ABSTRACT
Date and publication. Examen Poeticum: Being the Third Part of Miscellany Poems. Containing Variety of New Translations of the Ancient Poets. Together with many Original Copies, by the Most Eminent Hands (siglum: EP) was published by Tonson, probably near the end of July 1693. The volume had been announced as forthcoming ‘next term’ in the London Gazette of 23–27 March 1693. Its future publication was announced in Peter Motteux’s Gentleman’s Journal for June, with an invitation from Tonson for the ‘ingenious’ to contribute. In the July issue of the same journal, the volume was said to have ‘been Publish’d’. But in a letter to William Walsh probably written on Thursday 20 July, D. wrote: ‘Tonson has … fayld me in the publishing of his Miscellanyes. Tho that shou’d not have hinderd me any longer [than?] till Saturday’ (Letters 56; for the dating, see H. H. Adams, MLN xliv (1949) 528–31; Winn 621–2). Though the meaning of D.’s second sentence is somewhat obscure, it seems reasonable to infer that EP was published shortly after this letter was written. It was not reprinted in the poet’s lifetime. In the first edition the Dedication includes many misprints and several textual cruces (see ll. 65, 95, 158nn). The latter may be attributable to D.’s haste in the writing (see his comments at ll. 331–2, 413–14) or to the fact that such prefatory material was commonly set last, often leaving inadequate time for careful proof-correction. Though the fact is not recorded by Macdonald, both the inner and outer formes of sig. A exist in corrected and uncorrected states; Works found no copy of the latter (see iv 800), but Kinsley evidently used one such as his copy-text, and one exists in a private collection. But even the press-correction did not remove all the errors and problematic readings. The present text is based on the corrected state of the first edition.
