London:: Printed For C. Bathurst, J. Buckland, W. Strahan, J. Rivington And Sons, T. Davies, T. Payne, L. Davis, W. Owen, B. White, S. Crowder, T. Caslon, T. Longman, B. Law, C. Dilly, J. Dodsley, J. Wilkie, J. Robson, J. Johnson, T. Lowndes, G. Robinson, T. Cadell, J. Nichols, E. Newbery, T. Evans, P. Elmsly, J. Ridley, R. Baldwin, G. Nicol, Leigh And Sotheby, J. Bew, N. Conant, W. Nicoll, J. Murray, S. Hayes, W. Fox, And J. Bowen., M DCC LXXXI.
Physical Description
4 vols.; 213 mm. (Small quarto).
General Note
Vol. I: vii, [i], 480 p., frontis. (port.) - Vol. II: iii, [i], 471, [1] p. - Vol. III: iii, [i], 462 p. (p.186 misnumbered 168). - Vol. IV: iii, [i], 505, [1]p. In some copies (incl. that of the Royal Academy) the 1-page advertisement by J. Nichols is followed by a 16-page advertisement, 'Books Printed for W. Strahan and T. Cadell in the Strand'.
Contents
Vol. I: [Frontis., t.p.] - Advertisement - Contents Of The First Volume - [Text]. - Vol. II: [T.p.] - Contents Of The Second Volume - [Text]. - Vol. III: [T.p.] - Contents Of The Third Volume - [Text]. - Vol. IV: [T.p.] - Contents Of The Fourth Volume - [Text] - [Advertisement, 'Lately published, in Sixty-eight Volumes, An Elegant Edition of The English Poets ...'] - [Advertisement, 'Books Printed for W. Strahan, and T. Cadell in the Strand'].
Responsibility Note
The frontispiece portrait of the author in Volume I is signed as engraved by T. Trotter after the painting by Sir Josh. Reynolds.
References
ESTC, T146734
J.D. Fleeman, A bibliography of the works of Samuel Johnson (2 v., 2000).
Summary Note
These critical biographies were originally printed as Prefaces biographical and critical to the Works of the English poets (London 1779-1781).
Volume I contains biographies of Cowley, Denham, Milton, Butler, Rochester, Roscommon, Otway, Waller, Pomfret, Dorset, Stepney, Philips and Walsh; Volume II, those of Dryden, Edmund Smith, Duke, King, Sprat, Halifax, parnell, Garth, Rowe, Addison, Hughes and Sheffield; Volume III, those of Prior, Congreve, Blackmore, Fenton, Gay, Granville, Yalden, Tickell, Hammond, Somervile, Savage, Swift and Broome; Volume IV, those of Pope, Pitt, Thomson, Watts, A. Philips, West, Collins, Dyer, Shenstone, Young, Mallet [incorrectly listed in the table of contents as Waller], Akenside, Gray and Lyttelton.
Reproductions
A copy of volumes 2-4 in the collection of the University of Michigan have been digitised and are made available via the Hathi Trust.
This copy includes Strahan & Cadell's 16-page advertisement in Volume IV.
Binding Note
18th-century tree calf, rebacked in 2000 retaining earlier spine-pieces, red and black morocco labels, lettered, 'Johnson's Lives Eng. Poets' and 'I (-IV)'.
Subject
Poets - English poetry - Great Britain - History
Biography - Criticism - Reference books - Catalogs, Booksellers' - Great Britain - 18th century