ABSTRACT
Longinus’ treatise came to the attention of a select number of English readers in the late seventeenth century via the influential French translation and commentary of Despréaux Boileau (see Brody 1958). Although the Latin text had been available since 1554, and was translated into English as early as 1652 (see Monk 1935; rpt 1960: 20), it was not until the mid-1740s, following the widespread success of William Smith’s 1739 edition (reprinted in Longinus 1975), that the concept of the sublime reached a wider public. In this chapter we will see how Longinus is taken up in British writing of the early eighteenth century. We will look, in particular, at the work of five influential theorists: Thomas Burnet, John Dennis, Joseph Addison, Anthony Ashley Cooper, third Earl of Shaftesbury, and John Baillie.
