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Did Thomson Write the Poem to the Memory of Mr. Congreve?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

George G. Williams*
Affiliation:
The Rice Institute

Extract

In 1843 Peter Cunningham included in a collection of verse printed for the Percy Society an anonymous poem in blank verse, To the Memory of Mr. Congreve, whose authorship Cunningham, at the suggestion of H. J. Cary, ascribed to James Thomson. This ascription was made on the following grounds: that the style of the poem was Thomson's; that the poem was originally printed in 1729 by J. Millan, who was the publisher of Thomson's Winter, Summer, To the Memory of Sir Isaac Newton, and Brittania; and that “these poems by Thomson are advertised among Millan's books, and at the head of his list at the end of this very publication.”

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 45 , Issue 4 , December 1930 , pp. 1010 - 1013
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1930

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References

1 Early English Poetry, Percy Soc., Vol. IX.

2 Thomson, Oxf. Ed., 1908, p. 457.

3 “Who was ‘Cenus’ in the Poem To the Memory of Mr. Congreve?” P.M.L.A. XLIV, 495 ff.

4 The Poetical Works of James Thomson, ed. D. C. Tovey, 1897, II, 195.

5 The Poetical Works of James Thomson, 1850, p. 629.