ABSTRACT
Blount (1649-97), a politician, published essays on literary matters and on natural history. He gave a brief account of Donne in a section entitled 'Characters and Censures' of an essay on poetry, De re poetica, 1694, pp. 67-9. It repeats word for word that given by Edward Phillips in Theatrulll Poetarulll, 1675, save that Blount tells how DOlme set himself 'to the Study of Divinity' whereas Phillips wrote 'to the study of Theology'. Blount does however add some critical opinions of Donne's poetry-by Walton, by 'the Publisher of Mr Waller's 2d Part of his Poems, in the Preface', and by Dryden. They are all given elsewhere in the present volume (see Nos. 27, 49, 56).
