ABSTRACT
Upton’s Letter states the principles on which he intended to edit Spenser’s works: ‘the last editor should consult every former edition, and…should faithfully and fairly exhibit all the various readings of even the least authority.’ If he is to appreciate Spenser’s ‘allusions and various beauties,’ he must also master the poet’s ‘learning’ (see Wurtsbaugh 1936:75-6). The Letter prepares for Warton’s influential Observations on the Faerie Queene (1754, 2nd ed 1762).
