PRINTED BY W. BULMER AND CO. AND J. WRIGHT, PICCADILLY. 1801. PREFACE. THE first edition of this Miscellany, which appeared in 1790, was intended as an attempt "to comprise, within the compass of one volume, all the most beautiful small poems "that had been published in this country during the sixteenth and seventeenth cen"turies;" but it was at the same time admitted, that "the completion of the publisher's plan had been prevented by the difficulty of procuring a sufficient stock of materials.” This difficulty has been since removed, by the kind assistance of my friends; and the work in its present state contains a selection, made with some care and attention, from a considerable number of the best poetical libraries in this country. That it is still deficient, and that by greater industry it might have been improved, is very certain :* but the reader who shall fairly examine the stock of materials here collected, will not be much surprised if the curiosity of the compiler was at length satiated, and if the labour of transcription, became too irksome to be farther continued. It has been objected to the former collection that it consisted, almost exclusively, of love-songs and sonnets. The objection was certainly just, but the blame cannot fairly be imputed to an editor, who must be satis *To what degree it is defective, the reader will be better able to judge, when Mr. Ritson shall have printed his "Bibliographia Poetica, a Cata"logue of English Poets of the twelfth, thirteenth, "fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries, "with a short account of their Works." It is said to be completed, and intended for immediate publication. fied to take such instances of literary excellence as he can find; and who, though he may lament, with his readers, that beautiful poetry is more frequently calculated to inflame the imagination, than to chasten the morals, can only lament, without being able to remedy, such a perversion of talent. The Collection, in its present state, will be found to contain much more variety. The two parts into which it is divided are, indeed, directed to one principal object; which is, to exhibit, by means of a regular series of Specimens, the rise and progress of our language, from the tenth to the latter end of the seventeenth century. In the former part, which terminates with the reign of Henry VIII. the extracts are generally chosen with a view to picturesque description, or to the delineation of national manners; whereas the second division of the work, is meant to exhibit the best models that could be found, |