[564]. It appeared in the very year of the Short View (1698). I have a reprint of it, issued many years later (1725), but long before Dennis’s death, together with The Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry and the tragedy of Rinaldo and Armida, all separately titled, but continuously paged.
[565]. This is from the Advancement and Reformation, which contains its author’s full definition of Poetry itself—not the worst of such definitions. “Poetry is an Imitation of Nature by a pathetic and numerous speech.”
[566]. London, 1702.
[567]. London, 1712.
[568]. London, 1728.
[569]. The Advancement and Reformation of Poetry, 1701; A Large Account of the Taste in Poetry, next year; and Grounds of Criticism in Poetry, 1704.
[570]. Mr W. Basil Worsfold in his Principles of Criticism (London, 1897). I hope that nothing which, in a politely controversial tone, I may have to say here, will be taken as disparagement of a very interesting and valuable essay.
[571]. The most convenient edition of Addison’s Works is that of Bohn, with Hurd’s editorial matter and a good deal more (London, 6 vols., 1862).
[572]. It is fair to say that he never published this, and that, as Pope told Spence, he used himself to call it “a poor thing,” and admitted that he spoke of some of the poets only “on hearsay.” Now when Pope speaks to Addison’s credit it is not as “what the soldier said.” It is evidence, and of the strongest.