University of Virginia Library

III
"A Connected System of Biography"

Bell conceived of his series as a repository of English classics. Suitable to the ceremony implicit in such an undertaking, the poets were to be presented in full dress, one element of which was the prefatory life, or "biographical and critical account of each author."[35] Instead of the various and sometimes prolix formulae that had dotted eighteenth-century title-pages, Bell settled for a simple, uniform phrase: "The Life of . . ." As no other poetic reprint series had included this feature, much less cultivated this degree of formality,[36] the credit for innovation belongs to Bell.

It was natural, Bell asserted, for readers to "wish to know something of the man who entertains and edifies [them]." This curiosity he thought had been neglected, "the lives of but few of our poets being transmitted to the public along with their writings." To remedy this defect his prefaces were meant to "convey to posterity the most authentic anecdotes relative to those eminent men, whose writings are the object of the present undertaking; and by thus forming a connected system of biography, so far as relates to this particular class of writers, bring the reader acquainted at once with the poet and the man."[37] Not only was each life to illuminate the connection between writer and human being; the lives taken as a whole were to form a literary history, a "connected system" to advance our understanding of poets and poetry.

Unlike the proprietors of The Works of the English Poets, Bell had too little capital to commission a famous writer to undertake a series of fifty lives; and it made no sense to get one who was not famous. Besides, as the proprietors found out, original composition brings a greater risk of delay. It was better, in Bell's mind, to stress "authentic materials"—that is, to reprint earlier lives in full, or to rely on hackwork to weave and patch together divers materials.

Table 2 categorizes the sources for Bell's lives. The taxonomy of Pat Rogers proves helpful: "single" lives indicate those published independently or prefixed to the author's works; "general" lives denote entries in universal or national dictionaries of biography; and "authorial" lives come from specialized

collections concerned exclusively with writers.[38] In Table 2 and the collations below, the following abbreviations refer to three general and three authorial sources:

• AO Anthony à Wood, Athenœ Oxonienses, 2nd ed., 2 vols. (London, 1721).
• BB Biographia Britannica, 6 vols. (London, 1747-66): vol. 1 (1747), vol. 2 (1748), vol. 3 (1750), vol. 4 (1757), vol. 5 (1760), vol. 6, part 1 (1763), vol. 6, part 2 (1766).
• BD A New and General Biographical Dictionary, 12 vols. (London, 1761-67).
• TC Theophilus Cibber, The Lives of the Poets, 5 vols. (London, 1753). "TC" honors the nominal author, who wrote less of the work than Robert Shiels.[39]
• CP David Erskine Baker, A Companion to the Play-House, 2 vols. (London, 1764).
• SJ Samuel Johnson, Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, to the Works of the English Poets, 10 vols. (London, 1779-81).[40]

Table 2 reveals a strong emphasis on single lives and multiple sources at the outset of the series: the first poets being more famous, single lives of them were more common; and some of these lives having a reputation of their own, Bell had promotional reasons for using them. Equally noteworthy in the later phase, once the final volumes of the Prefaces had been published, is the persistent recourse to Johnson.

Bell's connected system of biography is detailed below, in alphabetical order by poet. The entries will take the following form:

• Source(s). Where the compiler has drawn on more than one text, the first listed is the primary source, with the others ranked in descending order of importance. Unless otherwise noted, the sources are London imprints. Note: if a text had seen more than on edition, it is virtually impossible to know which one the compiler used. For that reason it makes no sense to insist upon either first editions or the last one prior to Bell, nor to clutter the record with bibliographical details easily obtained elsewhere. I will list only the edition I used to collate Bell's text.
• Collation. This record details the sources used to construct Bell's text page-by-page.

  ---

  213

  
  
  
  

  ---

  214

  
  
  
  The term Bell indicates the opening page(s) of the life, expressed in Arabic or Roman numerals according to Bell's usage. (Parentheses around numerals indicate footnotes.) What follows the colon is a list of sources for those pages, with a slash mark (/) to designate each interruption. The initial Bell is not repeated; progress through the text, consequently, is marked by page numbers which stand alone. By contrast, the page numbers of the sources are always accompanied by a two-letter abbreviation: usually the author's initials, but where that is not possible, a two-letter abstract of the title (and where this could be confusing, the list of sources provides the abbreviation assigned it). Numerals after SJ refer to paragraphs; those after the other abbreviations are page numbers. A hyphen between numerals (231-233) suggests continuous copying; a comma (3, 4) represents a more selective gathering. Where BB is concerned, the main text is cited with numerals, the footnotes with capital letters in brackets, and marginal notes in parentheses.[41] If the numerals are missing (as in "TC 35 / SJ 11 / TC / SJ"), the compiler has returned to the last page or paragraph cited from that text. When multiple pages are listed for Bell (as in "vi-vii"), the first source cited supplies the text which bridges the page.
• Comments. Next I note how the sources were used (reprinted, paraphrased, abridged, etc.), along with any quirks in the compilation. Parenthetical citations refer to the page numbers in Bell.
• Acknowledgement. Where a source text is cited by Bell, however cryptically, I make a note of it. Acknowledgements within a source text—that is, to its own sources, prior to Bell's compilation—are not recorded.
• ADDISON. TC 3:305-320. Bell [v]-xxiii. Reprint, with two minor adjustments. TC, published two years before Johnson's Dictionary, regrets that "our language yet wants the assistance of so great a master, in fixing its standard, settling its purity, and illustrating its copiousness, or elegance"; the anachronism failed to register with the compiler (xix; TC 316). In the life of Roscommon, by contrast, the compiler brought up to date TC's anticipation of "an English Dictionary, long expected, by Mr. Johnson" (x; 2:348).
• AKENSIDE. BB 1:103-107 (2nd ed., 1778); and SJ. Bell [v]: BB 103 / SJ 2-3 / vi-vii: BB 104 / SJ 10 / BB [C], 104 /SJ 11 / vii-viii: BB 104-105 / SJ 13 / viii-ix: BB 105, [D], 105, [E] / SJ 14, 4 / ix-xiv: BB [F] / SJ 14, 20 / xiv-xv: BB [F] / SJ 23, 24 / xv-xvi: BB [G]. Quotation and paraphrase. BB serves as the framework; SJ donates some biographical details; critical assessments from SJ are liberally interpolated, sometimes in quotation marks. Acknowledgement: BB cited twice (x, xiv); SJ credited twice (xiv, xv).
• ARMSTRONG. Untitled preface to Miscellanies; by John Armstrong, M.D., 2 vols. (1770), 1:[iii]-[v]. Bell [v]-vi. Reprint. Called an "Advertisement," not "The Life of John Armstrong."

