ble notice of the volume
appeared in the _Critical Rev._, IV, p. 167.

In reprinting this review, the long quotations from both odes have been
omitted. This precedent is followed in all cases where the quotations
are of inordinate length, or are offered merely as "specimens" without
specific criticism. No useful end would be served in reprinting numerous
pages of classic extracts that are readily accessible to every student.
All omissions are, of course, properly indicated.

1. _Quinault_. Philippe Quinault (1635-1688), a popular French dramatist
and librettist.

2. _Mark'd for her own_. An allusion to the line in the Epitaph appended
to the _Elegy_: "And Melancholy marked him for her own."

OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Goldsmith's _Traveller_ (1764) was begun as early as 1755--before he had
expressed what Professor Dowden calls his "qualified enthusiasm" and
"official admiration" for Gray's _Odes_. In criticizing Gray, he quoted
Isocrates' advice--_Study the people_--and properly bore that precept in
mind while he was shaping his own verses. The _Odes_ and the _Traveller_
are respectively characteristic utterances of their authors--of the
academic recluse, and of the warm-hearted lover of humanity.

The review, quoted from the _Critical Rev._, XVIII (458-462) (December,
1764), is from the pen of Dr. Samuel Johnson. Apart from its
distinguished authorship and the strong words of commendation in the
final sentence, it possesses slight interest as literary criticism. It
is, in fact, little more than a brief summary of the poem, enriched by a
few well-chosen illustrative extracts. The fact that Johnson contributed
nine or ten lines to the poem (see Boswell, ed. Hill, I, p. 441, n. 1,
and II, p. 6) may account partly for the character of the review.
Johnson's quotations from the poem are not continuous and show several
variations from authoritative texts.

WILLIAM COWPER

Cowper stands almost alone among English poets as an instance of late
manifestation of poetic power. He was over fifty years of age when he
offered his first volume of _Poems_ (1782) to the public. This
collection, which included _Table-Talk_ and other didactic poems,
appeared at the beginning of the most prosaic age in the history of
modern English literature; yet the critics did not find it sufficiently
striking in quality to differentiate it from the level of contemporary
verse, or to forecast the success of _The Task_ and _John Gilpin's Ride_
three