SOURCE: Geduld, Harry M. “Miscellany Poems,” “Tonson and Paradise Lost,” and “Shakespeare and Tonson.” In Prince of Publishers: A Study of the Work and Career of Jacob Tonson, pp. 87-109; 113-32; 135-48. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1969.

In the following essay, Geduld discusses Tonson's compilations of verse, his publication of Milton's epic poem, and his popular editions of Shakespeare's works.

Miscellany Poems

A phenomenon such as Tonson's Miscellany is rare in the history of English literature. There are few instances in which a single collection of verse is representative of major developments in non-dramatic poetry over a period of thirty years. And it is doubtful that there exists another collection which reflects as faithfully as Tonson's the changing taste of an entire generation. R. D. Havens has maintained that the study of these Miscellanies is the one practicable way in which the vagaries of eighteenth-century taste may be determined...