---

215




• BROOME. SJ (Broome, Pope, and Fenton); [OH] The Odyssey of Homer, 5 vols. (1725-26); Alexander Pope, The Works of Alexander Pope Esq., ed. William Warburton, 9 vols. (1751); and William Broome, "The Preface: Being an Essay on Criticism," Poems on Several Occasions (1727), pp. [1]-17. Bell [v]: SJ B.1, 2, 3, 4 / SJ P.86 / [v]-vi: SJ B.5 / SJ F.10 / SJ B.6 / SJ P.130 / (vi): SJ P.129, 134 / vi-vii: SJ B.6 / OH 5:260-261 / SJ B.6, 7 / vii-viii: AP 5:219 / SJ B.8 / SJ P.254 / SJ B.9 / (viii): WB 3 / ix: SJ B.11 / WB 16-17 / ix-x: SJ B.12-14, 15. Paraphrase, slightly abridged, with interweaving from SJ's lives of Fenton and Pope, a note from AP, and WB's preface to his poems and postscript to his notes for OH.
• BUCKINGHAM. BB 6:3653-3666. Bell [v]-xxviii. Reprint of body of BB, with footnotes [A], [F], [L], [O], [Q], [T], [X], [Z], [CC], [EE], [GG], [HH], [II] and [LL] in full, and abbreviated versions of [D], [R], [S], [BB] and [KK]. Since BB presents a continuous block of text, Bell introduces paragraph breaks. (True for lives of Chaucer and King as well.)
• BUTLER. [AL] "The Author's Life" and [ZG] "Preface," Hudibras, 2 vols., ed. Zachary Grey (Cambridge, 1744), 1:[iv]-xiv, [i]-xxxvi; and Genuine Remains, 2 vols., ed. Robert Thyer (1759). Bell [7]-10: AL [iv]-viii / (10): ZG xxxiv / 11-14: AL viii-xiii / (14): RT 1:[i] / 15: AL xii-xiv / (15): RT 1:(145) / 16: ZG xxxiv. Reprint of AL, taken from an earlier edition of Hudibras,[42] along with Grey's footnotes, the epitaph from ZG, and two additional footnotes drawn from RT. Bell performs a tiny surgery on AL, "[T]here being several particular persons reflected on, which are not commonly known," the writer had cautioned, "and some old stories and uncouth Words which want explication, we have thought fit to do right to their memories; and . . . to explain their characters in some additional Annotations" (AL ix-x). The phrase I highlight was strategically omitted (Bell 12); it was expected that little known personages should require a footnote, but not acceptable to characterize parts of the text as old and uncouth.
• CHAUCER. BB 2:1293-1308; and Thomas Tyrwhitt, "An Abstract of the Historical Passages of the Life of Chaucer," The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer, 5 vols. (1775-78), 1:xxiv-xxxvi. Bell [vii]-lxv: BB 1293-1308 / [lxvi]-lxxvi: TT 1:xxiv-xxxvi. Reprint of BB, with some interpolation of marginal notes; all the footnotes are used except [L] and [N] (on The Testament of Love and The Conclusions of the Astrolabie); from [B] and [P] the poetic stanzas are dropped. To "The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer" proper is appended TT. Acknowledgement: TT is cited by title "from Tyrwhitt's edit. 1775" ([lxvi]).
• CHURCHILL. "Memoirs of the Rev. Mr. Charles Churchill," The Annual Register (1764), pp. 58-62; and Charles Johnstone, Chrysal: or, The Adventures of a Guinea, 3rd ed., 4 vols. (London, 1768), 4:90-96. Bell [v]-xiii: AR 58-62 / xiii-xxii: CJ 90-96. Reprint of AR, to which is appended the excerpt from CJ, introduced as "an anecdote frequently told of him" but with the following caveat: "leaving the credit due to the story, which is much to the honour of humanity, with the reader" (xiii). The sentimental anecdote recounts an act of generosity, the guinea's "master" lifting a family out of financial misery. Acknowledgement: "Chrysal, vol. I. chap. 21" (xiii), by which is meant chapter 21 of the first book in vol. IV.
• COLLINS. John Langhorne, "Memoirs of the Author," The Poetical Works of Mr. William Collins (1771), pp. i-xv; and SJ. Bell [v]-vi: JL i-v / (vi): SJ 1 / vii-viii: JL v-viii / SJ 4 / viii-ix: JL viii-xi / (ix): SJ 4, 5 / x: JL xi-xiii / (x): SJ 5 / xi-xiii: JL xiii-xv. Reprint of JL. Unable to resolve a discrepancy between JL and SJ over the

  ---

  216

  
  
  
  year WC left Oxford for London, Bell adds "or 1744" (SJ's guess) to JL's "1743" (viii). The only other disruptions of JL's text are the typographical symbols for four brief footnotes derived from SJ. These notes, couched in SJ's words, concern the occupation of WC's father, WC's proposals for the History of the Revival of Learning, the advance he obtained to translate the Poetics, and the amount he inherited from his uncle. Bell uses the 1771 text of JL, which eliminates (from the first edition of 1765) an ad hominem attack on Andrew Millar for being "a favourer of genius, when once it has made its way to fame" (xi).
• CONGREVE. TC 4:83-98; and BB 3:1439-1449. Bell [v]-xix: TC 83-95 / xix: BB [P] / xix-xx: TC 95, 98. Quotation. Inserted from BB is the inscription on Congreve's monument. What Bell omits from TC (95-97) is the poem "Of Improving the Present Time," which TC prints from BB 1447. Also deleted from TC are two negative opinions: after the mention that WC's pastoral elegy on the death of Queen Mary had been "extolled in the most lavish terms of admiration," TC adds "but which seems not to merit the incense it obtained" (xi; TC 88); and in summary of WC's piecemeal translations of the "Art of Love," The Iliad, and some epigrams, TC notes "in all which he was not unsuccessful, thought at the same time he has been exceeded by his cotemporaries [sic] in the same attempts" (xv; TC 91).
• COWLEY. Thomas Sprat, "An Account of the Life and Writings of Mr. Abraham Cowley. Written to Mr. M. Clifford," The Works of Mr. Abraham Cowley (1668), sigs. A1r-A2v, a1r-e2v. Bell [v]-xl. Reprint. Although Bell changes the title to "The Life of Abraham Cowley" (for consistency), he retains "Written to Mr. Clifford." Acknowledgement: "T. Sprat" (xl).
• CUNNINGHAM. Bell [v]-xi. This life is largely independent of any prior account I can locate. The "Memoirs of the Late Mr. John Cunningham," London Magazine 42 (1773): 495-497, was surmised by Henry Morse Stephens to have been the sole authority for the lives attached to the editions of Bell, "Johnson" (1790), Cook (1795) and Chalmers (1810).[43] This is untrue, so far as it concerns Bell, which contains much information not available in the "Memoirs."
• DENHAM (1779). SJ; and BB 3:1646-1648. Bell [v]: SJ 1-2 / BB 1646 / SJ / BB / SJ 3 / BB / SJ 4 / BB / SJ / vi: BB / SJ 5-6 / BB / SJ / BB / SJ 8 / BB / SJ 7, 9 / BB [A] / SJ / vii: SJ 10 / BB 1646, (d), 1646 / SJ / BB / SJ / (vii-viii): BB [B] / vii-viii: SJ 11-12 / BB 1646 / viii-ix: SJ 13, 14 / BB 1647 / SJ 14-15 / BB 1647, [E] / (ix): BB [D] / ix-x: SJ 15 / BB 1647 / SJ 16 / BB / SJ 17 / BB / SJ 17, 18, 19 / x-xi: BB / SJ / BB / SJ 20, 19 / BB 1648 / xi-xii: SJ 21-24, 26, 25 / xiii-xviii: SJ 27-42. Quotation of SJ with extensive interpolation from BB. See discussion of this piracy in Part I.
• DENHAM (1780). SJ; BB 3:1646-1648; and AO 2:422-424. Bell [v]: BB 1646 / AO 422 / BB / AO / [v]-vi: BB / SJ5 / BB / AO / SJ 6 / BB / SJ 8 / AO 423 / SJ / vi-vii: SJ 7 / BB [G], 1646, [A], 1646, (d), 1646 / SJ 10 / BB / SJ / BB 1646, [B] / vii-viii: BB / SJ 11, 12 / viii-ix: BB 1646, [C], 1646-1647, [D] / SJ 14 / BB 1747, [E] / ix-x: SJ 15 / BB 1647 / SJ 17 / BB 1647, [G] / x-xi: SJ 17-20 / BB 1648 / AO 424 / BB / xi-xii: SJ 21, 36-38, 36 / xiii-xiv: SJ 39-42 / xiv-xv: SJ 21-24, 26, 27, 29, 28 / xvi-xviii: SJ 30, 32-34, 42. Paraphrase of Denham (1779), with constant checking of (and new borrowings from) BB and SJ, including the effort to consult AO directly. The critical section is restructured. SJ proceeds first by genre ("descriptive, ludicrous, didactic, and sublime," though not in that order), turns to consider poetic style, and concludes by summing up the "petty faults" of JD's "first productions." Bell now begins with the versification, moves on through the faults, and finishes with the survey of genres. See discussion in Part I.

