Samuel Wesley the elder, father of John and Charles, sets out in heroic couplets his views on what poetry should be, praising Horace and Virgil and scorning the low mirth and profit-seeking of the stage. Paired with it is his prose essay on epic poetry, with an introduction by Edward N. Hooker.
A small but telling document of Augustan literary taste for students of Dryden and Pope’s era. Download the free EPUB.