ABSTRACT
The compiler Winstanley was essentially a journalist – ‘of the lower classes of our biographers’, it has been said. The brief entries in his ‘Lives of the most Famous English Poets’ are largely derivative. His account of Herbert was copied – ‘as usual’, says Nethercot (I, p. 187) – from Edward Phillips (No. 26); yet it is reprinted here since it contributed much to the dissemination of Herbert’s reputation. See also above, p. 12.
Source: Winstanley, ‘The Lives of the most Famous English Poets’ (1687), pp. 160–1.
