The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Poems of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Volume I
(of 2), by Jonathan Swift, Edited by William Ernst Browning

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Title: The Poems of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Volume I (of 2)

Author: Jonathan Swift

Release Date: December 14, 2004 [eBook #14353]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POEMS OF JONATHAN SWIFT, D.D.,
VOLUME I (OF 2)***

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THE POEMS OF JONATHAN SWIFT, D.D., VOLUME I

Edited by

WILLIAM ERNST BROWNING

Barrister, Inner Temple
Author of "The Life of Lord Chesterfield"

London
G. Bell and Sons, Ltd.

1910

[Illustration: Jonathan Swift
From the bust by Cunningham in St. Patrick's Cathedral]

PREFACE

The works of Jonathan Swift in prose and verse so mutually illustrate
each other, that it was deemed indispensable, as a complement to the
standard edition of the Prose Works, to issue a revised edition of the
Poems, freed from the errors which had been allowed to creep into the
text, and illustrated with fuller explanatory notes. My first care,
therefore, in preparing the Poems for publication, was to collate them
with the earliest and best editions available, and this I have done.

But, thanks to the diligence of the late John Forster, to whom every
lover of Swift must confess the very greatest obligation, I have been
able to do much more. I have been able to enrich this edition with some
pieces not hitherto brought to light--notably, the original version of
"Baucis and Philemon," in addition to the version hitherto printed; the
original version of the poem on "Vanbrugh's House"; the verses entitled
"May Fair"; and numerous variations and corrections of the texts of
nearly all the principal poems, due to Forster's collation of them with
the transcripts made by Stella, which were found by him at Narford
formerly the seat of Swift's friend, Sir Andrew Fountaine--see Forster's
"Life of Swift," of which, unfortunately, he lived to publish only the
first volume. From Swift's own copy of the "Miscellanies in Prose a