Belshazzar: A Dramatic Poem.

London: John Murray..., 1822. FIRST EDITION. Tall 8vo, 220 x 124 mms., pp. iv [5] 6 - 162 [163 blank, 164 colophon], contemporary straight-grained dark red morocco, with gilt panels within gilt border, gilt spine, all edges gilt; some wear to joints and corners; front cover detached, with the bookplate of Edward Chatterton Orpen, whose library sold at Sotheby's in 1903. The poet, historian, and one of the "Oriel Noetics," Milman (1791 - 1868) published this poem the year after he had been elected Professor of Poetry at Oxford. The Monthly Review in 1822, thought it fell below the very high standard of his previous poetic adventures and concluded that "It will afford matter of triumph to puny wits; who, we suppose, will console their own imbecility, by wholesale and unmitigated reprehension of the puerilities (as we have heard them called) of this confessedly imperfect production. To all who can appreciated Mr. Milman, it must be a matter of regret, mingled with much applause. "The British Critic, and Quarterly Theological Review was more positive, using the word "magnificence" to describe the conclusion of the poem and concluding the review with this comment: "While Mr. Milman continues to write thus we shall not be forward to accuse him of superfoetation [yes, I had to look it up too]. We trust that his muse has been diligent in her collections for future song during her rambles through the fields of 'fair and fervid Italy:' and that an English harp shall be strung on the banks of the Mincio and Po which will not swell to notes of unhallowed voluptuousness nor grate harshly with the tuneless discords of pseudo-metaphysical Atheism." Well, of course, we can't have any of that "unhallowed volutousness" in our midst.