The lives of the most famous English poets, or, The honour of Parnassus in a brief essay of the works and writings of above two hundred of them, from the time of K. William the Conqueror to the reign of His present Majesty, King James II / written by William Winstanley, author of The English worthies ...

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Title
The lives of the most famous English poets, or, The honour of Parnassus in a brief essay of the works and writings of above two hundred of them, from the time of K. William the Conqueror to the reign of His present Majesty, King James II / written by William Winstanley, author of The English worthies ...
Author
Winstanley, William, 1628?-1698.
Publication
London :: Printed by H. Clark for Samuel Manship ...,
1687.
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Subject terms
Poets, English.
Link to this Item
http://name.umdl.umich.edu/A66698.0001.001
Cite this Item
"The lives of the most famous English poets, or, The honour of Parnassus in a brief essay of the works and writings of above two hundred of them, from the time of K. William the Conqueror to the reign of His present Majesty, King James II / written by William Winstanley, author of The English worthies ..." In the digital collection Early English Books Online. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/A66698.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 16, 2024.

Pages

Mr. ABRAHAM COWLEY.

THis Gentleman was one, who may well be be stil'd the glory of our Nation, both of the present and past ages, whose early Muse began to dawn at the Thirteenth year of his age, being then a Scholar at Westminiser-School, which pro∣duc'd two little Poems, the one called Antonius and Melida, the other Pyramus and Thisbe; dis∣covering in them a maturity of Sence, far above the years that writ them; shewing by these his early Fruits, what in time his stock of worth would

Page 183

come to. And indeed Fame was not deceived in him of its Expectation, he having built a lasting Monument of his worth to posterity, in that com∣pleat Volume of his Works, divided into four parts: His Mistress, being the amorous Prolusions of his youthful Muse; his Miscelanies, or Poems of va∣rious arguments; his most admired Heroick Poem Davideis, the first Books whereof he compos'd while but a young Student at Trinity-Colledge in Cambridge; and lastly, that is, in order of time though not of place, his Pindaric Odes, so call'd from the Measure, in which he translated the first Ithmian and Nemean Odes, where as the form of those Odes in the Original is very different, yet so well were they approved by succeeding Authors, that our primest Wits have hitherto driven a nota∣ble Trade in Pindaric Odes. But besides these his English Poems, there is extant of his writing a Latine Volume by it self, containing a Poem of Herbs and Plants: Also he Translated two Books of his Davideis into Latine Verse, which is in the large Volume amongst the rest of his Works.

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