Bell's Edition. The Poets of Great Britain Complete from Chaucer to Churchill

Bell's Edition. The Poets of Great Britain Complete from Chaucer to Churchill, Edinburgh, Apollo Press, by the Martins, and London, Apollo Press, by George Cawthorn, 1782-1804, 18mo (8.5 x 13.5 cm).

An important gathering of volumes from John Bell’s celebrated series, uniformly bound at the time: 34 physical volumes, numbered 1 to 35 with volume 8 lacking, that volume having contained parts 5 and 6 of Edmund Spenser’s poetical works. The present set therefore comprises 97 parts actually present out of the 99 that this particular gathering would contain if complete.

It brings together thirty-nine British poets, from Chaucer to Charles Churchill, together with the collaborative translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses edited by Sir Samuel Garth, with contributions by Dryden, Addison, Congreve, Pope, Gay, and other “eminent hands”. The volumes derive from printings issued over more than twenty years: some belong to the Edinburgh campaigns of the Apollo Press, others to later London reprints or reissues under George Cawthorn.

Uniform contemporary English full tan calf. Smooth spines decorated with repeated gilt tools, including a small kneeling figure at the head of each spine, framed by multiple gilt rolls; green morocco lettering-pieces. The paper generally clean, with occasional browning and foxing, particularly to some of the engraved plates. Several headcaps and joints show localised wear or splitting, as detailed below.

Contents:

• The poetical works of Geof. Chaucer. 1782. 14 parts in 5 volumes, volumes 1 to 5. Losses at head of volumes 1 and 4. Upper joint of volume 1 partly split, upper joint of volume 2 split.
• The poetical works of John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham. 1801. One medallion portrait and one engraved title-frontispiece. Volume 5.
• The poetical works of Edmund Spenser. 1787-1788. Six parts present of eight, bound in three volumes; volume 8 of the set, containing parts 5 and 6, is lacking. Head of part 7 slightly worn. Upper joint of part 7 partly split.
• The poetical works of Samuel Butler. 1797. 3 parts in volume 10. One medallion portrait and 3 engraved title-frontispieces.
• Ovid translated by eminent persons, edited by Sir Samuel Garth. 1801. 4 parts, volume 11. 2 engraved title-frontispieces. Loss at head. Joints narrowly split at head.
• The poetical works of John Donne. 1799-1800. 3 parts, volume 12. One medallion portrait and 3 engraved title-frontispieces. Upper joint narrowly split at head.
• The poetical works of William Congreve. 1784. 1 part, volume 13. One medallion portrait and one engraved title-frontispiece. Upper joint narrowly split at head.
• The poetical works of Abraham Cowley. 1784. 4 parts, volumes 13 and 14. One medallion portrait and 2 engraved title-frontispieces.
• The poetical works of John Cunningham. 1797. 1 part, volume 14. One medallion portrait and one engraved title-frontispiece. Losses at head. Joint split at head.
• The poetical works of James Hammond. 1803. 1 part, volume 15.
• The poetical works of Lord Lyttelton. 1788. 1 part, volume 15. One medallion portrait and one engraved title-frontispiece.
• The poetical works of Edmund Waller. 1784. 2 parts, volume 16. One medallion portrait and 2 engraved title-frontispieces. Small tear with loss in the lowest spine compartment.
• The poetical works of Thomas Parnell. 1786. 2 parts, volume 17. One medallion portrait and one engraved title-frontispiece. Headcap slightly and partly worn, upper joint narrowly split at foot.
• The poetical works of John Pomfret. 1787. 1 part, volume 17. One engraved title-frontispiece.
• The poetical works of Thomas Gray. 1800. 1 part, volume 18. Slight loss at head. Upper joint narrowly split at head.
• The poetical works of John Hughes. 1796. 2 parts, volume 18. One medallion portrait and 2 engraved title-frontispieces.
• The poetical works of Joseph Addison. 1803. 1 part, volume 19. One engraved title-frontispiece.
• The poetical works of John Armstrong. 1793. 1 part, volume 19. One medallion portrait and one engraved title-frontispiece.
• The poetical works of William Broome. 1802. 1 part, volume 19.
• The poetical works of Nicholas Rowe. 1801. 1 part, volume 20. One medallion portrait and one engraved title-frontispiece. Headcap slightly worn.
• The poetical works of James Thomson. 1800. 2 parts, volume 20. One medallion portrait and 2 engraved title-frontispieces.
• The poetical works of John Milton. 1804. 4 parts, volumes 21 and 22. One medallion portrait and 4 engraved title-frontispieces. Small loss at head.
• The poetical works of David Mallet. 1800. 1 part, volume 22. One engraved title-frontispiece.
• The poetical works of Edward Moore. 1799. 1 part, volume 22.
• The poetical works of John Dryden. 1801. 3 parts, volume 23. Small losses at head.
• The poetical works of William Somerville. 2 parts, volume 24. 2 engraved title-frontispieces. Headcap worn. First gathering partly detached.
• The poetical works of Thomas Tickell. 1 part, volume 24. One engraved title-frontispiece.
• The poetical works of Sir John Denham. 1793. 1 part, volume 25. One medallion portrait and one engraved title-frontispiece.
• The poetical works of John Dyer. 1788. 1 part, volume 25. One medallion portrait and one engraved title-frontispiece.
• The poetical works of Elijah Fenton. 1801. 1 part, volume 25. One engraved title-frontispiece.
• The poetical works of Jonathan Swift. 1787. 4 parts, volumes 26 and 27. One medallion portrait and 4 engraved title-frontispieces. Headcap of volume 26 slightly worn, upper joint of volume 27 split.
• The poetical works of Ambrose Philips. 1799. 1 part, volume 28. One medallion portrait and one engraved title-frontispiece. Headcap worn with loss. Joints narrowly split at head.
• The poetical works of John Philips. 1799. 1 part, volume 28. One medallion portrait and one engraved title-frontispiece.
• The poetical works of Wentworth Dillon. 1797. 1 part, volume 28. One engraved title-frontispiece.
• The poetical works of Alexander Pope. 1796. 4 parts, volumes 29 and 30. One medallion portrait and 4 engraved title-frontispieces. Loss at head. Upper joint narrowly split at head.
• The poetical works of William Shenstone. 1801. 2 parts, volume 30. One medallion portrait and 2 engraved title-frontispieces. Headcap worn, upper joint narrowly split at head.
• The poetical works of Matthew Prior. 1797. 3 parts, volume 31. One medallion portrait and 3 engraved title-frontispieces. Upper joint split at head.
• The poetical works of John Gay. 1797. 3 parts, volume 32. One medallion portrait and 3 engraved title-frontispieces. Dampstaining to the portrait and frontispiece.
• The poetical works of Isaac Watts. 1802. 7 parts, volumes 33 and 34. One medallion portrait and 7 engraved title-frontispieces. Final leaf of part 5 detached.
• The poetical works of Charles Churchill. 1791. 3 parts, volume 35. One frontispiece. Loss at head of volume 35. Upper joint narrowly split at head.

