siderable number of Pieces never before published . . .
Monmouth [N.J.]: Printed at the Press of the Author, at Mount-Pleasant, near Middletown-Point;
m dcc,xcv
: and, of American Independence
xix
. [1795.]
PS755 .A1 1795
8vo. 230 leaves including the half-title, collates in eights in a 24 letter alphabet, the Pyramid in stars of the fifteen
American States on the title-page.
Sabin 25898.
Evans 28712.
Wegelin 173.
Paltsits, page 68.
Philip Freneau [correctly Philip Morin Freneau], 1752-1832, poet, journalist and mariner. This is the
second collected edition of his poems; the first was printed in Philadelphia in 1786. For more on Freneau, see no. 543 and the next following entry.
[4437]
58
d
o. [i.e. Freneau’s poems]
2. v.
12
mo.
1815 Catalogue, page 141, no. 36, Freneau’s Poems, 2 v 12mo.
FRENEAU,
Philip.
Poems, written and published during the American Revolutionary War, and now republished from the original Manuscripts; interspersed
with Translations from the Ancients, and other pieces not heretofore in print. By Philip Freneau . . . The
Third Edition, in
Two Volumes. Vol. I [-II].
Philadelphia: from the Press of
Lydia R. Bailey,
1809.
PS755 .A2 1809
2 vol. 12mo; 148 and 164 leaves, engraved frontispiece by Joh. Eckstein in each volume (Prophecy of King Tammany and Paul Jones’s Victory), list of subscribers on 6 pages at the end.
Sabin 25899.
Wegelin 969 (frontispiece to Vol. II described as Perry’s Victory).
Paltsits, page 78.
Jefferson is mentioned in the last poem in Volume I, the Address to the Republicans of America. The last five lines read:
|
When Washington and Gates are laid in dust--
|
|
When Jefferson, with Greene, in long repose
|
|
Shall sleep, unconscious of your bliss or woes,
|
|
Seeming to say, Be wise, be free, my sons,
|
|
Nor let one tyrant trample on our bones.
|
Freneau first mentioned to Jefferson the forthcoming publication of this edition in a letter dated from Philadelphia, April
8, 1809: “I do myself the pleasure to enclose to you a copy of Proposals for the publication of a couple of volumes of Poems shortly
to be put to press in this city. Perhaps some of your particular friends in Virginia may be induced from a view of the proposals
in your hands to subscribe their names. If so, please to have them forwarded to this place by Post, addressed to the Publisher
at N
o. 10. North Alley, Philadelphia. Accept my congratulations on your retirement from public cares, and that you may long enjoy
every happiness a private situation can afford.”
Jefferson replied from Monticello on May 22: “
I subscribe with pleasure to the publication of your volumes of poems. I anticipate the same pleasure from them which the
perusal of those heretofore published has given me. I have not been able to circulate the paper because I have not been from
home above once or twice since my return, and because in a country situation like mine, little can be done in that way. the
inhabitants of the country are mostly industrious farmers employed in active life & reading little. they rarely buy a book
of whose merit they can not judge by having it in their hand, & are less disposed to engage for those yet unknown to them.
I am becoming like them myself in a preference of the healthy & chearful community without doors, to the being immured within
four brick walls. but under the shade of a tree one of your volumes will be a pleasant pocket companion. wishing you all possible
success & happiness, I salute you with constant esteem & respect.
”
On May 27 Freneau wrote to Jefferson: “Yesterday your letter, dated May 22
d. came to hand.--Perhaps you a little misunderstood me, when I wrote to you from this place in April last, ”
