Title: Observations on the poems attributed to Rowley, tending to prove That they were really written by Him And other ancient Authors. To which are added remarks on the appendix of the editor of Rowley’s poems
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8vo. pp. 35, [1] (blank), 35, [1] (blank). Signatures: A-I⁴. Marbled boards. Stamp of Mercantile Library, Philadelphia. Manuscript note on title page "Followed by other pamphlets."</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:11.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:11.5pt;">Sole edition. In 1782, spurred by Milles’s imposing fourth edition of the “Rowley” poems forged by Thomas Chatterton (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, or the opportunity for further mischief. Rayner Hickford obstinately espoused the Rowleian cause, concluding that Chatterton was unlikely to have had the familiarity with historical detail necessary to write the poems. The second part, written by John Fell, critiques the glossary appended to the edited poems, and, despite finding numerous faults with the glossarist's scholarship, affirms the antiquity of the Rowley poems. See also ESTC, T41837; M.A. Warren, A descriptive bibliography of Thomas Chatterton. New York, 1977, p. 77.</span><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://catalyst.library.jhu.edu/permalink/01JHU_INST/1lu78g9/alma991039125109707861" rel="ugc nofollow">Click here to view the Johns Hopkins University catalog record.</a></span></span></p>