A scholarly edition of poetical works by Christopher Smart. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.

This collection fills a gap in the provision of sourcebooks for the history and sociology of slavery. It highlights variations in representations of West Indian slavery by drawing on a wide range of testimonies, especially those of the enslaved themselves. It thus differs in important respects from recent collections such as Slavery, Abolition and Emancipation; Amazing Grace: An Anthology of Poems about Slavery, 1660-1810; and The Poetry of Slavery: An Anglo-American Anthology 1764-1865. First, the focus is on representations based principally on first-hand experience or observation of slavery in the then British West Indies, thus enabling valid comparisons to be made. Second, in order to recover the "voices" of the enslaved, it draws on sources untapped in most collections, such as transcriptions of slave songs, funeral orations, conversations and legal reports, as well as better-known slave narratives. The work is divided into five sections: Texts, 1657-1807; From Abolition to Emancipation, 1808-1834; Resistance and Rebellion; On the Haitian Revolution; and Songs of the Enslaved and Impersonations. The collection includes extracts from Richard Ligon, Hans Sloane, Joseph Addison, Edward Long, Loaudah Equiano, Matthew Gregory Lewis, Thomas Atwood, and representative poetry and slave songs.

This is the first critical edition of Christopher Smart's translation of Phaedrus' fables, and the first literary commentary on these fables in English. Many of the best-known Aesopian fables are in fact the work of the Roman poet Phaedrus. The fables are familiar yet fresh, and often have a startlingly contemporary flavour. Smart's versions successfully catch the spirit and humour of the Latin originals. The volume completes the distinguished edition of The Poetical Works of Christopher Smart.

The present volume, which contains miscellaneous English and Latin verse, written throughout his career, shows Smart as he appeared to his contemporaries: a brilliant but wayward scholar, who threw away a life of distinction at Cambridge to engage in the raffish world of the London theaters and pleasure gardens. By presenting the poems in chronological order, it also reveals the pattern of his evolution from both academic and popular roles into a poet dedicated to Christian service. Over thirty pieces in this volume have not appeared in any previous collection, and several are reprinted for the first time since the 18th century. Translations are provided for all Latin poems.

Published here for the first time since 1767, Christopher Smart's verse translation of Horace strengthens the impression made by all Smart's later verse of a poet of remarkable lyrical virtuosity and boldness of expression. Karina Williamson's informative introduction discusses Smart's principles and methods in the context of 18th-century attitudes to the translation of classical works. Full scholarly apparatus is provided, as is a detailed commentary which explains the more obscure passages.