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Who Was “Cenus” in the Poem To the Memory of Mr. Congreve?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

George G. Williams
George G. Williams*
Affiliation:
The Rice Institute
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Extract

The poem To the Memory of Mr. Congreve, first printed in 1729, is usually attributed to James Thomson, although his authorship of it has been questioned. This poem was not reprinted until 1843, since which date some editors have included it in their collections of Thomson's works, and some have excluded it. I hope soon to present some hitherto unrecorded evidence that this poem was written by Thomson, and accordingly in the present paper I proceed on the assumption that he was its author. At the same time, as I shall try to show, the conclusion which this paper seeks to establish will itself supply important evidence in support of Thomson's authorship.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 44 , Issue 2 , June 1929 , pp. 495 - 500
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1929

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References

Note 1 in page 495 Early English Poetry (Percy Soc. Pubs.), IX.

Note 2 in page 495 Poetical Works of James Thomson, 1850, p. 632.

Note 3 in page 496 British Poets, Riverside Edition, Boston, 1863. Thomson, p. 68.

Note 4 in page 496 Early English Poetry (Percy Soc. Pubs.), IX, footnote on line 80 of the poem.

Note 5 in page 496 Thomson, Oxford Edition, 1908; p. 457.

Note 6 in page 496 “Life of Thomson,” in J. Nichols' Poetical Works of James Thomson, 1850, p. xxxiii.

Note 7 in page 497 James Thomson, by G. C. Macaulay, English Men of Letters Series, 1908; p. 80.

Note 8 in page 497 Chalmers, General Biographical Dictionary, Lond., 1815, XXII, 204.

Note 9 in page 497 Letters to David Mallet, with an introductory notice by Peter Cunningham (Philobiblion Society Miscellany, 1857-58), IV, 27.

Note 10 in page 497 Ibid., p. 28.

Note 11 in page 498 Baker, Biographica Dramatica, Lond., 1812, II, 519-20.

Note 12 in page 498 Quoted in Dict. of Nat. Biog. sub Joseph Mitchell.

Note 13 in page 499 Op. cit., p. 520.

Note 14 in page 499 Dramatic Works of Aaron Hill, Esq., printed for T. Lownds, Lond. 1760, i-ii.