---

217




• DONNE. Izaak Walton, "The Life of Dr. John Donne," The Lives of Dr. John Donne, Sir Henry Wotton, Mr. Richard Hooker, Mr. George Herbert (1670), pp. [9]-88. Bell [v]-lxvi: IW 12-81. Reprint, minus "The Introduction" and three poetic tributes. IW's life, first printed in 1640, was expanded three times—in 1658, 1670 and 1675. The penultimate text, by accident or design, is copied by Bell. Had the final edition been used, Bell might have been prompted to omit one lengthy addition on the same grounds that mention of Dryden's astrology was suppressed (see next collation): the story of JD's vision of his wife, about which even IW feels it necessary to apologize. Acknowledgement: "J.W." (lxvi).
• DRYDEN. TC 3:64-94; and BB 3:1749-1761. Bell [5]: TC 64 / BB 1749 / [5]-21: TC 64-74, 76-80, 82-83 / 21: BB 3:1760-1761 / 21-26: TC 83-93. Quotation. Most of TC has been reprinted, with short interpolations from BB for details of JD's family, and with some corrections, a slight re-ordering, and significant omissions. Bell omits six passages in TC that tarnish JD's reputation slightly: the mention of a distich, admitted to be "downright nonsense," which "expos'd our poet to the ridicule of the wits" (65); Burnet's character of JD, confessed to be deficient in "true resemblance" (74-76); the comment that "Mac Flecknoe" prompted Pope's Dunciad, "and it must be owned the latter has been more happy in the execution of his design" (76); a footnote implying that JD's translation of Virgil had been surpassed by Dodsley's (77); Dr. Trap's low estimate of JD's Virgil, with mention of Trap's own dullness (78); and a story revealing JD to be "fond of Judicial Astrology," and cautious lest anyone find out, "either thro' fear of being reckoned superstitious, or thinking it a science beneath his study" (80-82). Inexplicably, Bell also omits the praise of "Ode on St. Cecilia's Day" as being "justly esteemed one of the most elevated in any language" (79).
• DYER. "Advertisement," Poems. By John Dyer, L.L.B. (1761), pp. [iii]-v. Bell [v]-vi. Reprint. Called "The Life of John Dyer" for conformity's sake, but nothing more than an "advertisement" with a few dates and a general character.
• FENTON. TC 4:164-177; and BB 6.ii:50-52. Bell [v]-xvi: TC 164-173 / BB [D]. Reprint of TC, excluding the final bibliography and a "specimen" of EF's poetry, obviously superfluous for Bell. Pope's epitaph for EF is appended, taken from the life of EF included in the supplement to BB.
• GARTH. TC 3:263-272. Bell [v]-xiv. Reprint, omitting one poetic specimen, an unflattering phrase, and a reference to Tonson's edition of SG's works.
• GAY. "An Account of the Life and Writings of the Author," The Works of Mr. John Gay, 4 vols. (Dublin, 1770), 1:i-xvi; and BB 4:2182-2188. Bell [5]-9: WG i-v / (9): BB [I] / 9-10: WG v / (10): BB [L] / 10-11: WG vi / (11): BB [O] / 11-12: WG vi-vii, viii / (12): BB [Q], [R] / 12-18: WG x-xiii, xv-xvi, xv, xiv. Quotation of WG, slightly rearranged, with the omission of 70vv. concerning JG's "dissatisfaction with the court" (WG viii-ix). To the eight (out of nine) footnotes copied from WG, five more are added in Bell, all derived from BB. Only one offers new data and is honestly acknowledged: "Biogr. Brit." ([L]). The others are gratuitous: three are created by omitting a sentence or clause arbitrarily from WG and moving the same information into a footnote with phrasing from BB ([I], [O], and [R]); the fourth is a footnote out of the blue [Q]. Acknowledgements at second hand from BB's marginal citations are made for these tidbits, their transparent purpose being to enhance the diversity of Bell's sources and to magnify the compiler's seeming industry: "Cibber's Lives of the Poets" ([I]), "Intelligencer, No. III" ([O], [Q]), and "Cibber, the father, in his Apology, p. 144" ([R]). The attempt is farcical, however: two of the attributions (for [I] and [Q] are mistaken; the compiler has tracked the wrong numbers into the margin.
• GRAY. William Mason, "Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Mr. Gray," The Poems of Mr. Gray (York, 1775), pp. [1]-416. Bell [v]: WM 2, 3 / ([v]): WM (119) / [v]-vi:

  ---

  218

  
  
