POETICAL WORKS OF JOHN TRUMBULL, LL. D. CONTAINING M'FINGAL, A MODERN EPIC POEM, REVISED AND CORRECTED, WITH COPIOUS EXPLANATORY NOTES; THE PROGRESS OF DULNESS; AND A COLLECTION OF POEMS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS, WRITTEN BEFORE AND DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. HARTFORD: PRINTED FOR SAMUEL G. GOODRICH, BY LINCOLN & STONE. M DCCC XX. District of Connecticut, ss. LS] B fourth year of the Independence of the United States of America. JOHN TRUMBULL, of the said District, hath deposited in this office the title of a Book, the right whereof he claims as Author, in the words following, to wit. The "Poetical Works of John Trumbull, LL. D. containing M Fingal, a modern epic "poem, revised and corrected, with copious explanatory notes; the Progress of Dul"ness; and a collection of Poems on various subjects, written before and during the "Revolutionary War." E it remembered, That on the seventh day of December, in the forty In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled "An act "for the encouragement of learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts and "Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein men"tioned." CHARLES A. INGERSOLL, Clerk of the District of Connecticut. A true copy of Record, examined and sealed by me, CHARLES A. INGERSOLL, Clerk of the District of Connecticut. Library of E. O. Barnes 4-26-40 Replace MEMOIR OF THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF JOHN TRUMBULL, LL. D. M'FINGAL, the principal Poem in this collection, has been more than forty years before the public, and has passed through the ordeal of criticism, in all its various forms of gazettes, magazines and reviews, both in England and America. Being published anonymously, the world were left to their conjectures, as to the author. The first part of the poem, containing the two first cantos, was printed in Philadelphia, in the fall of the year 1775; and in the course of the next year, reprinted in London, where it passed through several editions. The nature of the subject and the situation of the times gave it popularity with the anti-ministerial party, who were averse to the war with America: but it was asserted that the author was an Englishman. Sometimes he was affirmed to be an Oxford scholar, then on his travels in this country; sometimes a British officer, who had been superceded in their service, had joined the Americans and written the poem in revenge. When it was afterwards discovered that the writer was a native of New-England, he of course received his due share of that obloquy and contempt, which is lavished by 1 |