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Large 8vo, 228 x 138 mms., pp. vii [viii blank], 208, uncut, original boards; front free end-paper creased, spine slightly worn, joints with some paper missing, label defective, corners crushed, but a good copy. In the preface, the classics scholar and schoolmaster Richard Valpy (1754 - 1836) notes that these poems were first recited in 1782 in Reading School; and the first edition was published in 1806. This revised, second edition, with several poems dated 1824, has textual changs as well as new poems. Among the contributors are William Benwell (1765 - 1796), whose sister was married to Valpy; George Butt (1741 - 1795), who contributes a hilarious parody of Milton's L'allegro ed Il Pensoroso; William Bolland (1772 - 1840), who was instrumental in forming the Roxburghe Club; Henry James Pye (1745 - 1813), later the Poet Laureate; and William Seward (1747 - 1799). Valpy observes as well that the practice of acting plays at a school, "however sanction by.many ages, and of venerable establishments, has been questioned by some writers. If their objections are founded on actual experience, the Editor cannot but respect them. He would scarcely have wished to persist in a branch of Instruction, which he has found to be the most laborious to the Teacher. He can only assert, after a long and and varied trial of the system, that he has found it attended with many beneficial, but not one detrimental, consequence to his Scholars. He cannot be deterred from the proper use of an institution by the sophism of dwelling only on its possible abuse." Uncommon. Copac locates copies of this second edition at BL and Bodleian; WorldCat adds Illinois at Urbana and lists a number of others as "Book," but they turn out to be eBooks. Seller Inventory # 8000
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