A NOTE ON THE TEXT

The nine editions of the Art of English Poetry were as follows: 1702, 1705, 1708, 1710, 1714, 1718, 1724, 1737, and 1762. Four of these—1705, 1708, 1710, and 1718—represent a revision of the preceding edition, that of 1718 only in the matter of adding new passages to the commonplace book. The last revised text of the "Rules," therefore, is that of the fourth edition (1710), but since this differs from the third only by the omission of one passage, which is of some interest, it seemed best to reproduce the text of the third edition (1708). The omitted passage is the last five lines, beginning "and therefore ...," of the second paragraph on page 22.