  
  WM 3, 12, 13, 14, 16, 15, 4-5, 39, 40, (41) / vii: WM 41, 40, 97, 56, 97-98, 99-102, 114, 116, (116), 116, 41 / viii: WM 117-118, (119), 119 / viii-ix: WM 120, 121, 156, 123, 124 / (ix-x): WM (156), 168-169 / ix-x: WM 157 / x-xi: WM [Poems 60][44], 155-156, 156-157, 170 / xi-xiii: WM 171-172, 175, 177, 179, (184), 184, 188-189, 191, 192 / xiii-xv: WM 193-200 / xvi: WM (203), 205, (205), (210), 209, 211, 221, 222, 222-223, 226, (228) / (xvi): ? / xvi-xvii: WM 228, 229, 230, 232-233, 235, 237-238, (258), 256, (258) / (xvii): WM 229 / xvii-xviii: WM 258-259, 292, [Poems (62)], 292, (293), 293, 292, 293 / xviii-xix: WM (293), 308, 309-318, (318), 318, 327, 328, 331-332 / xix-xx: WM 334, 335, 336, 337, 338, 340 / xx-xxi: WM 339, 341, 342, 343 / xxi-xxii: WM 342 / ? / 348-349 / ? / (350-351), 394 / xxii-xxiii: WM 395, 396 / ? / 398-399 / xxiii-xxiv: WM 399-400 / ? / 264, 263, (385), 384 / ? . Paraphrase of WM, severely abridged, using both TG's letters and WM's narrative, with interpolations from at least one additional source. Whereas the summary of epistolary content can be terse (on pp. vii and xix the substance and tone of lengthy letters is reduced to a single sentence), the rendering of WM's narrative can be prolix ("While at school, he contracted a friendship with Mr. Horace Walpole and Mr. Richard West" [WM 3] becomes "During the time of Mr. Gray's continuance in this abode of the Muses he contracted the strictest intimacy with two of their votaries, whose dispositions in many respects were congenial with his own" [v]). The final paragraph is a short rejoinder to "the attacks of envy and rancour," probably an allusion to SJ's criticisms: "If Mr. Gray was not a poet of the first order there is no poetry existing; and if his boldest expressions be nonsense [cp. SJ 33], so are the best passages of Shakespeare and Milton, and the sublimest figures of divine inspiration" (xxiv).
• HAMMOND. James Hammond, Love Elegies (1743); and SJ. Bell ([v]): SJ 3 / vi: LE iv, iii / vii: LE iii, iv, iii / ix: LE / x: LE. This collation is incomplete. Except for a few gleanings from LE and the footnote based on SJ's information about the relationship of JH's mother to Sir Robert Walpole, this life is original to Bell. The writer, who knows more than can be gleaned from SJ or Lord Chesterfield's preface to Love Elegies, confesses a personal disappointment unparalleled elsewhere in Bell's Poets: "The writer of this Narrative hoped, about three years ago, to have drawn from [Miss Catharine Dashwood], by means of a lady her friend, a more satisfactory account; but she entreated that no questions might be asked her on so distressing a subject" (ix-x). The chance was irretrievable, for Miss Dashwood died on 17 February 1779 (vii). Acknowledgement: "Dr. Johnson informs us . . ." ([v]).
• HUGHES. William Duncombe, "An Account of the Life and Writings of John Hughes, Esq.," Poems on Several Occasions. With Some Select Essays in Prose, 2 vols. (1735), 1:[i]-xxxvii; and SJ. Bell [v]: WD i-ii / [v]-vi: WD v-vi, xxix, vi / SJ 4 / vi-vii: WD vii-viii / SJ 4 / vii-xiii: WD viii-xv / SJ 6 / WD / SJ / WD / SJ 7 / WD xxix / xiii-xiv: WD xv-xvi / SJ 8 / WD / SJ 9 / WD / xiv-xv: WD xxxi, xvii-xviii / SJ 10 / WD / SJ / xv-xvi: WD / SJ / WD xxxiii / xvi-xvii: WD xix / SJ 12, 13 / xvii-xviii: SJ 14 / WD xxxvi / SJ 15 / xviii-xix: WD xxiv, ii-iii / SJ 16 / WD iii, xxv / xix-xxvi: WD xxxvii-xlvii. Quotation mixed with paraphrase of WD, rearranged, with largely verbatim interpolations from SJ. WD's preface includes Richard Steele's essay on JH from The Theatre (xxxviii-xlvii), which Bell takes also. After WD had "gone thro' the first Part of [his] Design" (xxix), he retraced his steps to discuss JH's translations and prose writings; Bell avoids this second chronology by inserting these materials into the initial account of JH's life.
• KING. BB 4:2850-2856; and TC 3:228-235. Bell [v]-vi: BB 2850, [B] / ([v]-vi): BB [A] / vi-vii: TC 231 / (vi-ix): BB [B] / viii-xx: BB 2850-2854 / (ix-x): BB [C] / (x-xi):

  ---

  219

  
  
  
  BB [D] / (xii-xiv): BB [E] / (xiv-xv): BB [F] / (xvi-xix): BB [G] / (xix): BB [H] / (xx-xxi): BB [K] / xxi: TC 229-230 / xxi-xxii: BB [I] / (xxii): BB (o) / xxii-xxv: BB 2854-2855 / TC 233 / (xxiii-xxiv): BB [M] / (xxiv-xxv): TC 233 / xxv-xxvii: BB 2855 / TC 234 / (xxvi): BB [N] / xxvii-xxviii: BB 2855, [O]. Quotation (with a few paraphrases) of full body of BB and all but two footnotes ([L] and [P], which are lists of WK's works); [I] and [O] are interpolated into the body of the text. Added from TC are some anecdotes and WK's character.
• LANSDOWNE. TC 4:239-249. Bell [v]-x: TC 239-243 / x-xii: TC 246-248 / xii-xiii: ? / xiii-xiv: TC / ? / TC 248-249. Reprint of TC is complete except for one gap, an exchange of verses between Lansdowne and Elizabeth Higgins. Two interpolations surface from an unidentified source.
• LYTTELTON. SJ (Lyttelton and Gilbert West); The Annual Register (1774), pp. 24-29; and The Works of George Lord Lyttelton (1775). Bell [v]: SJ 1 / AR 25 / SJ 1-2, 4 / AR 26 / SJ / WL 499 / SJ 6 / [v]-vi: WL 546 / SJ 11 / AR 27 / SJ / AR 28, 27 / SJ 9 / AR vi-vii: WL 549-550 / AR 28 / SJ 10 / AR / SJ / AR / SJ 13, 30, 23 / vii-viii: WL 514 / SJ 23 / viii-xi: SJ 24-29, 3, 16, 12 / SJ W.5, W.6 / xi-xii: SJ 12, 19, 31. Paraphrase of SJ, abridged, rearranged, with additional materials interwoven from AR, WL and SJ West. Extra details are brought to Bell from an unidentified source. SJ's error regarding the number of GL's daughters is corrected. Two of SJ's critical comments are quoted using quotation marks; other SJ comments are introduced with "It is said" or "We are told" (vii, xi). Acknowledgment: SJ cited with reference to the error and the punctuated quotations (vi, x, xi).
• MALLET. CP 2: sig. X1r (s.v. MALLET, David, Esq.). Bell [v]-vi. Quotation, with some rearrangement. Called an "Advertisement," not "The Life of David Mallet." Dated "March 1780," the lone instance in Bell of the date of compilation being noted.
• MILTON. Elijah Fenton, "The Life of Mr. John Milton" and [PS] "Postscript," Paradise Lost (1739), pp. [vii]-xvii and [xviii]-[xx]; Thomas Newton, "The Life of Milton," Paradise Lost (1749), pp. i-lxi; and Jonathan Richardson, Explanatory Notes and Remarks on Milton's Paradise Lost (1734). Bell [5]-7: EF [vii]-viii / (7-8): TN vi-viii / 7-13: EF viii-xii / (13-14): JR lxvi-lxvii / 13-20: EF xii-xvii / 21-24: TN lv-lvi, lvii-lviii / PS xx. Reprint of EF (first published 1725) with additional family details from TN, and footnoted with letters from TN (Wotton on travel), and JR (Milton on blindness). Acknowledgement: "Elijah Fenton" (20).
• MOORE. CP 2: sig. Y6r-v (s.v. MOORE, Mr. Edward); Edward Moore, "Preface," Poems, Fables, and Plays, by Edward Moore (1756), pp. v-vi and 417-418; and The World, 4 vols. (1763). Bell [v]: CP / EM vi / [v]-vi: CP / (vi): EM 417 / vi-vii: EM vi / CP / vii-viii: TW / CP. Quotation of CP with some rearranging, plus interpolations from EM and information from an edition of TW. Acknowledgment: "Preface to the quarto edition of his works in 1756" ([v]).
• PARNELL. Poems on Several Occasions (1770) contains three separate sources: Oliver Goldsmith, "The Life of Thomas Parnell, D.D." (pp. i-xxxv); Alexander Pope, "To the Right Honourable, Robert, Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer" (pp. [i]-iii); and David Hume, "Mr. Hume's Essays, page 265" (sig. π2v); and "To the Reader," The Posthumous Works of Dr. Thomas Parnell (Dublin, 1758), pp. [iii]-vii [sic for vi]. Bell [v]-viii: OG i-vi, v / viii-xvii: OG vi-xv, xvii / xvii: AP ii / xvii-xviii: OG xxiii, xxvi / xviii-xxi: OG xxv-xxviii / xxi: DH / OG xxvii / xxi-xxii: PW iii-iv / OG xxix. Paraphrase, abridged; with interpolations from PW, AP, and DH ("Essay on Simplicity and Refinement").
• PHILIPS, Ambrose. TC 5:122-142; and SJ. Bell [v]: TC 122 / SJ 1 / TC 122, 132-133 / SJ 25 / [v]-vi: TC / vi-vii: SJ 30, 31, 32, 33 / TC 142 / SJ / TC 139 / SJ 34 / vii-viii: TC 122 / SJ 3 / viii-xvi: TC 124-131, 133-134, 132 / SJ 5 / TC / SJ / xvi-xvii: TC / SJ 28, 29 / TC 134 / SJ 6 / xvii-xviii: TC / SJ 35 / xviii-xx: TC 134-137 /

