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Fragment K. 1627.
Smith'S COMMENDATORY VERSES
for John Taylor
[Source: John Taylor, An Armado, or Navye (London, 1627, corrected version
of first edition).]
John Taylor, nicknamed "The Water Poet," was a well-known figure in
London. John Smith had just published his Accidence and Sea Grammar. That
Smith should have wanted to compliment Taylor's latest work is not surprising,
especially since he was eulogizing his friend Robert Norton's book,
then in press. The verses for Taylor appeared first by an accident in publishing,
and so are printed first here.
Taylor's work was entered for publication on January 25, 1627/1628,
less than a month after Norton's The Gunner (see Fragment L), but was published
before it. In which order Smith wrote the two poems is not known.
There are minor improvements in the typesetting of the corrected
version, including Smith's poem, but the second edition (1635) seems less
satisfactory, leading the editor to follow the former while applying later conventions
regarding u/v and i/j.
John Taylor and his Armado.
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