Early Reviews of English Poets | Page 3

to transcribe the "curious
novelties" from the Journal des Sçavans. Fifty weekly numbers
appeared (1682-83), consisting principally of translations of the best
articles in the French journal.
A few years later (1686), the Genevan theologian, Jean Le Clerc, then a
resident of London, established the Universal Historical Bibliothèque;
or, an Account of most of the Considerable Books printed in All
Languages, which was continued by various hands until 1693 in a
series of twenty-five quarto volumes. Contemporary with this review
was a number of similar publications which had for the most part a
brief existence. Among them was the Athenian Mercury, published on
Tuesdays and Saturdays (1691-1696), the History of Learning, which
appeared for a short time in 1691 and again in 1694; Works of the
Learned (1691-92); the Young Student's Library (1692) and its
continuation, the Compleat Library (1692-94); Memoirs for the
Ingenious (1693); the Universal Mercury (1694) and Miscellaneous
Letters, etc. (1694-96). Samuel Parkes includes among the reviews of
this period Sir Thomas Pope Blount's remarkable Censura Celebrium
Authorum (1690). That popular bibliographical dictionary of criticism
(reprinted 1694, 1710 and 1718) is only remembered now for its
omission of Shakespeare, Spenser, Jonson and Milton from its list of
"celebrated authors." Neither that volume nor the same author's De Re
Poetica (1694) finds a proper place in a list of periodicals. They should
be grouped with such works as Phillips' Theatrum Poetarum (1675) and
Langbaine's Account of the English Dramatic Poets (1691) among the
more deliberate attempts at literary criticism.
Between 1692-94 appeared the Gentleman's Journal; or, the Monthly
Miscellany. Consisting of News, History, Philosophy, Poetry, Music,
Translations, etc. This noteworthy paper, edited by Peter Anthony
Motteux while he was translating Rabelais, included among its
contributors Aphra Behn, Oldmixon, Dennis, D'Urfey and others. In
many ways it anticipated the plan of the Gentleman's Magazine (1731),
which has usually been accorded the honor of priority among English
literary magazines. The History of the Works of the Learned; or, an
Impartial Account of Books lately printed in all Parts of Europe was

begun in 1699 and succumbed after the publication of its thirteenth
volume (1711). Among its editors was George Ridpath, who was
afterwards immortalized in Pope's Dunciad. The careers of the Monthly
Miscellany (1707-09) and Censura Temporum (1709-10) were brief.
About the same time an extensive series of periodicals was begun by a
Huguenot refugee, Michael De la Roche, who fled to England after the
revocation of the Edict of Nantes and became an Episcopalian. After
several years of hack-work for the booksellers, he published (1710) the
first numbers of his Memoirs of Literature, containing a Weekly
Account of the State of Learning at Home and Abroad, which he
continued until 1714 and for a few months in 1717. In the latter year he
began at Amsterdam his Bibliothèque Angloise (1717-27), continued by
his Memoires Littéraires de la Grande Bretagne (1720-1724) after the
editorship of the former had been placed in other hands on account of
his pronounced anti-Calvinistic views. At Amsterdam, Daniel Le Clerc,
a brother of the Jean Le Clerc already mentioned, published his
Bibliothèque Choisée (1703-14) and his Bibliothèque Ancienne et
Moderne (1714-28). Both of these periodicals suggested numerous
ideas to De la Roche, who returned to London and conducted the New
Memoirs of Literature (1725-27). His last venture was a Literary
Journal, or a Continuation of the Memoirs of Literature, which lasted
about a year.
Contemporary with De la Roche, Samuel Jebb conducted Bibliotheca
Literaria (1722-24), dealing with "inscriptions, medals, dissertations,
etc." In 1728 Andrew Reid began the Present State of the Republick of
Letters, which reached its eighteenth volume in 1736. It was then
incorporated with the Literary Magazine; or the History of the Works
of the Learned (1735-36) and the joint periodical was henceforth
published as a History of the Works of the Learned until 1743. Other
less extensive literary journals of the same period were Archibald
Bower's Historia Literaria (1730-34); the Bee; or, Universal Weekly
Pamphlet (1733-35), edited by Addison's cousin, Eustace Budgell; the
British Librarian, exhibiting a Compendious Review or Abstract of our
most Scarce, Useful and Valuable Books, etc., published anonymously
by the antiquarian William Oldys, from January to June, 1737, and
much esteemed by modern bibliophiles as a pioneer and a curiosity of

its kind; a Literary Journal (1744-49) published at Dublin; and, finally,
the Museum; or the Literary and Historical Register. This interesting
periodical printed essays, poems and reviews by such contributors as
Spence, Horace Walpole, the brothers Warton, Akenside, Lowth and
others. It was published fortnightly from March, 1746 to September,
1747, making three octavo volumes.
The periodicals enumerated thus far can hardly be regarded as literary
in the modern acceptation of the term; they were, for the most part,
ponderous, learned and scientific in character, and, with the exception