  ---

  220

  
  
  
  SJ 26, 27 / xx-xxii: TC 137-138 / SJ 27, 35, 4. TC is quoted, paraphrased, and rearranged; poetical specimens are left out; many interpolations from SJ. Acknowledgement: "Dr. Johnson" cited for a favorable opinion (xvii).
• PHILIPS, John. George Sewell, "The Life of Mr. John Philips," Poems on Several Occasions (Glasgow, 1763), pp. [3]-28; BB 5:3353-3359; and SJ. Bell [v]: GS [3] / BB 3353 / GS / BB / ([v]): SJ 23 / [v]-vi: BB / GS / BB / SJ 3 / vi-vii: BB 3353, (c) / GS 4 / BB 3353 / GS / vii-viii: BB / viii-xii: GS 4-5, 6-8 / BB 3354, [B] / (xii): BB / xii-xiii: GS 9 / xiii-xiv: BB 3359, (q), 3359, [K] / xiv-xviii: GS 9-14 / BB 3354-3355 / (xviii-xxi): BB [D], [E] / SJ 11 / xix-xxi: GS / BB 3356 / xxi-xxii: GS 14-15 / (xxii-xxiv): BB 3356, [F] / SJ 12 / xxii-xxvii: GS 15-19 / (xxvii-xxix): BB 3354, [I] / xxviii-xxx: GS 19-20 / (xxx): SJ 15 / xxxi: GS 21 / (xxxi): SJ 14 / xxxi-xxxiv: GS 21-24 / BB [L] / (xxxiv): BB (15) / xxxv: GS / xxxv-xxxvi: BB 3358 / (xxxvi): BB [H] / xxxvi-xxxvii: BB 3358 / GS 25 / BB / xxxvii-xxxviii: GS 26 / SJ 8 / BB / xxxviii-xl: SJ. Quotation of GS (first published in 1712) with omissions, but also with extensive interpolations from BB and many excerpts from SJ. The GS is taken from a late edition, possibly the one I cite, as evident from a footnote not found in earlier editions. Acknowledgement: BB mentioned (xx); SJ credited four times (xxi, xxiv, xxx, xxxi).
• PITT. TC 5:298-307; and SJ. Bell [v]: TC 298 / SJ 1 / [v]-vi: TC / SJ 7 / TC 299 / SJ 11 / vi-xiv: TC 299-307. Reprint of TC; a place name, a date, and Pitt's epitaph interpolated from SJ.
• POMFRET. Philalethes, "Some Account of Mr. Pomfret, and His Writings," Poems upon Several Occasions (Dublin, 1726), pp. [vii]-[ix]; and TC 3:218-227. Bell [v]-vii: PH [vii]-[viii] / TC 218-219 / viii-x: PH [viii]-[ix]. Quotation of PH. Bell apologizes for the "short narrative, dated in the 1724, which is all we have been able to collect relative to this poet or his works" ([v]); this is not strictly true, since JP's religious character is adopted from TC. Acknowledgement: "1724. Philalethes" (x).
• POPE. TC 5:219-252. Bell [5]-46. Quotation, with minor omissions. Acknowledgement: "Cibber's Lives" (46).
• PRIOR. Samuel Humphreys, "Some Account of the Author," Poems on Several Occasions, 2 vols. (1767), 2:[xiii]-lxxii. Bell [v]-xxviii: SH [xiii]-xxi, xxiii, xxxiv-xliii. Reprint of SH (first published 1733-34), with these omissions: MP's "Preamble to the Patent" for the Earl of Dorset's being created a duke; an essay by Dennis, addressed to MP, on Roman satirists; and a set of thirteen poems addressed to MP. Acknowledgement: SH cited in a separate "Advertisement" ([xlviii]).
• ROSCOMMON. TC 2:344-353; and SJ. Bell [v]-xiii: TC 344-350 / xiii-xvi: SJ 27-39. Reprint of TC (itself a near copy of Johnson's biography in Gentleman's Magazine 18 [1748]: 214-217) up to the criticism of the "Essay on Translated Verse," at which point the compiler switches to SJ and pirates the entire section of criticism.
• ROWE. TC 3:272-284; BB 5:3520-3523; and SJ. Bell [v]: TC 272-273 / [v]-vi: BB [A] / TC / (vi): BB 3520, 3522 / vi-viii: TC 273-274 / BB [B] / TC / (viii-x): TC 274-275 / BB [C] / ix: SJ 5 / ix-x: TC / (x): BB [D] / x-xi: TC / (xi): BB / xi-xii: SJ 5 / xii-xiii: TC 275, 276 / SJ 7 / xiii-xiv: TC 276-277, 279 / SJ 14 / TC 277 / xiv-xv: SJ 11 / TC 278 / SJ 15 / xv-xvi: TC 278-279 / (xvi): TC / xvi-xvii: BB 3522, [H] / (xvii): TC 279-280 / xvii-xviii: BB / TC 284 / SJ 18 / TC 283 / (xviii-xix): SJ 35 / BB [G] / xviii-xix: TC 283-284 / BB 3521 / xix-xx: TC 280 / BB / xx-xxi: TC / BB / TC 281 / BB 3522, [I] / xxi-xxii: TC / BB 3522 / TC 282 / (xxii): BB [K] / xxiii-xxiv: SJ 23-26 / xxiv-xxv: TC 283 / SJ 27 / BB 3522-3523, [L]. Quotation; TC provides the framework for elaborate interweaving, BB and SJ supplying the other strands. Acknowledgement: the compiler straightens out an error committed by the "Authors of the Biographia" (vi).

