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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Ever since Thomas Warton, nearly two hundred years ago, decided that the Theatrum Poetarum of Edward Phillips contained “criticisms far above the taste of that period” and therefore revealed “many touches of Milton's hand,” scholars have sought evidence to substantiate this opinion. Sir Egerton Brydges, in 1800, delcared in the preface of his abridged edition of the Theatrum that “the very expressions of Milton break out in every page,” and only recently Harris Fletcher, who has made a minute study of Milton's reading, wrote that “perhaps as much as nine-tenths of the work was almost beyond doubt done by Milton.” A careful study of the sources and methods of composition of this book has convinced me that not only did Milton have no hand in the work but that even his influence, if any, was negligible. Actually, the Theatrum was a hasty, careless piece of hack work, derived for the most part from a few convenient reference works, with a minimum of effort on the part of the compiler.
1 John Milton, Poems Upon Several Occasions, ed. Thomas Warton (London, 1785), p. 64.
2 Thomas Warton, The History of English Poetry (London, 1774–81), iii, 440.
3 Theatrum Poetarum Anglicanorum, ed. S. Egerton Brydges (Canterbury, 1800), i, xxxix.
4 Harris Fletcher, “Milton's [Index Poeticus]—The Theatrum Poetarum by Edward Phillips,” JEGP, LV (1956), 36. Mr. Fletcher was considering particularly the section on the ancients, which he suggests is a revision of a lost poetical index of Milton.
5 References to Vossius are from the edition of Amsterdam, 1662.
6 Reference is to Lilio Gregorio Giraldi, Historiae Poe-tarum tarn Graecorum quam Latinorutn, a standard authority on the classical poets. I have used the edition of Basel, 1545. Giraldi (dial, v, p. 667) simply writes: “Fuerunt & poetae, sed quo tempore, parum mihi compertum, Facetus, Floretus, Antigammaratus.” His account of Joannes Nantuillensis is on p. 651, sixteen pages earlier. Note Phillips' misspelling of Antigammaratus and Decionus.
7 This book was reissued in 1663 under the title of Felix Consortium, or a Fit Conjuncture of Religion and Learning. A new title page and a page of errata were simply added to the unsold copies of the original edition.
8 Illustrium Maioris Britanniae Scriptorum . . . Summari-um (Wesel, 1548). I have found no evidence that Phillips used the later and much more complete Scriptorum Illustrium Maioris Brytannie . . . Calalogus (Basel, 1557–59).
9 For the opinion that Phillips saw only the 1661 edition, see W. W. Greg, “Gerard Langbaine the Younger and Nicholas Cox,” The Library, 4th Series, xxv (1944), 67–70. Langbaine used only the later edition.
10 Gerard Langbaine, Momus Triumphans: or, The Plagiaries of the English Stage (London, 1688), preface.
11 In his articles on both Giles and Phineas Fletcher, Phillips refers to Giles as “George.” The error stems from the common use of first initials in the anthologies. For the purpose of his alphabetical arrangement, Phillips needed the whole name, but was unwilling to search for it.
12 For example, Sidney Lee, in his life of Phillips for the DNB, writes, “Phillips excuses himself for mentioning his uncle's name without any elaborate notice because it ‘did not become him to deliver his judgment,‘ but he compensates his readers for the omission by inserting a very high-flown eulogy of his brother John.”
13 W. W. Greg, “Authorship Attributions in the Early Play-Lists 1656–71,” Edinburgh Bibliographical Society Transactions, ii, pt. 4 (1946), 319.
