AN ENGLISH GARNER CRITICAL ESSAYS AND LITERARY FRAGMENTS WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY J. CHURTON COLLINS 1903 PUBLISHERS' NOTE The texts contained in the present volume are reprinted with very slight alterations from the _English Garner_ issued in eight volumes (1877-1890, London, 8vo.) by Professor Arber, whose name is sufficient guarantee for the accurate collation of the texts with the rare originals, the old spelling being in most cases carefully modernised. The contents of the original _Garner_ have been rearranged and now for the first time classified, under the general editorial supervision of Mr. Thomas Seccombe. Certain lacunae have been filled by the interpolation of fresh matter. The Introductions are wholly new and have been written specially for this issue. The references to volumes of the _Garner_ (other than the present volume) are for the most part to the editio princeps, 8 vols. 1877-90. CONTENTS I. Extract from Thomas Wilson's _Art of Rhetoric_, 1554 II. Sir Philip Sidney's _Letter to his brother Robert_, 1580 III. Extract from Francis Meres's _Palladis Tamia_, 1598 IV. Dryden's _Dedicatory Epistle to the Rival Ladies_, 1664 V. Sir Robert Howard's _Preface to four new Plays_, 1665 VI. Dryden's _Essay of Dramatic Poesy_, 1668 VII. Extract from Thomas Ellwood's _History of Himself_, describing his relations with Milton, 1713 VIII. Bishop Copleston's Advice to a Young Reviewer, 1807 IX. The Bickerstaff and Partridge Tracts, 1708 X. Gay's _Present State of Wit_, 1711 XI. Tickell's Life of Addison, 1721 XII. Steele's Dedicatory Epistle to Congreve, 1722 XIII. Extract from Chamberlayne's Angliae Notitia, 1669 XIV. Eachard's Grounds and Occasions of the Contempt of the Clergy and of Religion, 1670 XV. Bickerstaff's Miseries of the Domestic Chaplain, 1710 XVI. Franklin's Poor Richard Improved, 1757 INTRODUCTION