Description:
London: Printed for J. Walthoe...and J. Perle.. 1724 First edition, large paper issue. . Contemporary paneled calf, worn in several places, all edges gilt. Marbled endpapers, bookplate removed. . Octavo. Title-page within double rules, attractive woodcut headbands, tail-pieces, and initial letters. A very attractive large paper copy, with the Strasburg bend watermark. Welsted (bap. 1688, d. 1747) was educated at Westminster School (queen's scholar, 1703) and Trinity College, Cambridge, though he never graduated from the latter. He married the daughter of Henry Purcell. His first written poem, "Apple-pye" was published in 1713 and is reprinted here, along with his version of Longinus's On the Sublime (1716), which Swift alleged was translated from Boileau's translation. This collection contains the first appearance of Welsted's Dissertation on the English language, which contained a slighting reference to Pope's Essay on Criticism, which prompted Pope to include him prominently in The Dunciad, and he…
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