PETRARCA : A Selection of Sonnets Henderson, George; [Smith, Charlotte]; [Robinson, Mary]; [Shakespeare]; [Spenser, Edmund] [Seward, Anna]; [Williams, Helen Maria]; [Edwards, Thomas]; [Scott, Walter]; [Polwhele, Richard]; [Warton, Thomas] Poetry

First edition of this collection celebrating the revival of the sonnet, tracing its history from Spenser to Shakespeare and Milton, through contemporaries Charlotte Smith, Mary Robinson, and a young Leigh Hunt. The English sonnet fell out of fashion in the early 18th century, only to come roaring back to popularity with the publication of Charlotte Smith's ELEGIAC SONNETS in 1784. But this volume provides a much wider and more nuanced picture of the development of the English sonnet, including Smith's predecessor Thomas Edwards, and her contemporaries Anna Seward (whom Henderson especially likes), William Lisle Bowles, Helen Maria Williams, and Mary Robinson. Henderson's introduction contextualizes the wide range of sonnets included, from the amatory (Robinson) to the elegiac (Smith). This compendium established the state of playing field for the form in the Romantic era, and it was a favorite form of Coleridge, Keats, Shelley, and Wordsworth. Coleridge wrote a pamphlet celebrating the form in 1796, and the first poem Wordsworth published was "Sonnet on Seeing Miss Helen Maria Williams Weep" in 1787, an homage to Williams and Charlotte Smith both. A notable Romantic-era collection, unusual in so widely acknowledging the debts of English poetry to women writers. Contemporary half roan, marbled paper boards, gilt-ruled and -lettered spine. Red speckled edges. Illustrated with engraved frontispiece and two further full-page engravings by T.W. Tomkins after P. Henderson. xl, 192 pages. Some pencil notes to endpapers. Binding rubbed at extremities, some foxing (largely marginal) to first few gatherings.