poetry.--Among the blacks is misery enough, God knows, but no poetry. Love is the peculiar oestrum of the poet. Their love
is ardent, but it kindles the sense only, not the imagination. Religion indeed has produced a Phyllis Whately; but it could
not produce a poet. The compositions published under her name are below the dignity of criticism. The heroes of the Dunciad
are to her, as Hercules to the author of that poem . . .
Phillis Wheatley, c. 1753-1784, “was brought from
Africa to
America in the Year 1761, between Seven and Eight Years of Age,” according to a
Letter sent by the Author’s master to the Publisher, printed at the beginning of this volume.
The letter continues: “Without any Assistance from School Education, and by only what she was taught in the Family, she, in
sixteen Months Time from her Arrival, attained the English Language, to which she was an utter Stranger before, to such a
Degree, as to read any, the most difficult Parts of the Sacred Writings, to the great Astonishment of all who heard her .
. .”
This book is dedicated to the Right Honourable the Countess of Huntingdon by the author, from Boston June 12, 1773.
[4440]
61
Poems. viz........................................................................
}
Coluthus’s rape of Helen.
}
Joddrel’s Persian heroine.
}
Humphrey’s Poems.
}4
to
Lapidary panegyric on Fred. II. by Birckenstock.
}
Luzac. Oratio de eruditione altrice virtutis civilis
}
1815 Catalogue, page 142, no. 62, as above.
The Library of Congress catalogues of 1815 and 1831 follow Jefferson’s entry as above. In the later editions of the catalogues
the entries are separated, and placed alphabetically under the authors, with places and dates of printing. From these entries
it is clear that two poems by Humphreys were included, and it is possible that Jefferson had all the listed works bound in
one volume, later separated by the Library of Congress. The books are similarly entered by him, without price, in the undated manuscript catalogue.
The works included are as follows:
1.
Coluthus’s rape of Helen.
COLLUTHUS.
The Rape of Helen, from the
Greek of Coluthus, with Miscellaneous Notes . . .
London: Printed for
T. and J. Egerton,
mdcclxxxvi
. [1786.]
4to. 34 leaves, text in the upper, annotations in the lower part of the pages.
Halkett and Laing V, 18.
Lowndes I, 503.
Cambridge Bibl. of Eng. Lit. III, 1022.
William Beloe, 1756-1817, English divine and miscellaneous writer, was the translator into
English of this poem. His work is considered valuable chiefly for the annotations.
For an edition of Colluthus in Greek and Latin, see no. 4309.
[4441]
2.
Joddrel’s Persian heroine.
JODRELL,
Richard Paul.
The Persian Heroine. A Tragedy. By Richard Paul Jodrell, Esq. F.R.S. & A.S.S. . . .
London: Printed by
J. Nichols for
R. Faulder, New Bond-Street. [And entered at Stationers-Hall.]
m dcc lxxxvi
. [1786.]
PR1241. L6
