The Lives of the English Poets: Milton; Cowley; Shenstone; Congreve; Rochester; Thomson; Gay; Pope; Gray; Otway; Dryden (The Folio Society)

420 pp. A selection from Johnson's larger work, edited by Robert Montagu. This volume featuers: Milton; Cowley; Shenstone; Congreve; Rochester; Thomson; Gay; Pope; Gray; Otway; Dryden. The plates reproduce portraits of the poets. The portrait of 'Abraham Cowley' originally issued with the book (facing p. 129) was in fact the 'Chandos' portrait of Shakespeare (easily distinguishable from Cowley by the beard and earring). The explanation given in Folio 21 was that a 'Learned Foundation', when asked for a photograph of their portrait of Cowley, supplied Shakespeare by mistake.