POETICAL REGISTER,

AND

REPOSITORY

OF

FUGITIVE POETRY,

FOR

1801.

SECOND EDITION.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR F. AND C. RIVINGTON,

No. 62, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD;

BY BYE AND LAW, ST. JOHN'S SQUARE, CLERKENWELL.

ADVERTISEMENT.

77442 1801

SINCE the first publication of works something similar in plan to the present, nearly half a century has now elapfed. Whatever merit may be due to the first idea of such a repository, undoubtedly belongs to France. It was not, however, till the year 1765, that a volume of the kind appeared, worthy of preservation. In that year, the Almanach des Muses was first established; and it has been continued, sometimes with more, sometimes with less • merit, down to the present period. For many years it was adorned by the names of Voltaire, Gresset, Dorat, Bernard, Colardeau, Leonard, De Lille, and other authors scarcely less distinguished, whose productions, though often morally reprehensible, always bore the stamp of genius. When theepoch of the Revolution arrived, it was prostituted to the purposes of those who had a leading share in that Revolution, and became a collection of miserable verses in praise of the most abandoned principles, and their abandoned propagators. To what a state of degradation it was fallen, may be easily

M553715