---

221




• SAVAGE. Samuel Johnson, "Life of Savage," The Works of Richard Savage, 2 vols. (1777), 1:[5]-187. Bell [v]-cxlvi. Reprint of SJ from this edition, number 77b in Clarence Tracy's "Textual Introduction" to Life of Savage (Oxford, 1971), p. xxiii.
• SHENSTONE. Robert Dodsley, "Preface," The Works in Verse and Prose, of William Shenstone, Esq, 3 vols. (1764-69), 1:[i]-viii. Bell [v]-x. Reprint; called "Preface," as in RD, not "The Life of William Shenstone." Acknowledgement: "R. Dodsley" (x).
• SMITH. TC 4:303-312; and SJ. Bell [iii]: TC 303 / SJ 28 / [iii]-v: TC 303-304 / (v): SJ 30, 35, 36, 40 / v-vi: TC 305-306 / (vi-vii): SJ 43 / vii-viii: TC / (viii): SJ 48 / viii-x: TC 309-311 / SJ 56 / TC / (x): SJ 57, 58, 59, 71, 56 / x-xii: TC 311-312. Quotation, with omissions; place of birth and a few anecdotal footnotes supplied by SJ.
• SOMERVILLE. No "Life," nor is there an "Advertisement" to explain the omission.
• SPENSER. John Hughes, "The Life of Mr. Edmund Spenser," The Works of Spenser, 6 vols. (1750), 1:[i]-xvi. Bell [v]-xviii. Reprint of JH (first published in 1715).
• SWIFT. John Hawkesworth, "An Account of the Life of the Reverend Jonathan Swift, D.D., Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin," The Works of Dr. Jonathan Swift, 12 vols. (1756), 1:[1]-71; Lord Orrery, Remarks on the Life and Writings of Dr. Jonathan Swift, 3rd ed. (1752); Deane Swift, An Essay upon the Life, Writings, and Character, of Dr. Jonathan Swift (1755), which includes [AP] "The Appendix. The Family of Swift" (separately paginated [1]-52); Laetitia Pilkington, Memoirs, 2 vols. (Dublin, 1748); and Samuel Johnson, Rambler No. 60. Bell [v]-vi: SJ 5 / JH 2 / OR 5 / DS 7-8 / OR / DS 7-8 / vi-vii: JH 2-3 / DS 11 / vii-viii: JH / DS 12 / viii-ix: JH / AP 35 / ix-x: JH 3-4 / LP 1:55 / JH / x-xi: JH 4-5 / DS 26 / xi-xii: JH / DS / JH 5-6 / OR 10 / JH / OR 5 / JH / xii-xiii: OR / JH / OR 6-7 / xiii-xiv: JH / OR / xiv-xx: JH 6-12 / OR 21 / xx-xxi: JH / AP 49 / xxi-xxiii: JH 12-14 / OR 20 / DS 101-102 / OR 21 / xxiii-xxiv: DS 102-103 / OR / xxiv-xxv: DS 104, 112 / xxv-xxviii: JH 14-16 / DS 87 / xxviii-xxix: JH / DS 90 / xxix-xxxiii: JH 16-20 / xxxiii-xxxiv: DS 163 / JH / DS 163-164 / JH / xxxiv-xxxv: DS 322 / xxxv-xl: JH 20-24 / DS 326 / JH / xl-xli: DS 326-327 / xli-xliv: JH 25-27 / DS 258 / xliv-lxiv: JH 27-41 / lxiv-lxv: DS 191 / lxv-lxxii: JH 41-46 / (lxxii-lxxiii): DS 93, 94-95 / lxxii-lxxxi: JH 46-53 / (lxxxi): DS (189) [sic for 217] / lxxxi-ciii: JH 53-68 / DS 90 / ciii-cvii: JH 68-71 / cviii-cx: OR 3-4, 213, 43-44 / cx-cxvii: DS 359, 360-364, 365-366, 367, 368-369, 371-373 / cxvii-cxxxiv: LP 1:40-48, 49, 50, 51, 52-53, 54-55, 59-60, 61-67, 72-74, 56-57, 34-35, 36-37. Quotation of JH, with the marginal annotations in JH pointing towards some but not all of the passages in OR and DS for interpolation; prefatory remarks on biography from SJ. Acknowledgement: SJ, OR, DS, LP all mentioned.
• THOMSON. Patrick Murdoch, "An Account of the Life and Writings of Mr. James Thomson," The Works of James Thomson (1762), pp. [i]-xx; and Joseph Warton, An Essay on the Writings and Genius of Mr. Pope (1756). Bell [v]-xiv: PM i-ix / (xiv-xvii): JW 1:41-49 / xiv-xxx: PM ix-xx. Reprint of PM; long quotation in a footnote of JW's critical assessment of The Seasons. Acknowledgement: "an ingenious and elegant writer (Essay on the writings and genius of Pope)" for JW (xiv).
• TICKELL. TC 5:17-23; and SJ. Bell [v]: TC 17 / SJ 1 / TC / SJ 4, 14 / [v]-vi: TC 18 / SJ 14 / vi-vii: TC 18, 19 / SJ 6 / vii-viii: TC 20 / SJ 13 / TC / SJ 17 / TC 22 / SJ 9 / viii-ix: TC 22 / SJ 10 / ix-x: TC 22-23 / x-xii: SJ 10-11 / TC 19 / SJ 16 / TC / SJ / TC 19, 23 / SJ 17. Quotation and paraphrase; organization of TC followed, with numerous insertions from SJ, both of fact and critical judgment.
• WALLER. Percival Stockdale, "The Life of Edmund Waller," The Works of Edmund Waller, Esq. in Verse and Prose (1772), pp. [i]-lxv; [HR] Lord Clarendon, The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, 3 vols. (Oxford, 1707); Lord Clarendon, The Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon (Oxford, 1759); Sir Bulstrode Whitelocke, Memorials of the English Affairs (1732); [PR] "Preface to the second

  ---

  222

  
  