Launched in 1777, Bell’s Poets was one of John Bell’s most ambitious publishing ventures. Far from following the edition of the poets associated with Samuel Johnson, it preceded it: Bell set out to challenge the powerful consortium of leading London booksellers, the “Trade”, by offering a broad library of British poetry in an elegant small format, illustrated and deliberately affordable. The consortium’s response gave rise from 1779 to the competing series commonly known as Johnson’s Poets, for which Johnson composed his celebrated lives of the poets.

Bell’s campaign nevertheless encountered the obstacle of copyrights still held exclusively in certain authors. Young, Mallet, Akenside, and Gray could not therefore be incorporated into the first publication programme. Their later appearance reflects the successive adjustments of a series which, rather than remaining fixed in its original form, continued to be expanded, reprinted, and reissued for more than two decades.

The present set illustrates this history with particular clarity. The 1782 Chaucer and other volumes printed in Edinburgh by the Martins for the Apollo Press are followed by later London impressions under George Cawthorn, while some still retain the engraved material of the earlier phase. The Donne of 1799-1800 provides a revealing example: some of its plates still bear the dates 1778-1779 of Bell’s earlier edition. Beneath a single uniform binding, two material generations of the series are thus brought together.

The 1782 Chaucer demonstrates another aspect of Bell’s ambition. For the miscellaneous poems it follows Urry’s edition of 1721; for the Canterbury Tales, Thomas Tyrwhitt’s edition of 1775, based on a much more systematic collation of the manuscripts. Bell thus combined the popular ambitions of a portable format with the authority of the best texts then available.

Assembled from printings dated between 1782 and 1804 and subsequently bound uniformly, this set is therefore more than a substantial anthology of British poetry. Its very material composition preserves more than twenty years of the publishing life of Bell’s collection, from the Martins’ Edinburgh presses to Cawthorn’s London reprints, while the reuse of earlier engraved plates still carries traces of the first campaign of the enterprise launched in 1777.