Transcribed from the 1879 John Murray edition ,
REJECTED ADDRESSES:
OR,
THE NEWTHEATRUM POETARUM
By JAMESSMITH & HORACE SMITH.
“Fired that the House reject him! ’Sdeath, I’ll print it,
And shame the Fools!”Pope.
NEW EDITION.
LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
1879
“I think the ‘RejectedAddresses’ by far the best thing of the kind since‘The Rolliad,’ and wish you had publishedthem. Tell the author ‘I forgive him, were he twentytimes over our satirist;’ and think his imitations not atall inferior to the famous ones of Hawkins Browne.”
Lord Byron toMr. Murray, Oct. 19, 1812.
“I like the volume of ‘Rejected Addresses’better and better.”
Lord Byron toMr. Murray, Oct. 19, 1812.
“I take the ‘Rejected Addresses’ to be thevery best imitations (and often of difficult originals) that everwere made; and considering their great extent and variety, toindicate a talent to which I do not know where to look for aparallel. Some few of them descend to the level ofparodies; but by far the greater part are of a much higherdescription.”
LordJeffrey (in 1843), Note in Essays, iv.470
p.iiiADVERTISEMENT
TO
THE TWENTY-SECOND EDITION.
James Smith and Horace Smith, authors of the RejectedAddresses; or, The New Theatrum Poetarum, were thesons of Robert Smith, solicitor to the Board of Ordnance. James was born at No. 36, Basinghall Street, London, on the 10thof February, 1775; and Horace in the same house on the 31st ofDecember, 1779.
James was educated under the Rev. Mr. Burford at Chigwell inEssex; articled to his father on leaving school, subsequentlytaken into partnership with him, and eventually succeeded to hisfather’s business, as well as his appointment of solicitorto the Ordnance. Horace received the same education as hisbrother, became a member of the Stock Exchange in London,acquired a fortune, and retired with his wife and family toBrighton. James, who lived and died single, was the authorof several small copies of verses, since collected by hisbrother; and Horace was the author of “BrambletyeHouse,” a novel in three volumes, well received at the timeof its publication.
The work by which the brothers are best known, and by whichthey will long co