  
  Part of Mr. Waller's Poems; printed in the year 1690," The Works of Edmund Waller, Esq. in Verse and Prose (1772), pp. 229-234; Sir Francis Atterbury, "An Account of the Life and Writings of Edmond [sic] Waller, Esq.," Poems, &c. Written upon Several Occasions, and to Several Persons (1711), pp. [i]-lxxxii; TC 2:240-264; BB 6:4099-4115; and AO 2:24-25. Bell [v]: PS [i], vi / AO 2:25 / PS / FA iii / PS / FA / PS vi, vii / BB 4099 / [v]-vi: PS / AO 2:24 / PS / FA vii / vi-vii: PS viii, xii, ix / BB 4101 / FA xii / PS xiv / FA / vii-viii: PS xiv-xv, xiv / FA xi / PS xiii / FA / ix: PS xiv, xii-xiii, xii, xxii / TC 245 / ix-x: FA xix / BB [L] / PS / FA xix-xx / x-xii: PS xxii, xxv, xxvi, xxviii, xxv-xxvi, xxx, xxxi, xxxii, xxxiii, xxxiv / xii-xiv: BW 70 / xivxxx: HR 2.i:247-253, 257-260 / xxx-xxxi: PS xlvi, (xlvii), xlvii, xlviii, li / BB [Y] / PS lii / TC 253 / BB 4111 / xxxii: PS lv, liii, lvi, lviii / TC / PS / TC / PS / TC / PS / xxxii-xxxiii: PS lx, lxi / TC 254 / PS (lxi) / TC / PS (lxi), lxii / BB 4113 / PS / xxxiii-xxxvi: LC 24-25 / PS lxiv / xxxvi-xxxvii: PR 229, 230 / xxxvii-xxxviii: PS lxv, lxiii, lxv. Quotations from PS serve as a frame, with BB guiding the compiler to almost all the other sources. Threads from AO, FA, BB and TC are interwoven; BW, HR, LC and PR are good for lengthy interpolations. Acknowledgement: specific editions are cited for BW (xii) and HR (xiv); AO is mentioned (vi); PS is cited twice (ix, xxxvii).
• WATTS. "The Preface, with Some Account of the Author's Life and Character," The Works of the Late Reverend and Learned Isaac Watts, 6 vols. (1753), 1:iii-x. Bell [v]-xviii. Reprint. Acknowledgement: "Taken from the Account of Dr. Watts's Life and Character prefixed to the quarto edition of his works in six vols. printed in 1753" ([v]).
• WEST, Gilbert. SJ. Bell [v]: SJ 1-4, 9 / [v]-vi: SJ 5-6, 10, 5-6. Paraphrase of SJ, abridged and rearranged; one judgment from SJ quoted. Acknowledgement: "says Dr. Johnson" for the quoted opinion (vi).
• WEST, Richard. "Advertisement": "The life of Mr. West was so short, and the events of it so few, that it was judged better to insert the anecdotes which remain of this hopeful youth in the preceding account of his friend than to reserve them for a detached article" ([1]). The friend was Thomas Gray, with whose poems West's are bound.
• YOUNG. BD 12:511-516; [LY] "The Life of the Rev. Dr. Edward Young," The Works of the Author of the Night-Thoughts, 5 vols. (1773), 5:[v]-xvi; and [WY] other title-specific prefaces within the 1773 edition. Bell [v]: BD 511 / [v]-vii: BD 511-512 / LY vii / vii-viii: BD 513 / viii-ix: WY 1:73 / LY ix-x / BD 514 / LY ix / ix-xi: LY x-xi, xii / WY 5:[3] / xii: BD 515 / WY 5:[83] / BD / LY / xii-xiii: BD / (xiii): LY (xiii) / xiii-xiv: BD 515-516 / xiv-xv: LY xv / BD 516 / LY xv-xvi. Quotation and paraphrase of BD (itself a reprint of "The Life of the Late Celebrated Dr. Edward Young," The Annual Register [1765], pp. 31-36), with interpolations from LY, WY, and at least one other source. This collation is incomplete; I have been unable to trace several passages. Acknowledgement: LY and BD are cited (ix, xii), along with "the Annals of the Drama" (ix).

Just who produced these compilations may never be known. Over the course of six years it is likely that Bell employed more than one compiler.[45] Except for the revision of Denham's life, a job which called for close supervision and was probably tackled in London, my guess is that the writers who supplied Bell's prefaces worked in or near Edinburgh. A distinct Scotticism

crops up in several lives, one that James Beattie warned was a sure sign of North British origins. It is the insertion of the definite article in reference to a year: "in the 1713," for example, instead of "in 1713" or "in the year 1713."[46]

A Scottish identity is commensurate also with some rare and fleeting moments when the compiler turns political censor. The evidence is found in deviations from otherwise straightforward transcriptions of source material. Two cases in point involve William III. In the life of Swift, the source text accounts for one of the King's miscalculations by his being "a stranger to our constitution"; Bell's compiler rejects the inclusive pronoun and makes William "a stranger to the English constitution." In the life of Hughes, Bell's source extols at some length "The House of Nassau," a pindaric which "displays the Heroick Exploits of that Illustrious Family, than which none have ever distinguish'd themselves more eminently in Defence of the Sacred Rights and Liberties of Mankind"; the compiler, while copying the other praises of this ode, balks at the encomium.[47] Silence in place of the Williamite paean suggests a cool (if not necessarily Jacobitic) distance from the orthodox, anglo-centric view of the Bloodless Revolution, and the disavowal of constitutional affiliation signals a Scottish reflex.

Only two of Bell's lives qualify as something more than compilations. Each of the lives, except for the mere reprints, is original in one sense: nowhere previously had the collated materials been joined in this fashion. But fresh information crops up in two lives, those of Hammond and Cunningham, which, interestingly, were composed consecutively (see Table 1). In the Hammond preface the veil of impersonality is dropped momentarily when the writer laments having missed a tantalizing chance at some crucial information. Another flicker of disclosure comes from the date on Mallet's life, "March 1780." Although this cryptic log, unique to Bell's prefaces, serves no obvious purpose, its relation to the date of printing (April 8 for Mallet) could indicate that the writers, rather than stockpiling prefaces for eventual use in the series, worked on the basis of a timely delivery, supplying the work close to when it was called for at the printing house.

No single pattern accounts for all the prefaces. They range from straightforward reprints to compilations spliced together phrase by phrase. At times one source is used to footnote another, as when a single excerpt from Warton's Essay runs its course beneath the otherwise uninterrupted reprint of Murdoch's life of Thomson; in other cases, as in the life of Waller, the sources

are thoroughly interwoven. Quotation outweighs paraphrase as a means of copying, and paraphrase rarely wanders far from the source text. The truth was, as Rogers points out, an "unavoidable minimum of bare fact simply had to be retailed," and Johnson himself was often restricted to "close paraphrase, diversified by elegant variations of expression" (170). Unlike Johnson, Bell's compiler in many cases made no effort.

The phrases, sentences and paragraphs from the source texts are seldom reworked for the sake of uniformity. Rarely is it necessary; the occasional effect is a bouncing back and forth between text and footnote, where careful adjustment could have produced a seamless narrative. In places, however, the effect is jarring. None of the roughness is smoothed from the Annual Register's portrayal of Churchill, "this thoughtless man . . . entirely guided by his native turbulence of temper" (xiii); but in tacking on the saccharine excerpt from Chrysal even the compiler seems skeptical about "the credit due to the story" (xiii). There are a few incongruities as well amongst the critical judgments retrieved from disparate sources, a problem found in the life of Akenside. The authors of BB, Bell's main source, find fault with Akenside's odes, but are willing to grant that "still there is in them a noble vein of poetry, united with manly sense, and applied to excellent purposes" ([F]). Johnson, on the other hand, Bell's complementary source, offers no palliatives: "Of his odes nothing favourable can be said" (SJ 23). Rather than try to reconcile the difference, the compiler quotes them both and leaves the verdict to the reader: "In this diversity of opinions the reader will determine for himself" (xiv-xv).

