Wakefield Benjamin Editor (1 results)

12mo, pp. xii, 300; title page with ink blotches at head, and a hole where an attempt is made to erase a name;; in 19th-century half calf and marbled boards. First edition. Nothing has been discovered of the compiler of this anthology; Benjamin Wakefield is not recorded as the author of any other book. The preface, which stresses the lack of any such collection specifically aimed at the musical world, is a bit pompous: The present collection was drawn out of a very large Study of Books, or rather Library, which belonging to myself, I considered it as a spacious Eden, whence I might transplant, into a little Parterre of my own, whatsoever Flowers I thought fit. My Toil, in this Progress, was often far from being inconsiderable; I carefully turning over a great many hundred Volumes, thence to make such Extracts as appeared to me most proper. On this Occasion, I selected a Multitude of Pieces from our most celebrated Poets, from Shakespear down to Pope. The Words of our famous modern Poets were sacred to me; for which Reason I did not presume to alter a single Letter in them, except now and then a proper Name; but I was far less scrupulous, with regard to the Compositions of such Poets of Eminence, part of whose Diction is grown obsolete; I frequently modernizing many of their Expressions, and harmonizing their Verse; a Freedom I also took with the Lines of Poets of less Reputation, I often making considerable Alterations in them. (pp. vi-vii) Case 466. This is a very scarce title, with ESTC listing only nine locations. Provenance. Early signature of Henry Robertson on title, partly erased.