An enquiry into the authenticity of the poems attributed to Thomas Rowley

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8vo. f. [1] (blank), pp. [2], 125 (p. 122 misnumbered 121), [1], f. [1] (blank). Signatures: π1 A-P⁴ Q⁴ (-Q4). Modern boards. Signature of John Buckland on flyleaf. In 1782, spurred by Milles’s imposing fourth edition (see Bib# 4103366/Fr# 418 in this collection), and Jacob Bryant’s Observations upon the Poems of Thomas Rowley, in which the Authenticity of those Poems is Ascertained (1781, see Bib# 712041/Fr# 434), the scholarly and pseudo-scholarly world saw either the need for a negative consensus on the “Rowley” poems forged by Thomas Chatterton, or the opportunity for further mischief. Tyrwhitt, who had already capitulated to his own better judgement in an ‘Appendix’ to the 1778 third edition (‘the poems attributed to Rowley [...] were written, not by any ancient author, but entirely by Thomas Chatterton,’ see Bib# 4103365/Fr# 417 in this collection), confirmed his stance in his ‘A vindication of the appendix to the poems’ (see Bib# 4103383/Fr# 435) while Thomas Warton added corroborative details in the present work. See also ESTC, T32726; R. Alston, A bibliography of the English language from the invention of printing to the year 1800. Leeds, 1973, vol. III, p. 58. Click here to view the Johns Hopkins University catalog record.