN DRYDEN
JOSEPH ADDISON
WILLIAM WALSH
WILLIAM CONGREVE
SIR SAMUEL GARTH
MATTHEW PRIOR
LADY WINCHILSEA
JONATHAN SWIFT
ALEXANDER POPE
AMBROSE PHILIPS
THOMAS PARNELL
JOHN GAY
THOMAS TICKELL
ALLAN RAMSAY
JAMES THOMSON
JOHN ARMSTRONG
WILLIAM SOMERVILLE
MATTHEW GREEN
JOHN DYER
ROBERT BLAIR
EDWARD YOUNG
JOHN BYROM
RICHARD GLOVER
SAMUEL JOHNSON
JOHN WESLEY, CHARLES WESLEY
WILLIAM SHENSTONE
WILLIAM COLLINS
THOMAS GRAY
WILLIAM WHITEHEAD
MARK AKENSIDE
CHRISTOPHER SMART
WILLIAM FALCONER
OLIVER GOLDSMITH
THOMAS WARTON
CHARLES CHURCHILL
JAMES BEATTIE
THOMAS CHATTERTON
WILLIAM COWPER
SCOTCH MINOR SONG-WRITERS, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
ROBERT FERGUSSON
ROBERT BURNS
CAROLINE OLIPHANT, BARONESS NAIRN
MRS. BARBAULD
GEORGE CRABBE
WILLIAM BLAKE
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH (90 pp.)
SAMUEL ROGERS
WILLIAM LISLE BOWLES
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE
ROBERT SOUTHEY
WALTER SCOTT
JOANNA BAILLIE
JAMES HOGG
THOMAS CAMPBELL
JOHN HOOKMAN FRERE
LORD BYRON
WILLIAM TENNANT
THOMAS MOORE
CHARLES WOLFE
CHARLES LAMB
FELICIA HEMANS
LEIGH HUNT
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
JOHN KEATS
WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR
BRYAN WALLER PROCTER
EBENEZER ELLIOTT
JOHN KEBLE
HARTLEY COLERIDGE
WILLIAM MOTHERWELL
THOMAS HOOD
LORD MACAULAY
WINTHROP MACKWORTH PRAED
THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING
EMILY BRONTE
ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH
CHARLES KINGSLEY
SYDNEY DOBELL