One potential slip never occurs. When a source directs its readers to an earlier text of the author, and where Bell's would serve just as well, the compiler always plugs Bell. In the life of Addison a reference to "Mr. Tickell's 4to. edition" is changed to "in this edition" (ix; TC 3:308). In place of a specimen of King's poetry served up in BB the compiler advises: "The reader will find it, with Dr. King's whole other poems, in this edition of his Poetical Works in two volumes" (xix; BB [H]). By such advertising alerts the compiler escapes the charge, with its commercial overtones, that Bell levelled at Johnson: his lives ignored the edition to which they were attached.

A recurrent impulse is for Bell's compiler to suppress uncomplimentary criticisms. It would have been unthinkable for Johnson not to speak his mind on Tickell's "Kensington Gardens," or to sanitize the passage in the manner of Bell's compiler. But then, his bluntness was a luxury the proprietors could afford. Since their initial policy was not to sell the Prefaces without all fifty-six volumes of poetry, they did not need to worry about anyone deciding against the purchase of Tickell's poems as a consequence of browsing through the preface. Bell enjoyed no such leverage, and conceivably may have instructed his compiler to be wary of disparaging criticisms. Why discourage a reader from enjoying the book she or he just bought (or was about to purchase), especially when the collection was being published serially and a new volume would be offered for sale the next week?

Instantly squelched was any hint that the works of a particular poet were inadequate by themselves to form a saleable commodity. With Gray, perhaps, it could be admitted that "the joint stock of both [Gray and Richard West] would hardly fill a small volume" (xiii; Mason 184), but not with other poets: the intimation that Garth's "works will scarce make a moderate volume" was surgically obliterated (xiii; TC 3:270), and the unlordly conclusion that Roscommon's works "are not sufficient to form a small volume" was amended to read "hardly sufficient" (xi; TC 2:349).[48] Neither was it allowable for the shortcomings of the prefaces to be discussed, except for the customary sighs over the lack of sources or the uneventfulness of a poet's life. When Sewell wishes there were "a larger, as well as a better" critical assessment of John Philips than his own (12), Bell's compiler omits the confession from his transcription (xvii).[49]

The compiler of Young's life avoided negative comments in several ways when copying from BD. The following passage was a cue to omit: "[T]here is a laboured stiffness of versification; and this is the more remarkable, as Dr. Young ever took very great pains to polish and correct the harshness of his numbers" (12:512). Another tack was to discredit the source: "By certain fastidious critics they have been stigmatized as a mere string of epigrams" (viii). If an adjective was not to the compiler's liking, a more favorable one could be substituted, as when "elegance" is substituted for "terseness" (viii; 12: 513). All in all, omission was simplest. When TC criticizes Smith's drama as too "luxuriously poetical" of language, yet monotonous of character (4:312), Bell's compiler declines the opinion (xii). And the incentive to change copy-texts near the end of the life of Roscommon was sharpened by this withering summation: "The grand requisites of a poet, elevation, fire, and invention, were not given him, and for want of these, however pure his thoughts, he is a languid unentertaining writer" (TC 2:352-353).

It is clear why negative criticism might be shunned, less so why a facet of a poet's life should be viewed as a detraction. Nevertheless, the compiler concealed one aspect of Dryden's life. Where "preternatural intelligence" was concerned the age was, as Johnson put it, "very little inclined to favour any accounts of this kind" (Roscommon 7). Concurring, Bell's compiler shields the reader from "superstitious" incidents in the life of Dryden, passing silently over the section in TC dealing with the poet's astrological calculations and fears about the life of his son Charles. Having agreed with one source to portray Young as "pious but gloomy" (x), the compiler later resists the phrase "notwithstanding this gloominess of temper," retouching it to read "so far was he from gloominess of temper" (xiv; BD 12:516).

Yet if Bell's purpose was to gloss over passages damaging to the poet's character or reputation, it was not carried out consistently. Many passages

eligible for deletion on that account are retained. And whereas the praise in a source text is gently heightened on occasion, this happens less often than one might expect. It was easier, on the whole, merely to copy. In one extraordinary case an encomium in the source text is toned down. The compiler of Young's life, otherwise anxious to expunge the negative, actually reins in "the writer of Dr. Young's life" for going "too great a length when he says, 'We may assign [The Revenge] . . . a place in the first rank of our dramatic writings'" (ix).[50]

Although a niche in Bell's market undoubtedly was occupied by neophyte book-buyers, old and young, the ambitious plan of The Poets of Great Britain argues against belittling its audience as Thomas Tyrwhitt did, who claimed that the engravings in Bell's edition were a decoy for young and undiscriminating purchasers.[51] The scope of the lives runs counter to the condescension aired by another work published when Bell's series began to appear, The Beauties of Biography, intended "for the use of Schools." Its editor asserts that most biographical entries are "too voluminous, and more circumstantial than is required for young People, who do not reap the greatest advantage from dwelling long on the same subject."[52] By that measure Bell's reader was fully adult, an impression confirmed by comparison of Bell's edition of John Philips, for instance, with two previous ones: Poems Attempted in the Style of Milton (1762) and Poems on Several Occasions (1763), published respectively by the Tonsons and the Foulis brothers. Bell reprints George Sewell's life, folding in sections from both the text and notes in BB, and passages from SJ. The earlier compilations were far simpler. Except for a single paragraph from Sewell, the Tonsons derived their account from BB, leaving out a few passages and all the notes but one. The Foulis brothers simply reprinted Sewell, adding only some brief notes. Both prefaces were "defective" by Bell's standard, yet were deemed suitable by one of the century's most thriving bookselling firms and perhaps the finest university printers in Britain.[53] Bell taxed his readers' attention at a higher rate: in contrast to

roughly 2675 and 5450 words in the Tonson and Foulis lives, Bell's compilation ran to about 9050.[54]

The life of Gray, neither the longest nor shortest of the bunch, may serve as a final measure of Bell's investment in his prefaces. No edition, of course, could match William Mason's with its page ratio of 416:112 between preface and works.[55] Several other editions of Gray, however, published in 1774, 1775, 1776, and 1779, also joined some form of biographical preface to the poet's works. Once again, by a significant margin Bell's was the most thorough. The word count for these lives, respectively, was 1025, 850, 1450, and 1025, to Bell's 5050.[56] What is more, to the "Life of Thomas Gray" proper Bell's compiler added a copy of Gray's last will and testament, and J. Taite's poetic tribute, "The Tears of Genius." Not surprisingly in view of the options, when a life was selected to accompany Gilbert Wakefield's "classical" edition of Gray in 1786, Bell's won the palm.[57]

Even without hiring a Johnson to write his prefaces, Bell invested heavily in this feature of his edition, both materially and symbolically. The more extensive the lives, obviously, the greater the capital outlay required for printing materials (paper and ink), labor (in compiling as well as printing), and distribution (weight and bulk in shipping). Just as important as publishing a substantial preface, however, was the appearance of publishing a substantial

preface, one in keeping with the breadth of the full undertaking. The number of pages counted; quantity became a tangible index of value. With this kind of symbolic capital tied up in his prefaces, Bell could not risk their being seen as a perfunctory gesture.