Presents the works of Ann Yearsley, a laboring-class poet' whose writing forms part of an under-represented area of romanticism. This work includes her play "Earl Goodwin" and novel "The Royal Captives".

Volume 1: Poetry and Letters This volume makes available all Yearsley's published and unpublished poetry. The core of the volume is her three published collections (Poems on Several Occasions; Poems on Various Subjects; The Rural Lyre) plus the occasional poems that appeared throughout her literary career. The volume contains several poems by Yearsley previously unknown to scholarship - some poems from her early career, and a sequence published in the periodical press during the late 1780s. Also included are all known surviving letters to, from or about Yearsley. General Introduction Bibliography Introduction Poems 1 Lines Addressed to the Revd Mr Leeves on his Visiting Stella to Cowslip Green 2 To Mr Grey Cowper 3 Night. To Stella 4 Thoughts on the Author's Own Death. Written when Very Young 5 To a Friend; on Valentine's Day 6 Another Valentine. To Another Person 7 To Mrs. V____n 8 A Fragment 9 On the Sudden Death of a Friend 10 To Mr. R____, on his Benevolent Scheme for Rescuing Poor Children from Vice and Misery, by Promoting Sunday Schools 11 To Mrs. M____s 12 To Stella; on a Visit to Mrs. Montagu 13 To the Same; on her Accusing the Author of Flattery, and of Ascribing to the Creature that Praise which is due only to the Creator 14 Soliloquy 15 Address to Friendship 16 To the Honourable H____e W____e, on Reading the Castle of Otranto. December, 1784 17 To Her Grace the Duchess Dowager of Portland 18 On Mrs. Montagu 19 Clift on Hill. Written in January 1785 20 To Stella 21 Extempore on the Author's being Reprov'd by her Mother and Brother when a Girl 22 Despondence 23 The Following Lines were Written Extempore with a Pencil in the Stock-Exchange 24 To Mr Chetwood 25 Ode on the Late Happy Reconciliation between His Majesty and the Prince of Wales: by Mrs. Yearsley 26 Lines, on Entering Lady Wallace's Study, her Ladyship being Absent. By Mrs. Yearsley, the Poetess of Bristol 27 Addressed to Sensibility 28 On the Death of Her Grace, the Duchess Dowager of Portland 29 To a Sensible but Passionate Friend 30 To the Bristol Marine Society 31 Familiar Epistle to a Friend, who Appeared Hurt on the Author's Desiring Him to Live 'Upon Remembrance' 32 Song 33 To Mr. V____, on his Pronouncing the Author to be in Love, when She Wrote the Preceding 34 Epitaph, on the Sudden Death of an Accomplished Youth (Designed for a Tomb-Stone) 35 Elegy, Written on the Banks of the Avon, where the Author took a last Farewel of her Brother 36 To Miss Eliza Dawson, of Oxton, Yorkshire 37 To Indifference 38 Song 39 To Those who Accuse the Author of Ingratitude 40 To Frederick Yearsley, on his Return from the Sacred Font, where the Right Honourable the Earl of Bristol stood Sponsor, the Child being Distinguished by taking his Lordship's Name 41 On the Death of Frederick Yearsley 42 Ode, to Miss Shiells, on her Art of Painting 43 Lines, Composed in a Carriage, on Seeing an Half-blown Primrose in the Mouth of a Peasant; the Author being on the Road to Bath 44 To Mr. ****, an Unlettered Poet, on Genius Unimproved 45 On being Presented with a Silver Pen 46 Addressed to Ignorance, Occasioned by a Gentleman's Desiring the Author never to Assume a Knowledge of the Ancients 47 Addressed to Revenge. A Fragment 48 The Materialist 49 Lucy, a Tale for the Ladies 50 On Jephthah's Vow, taken in a Literal Sense 51 Written on a Visit 52 Elegy, on Mr. Chatterton 53 Absence, a Juvenile Piece 54 On being Introduced to a Gentleman, who had Laboured under an Affliction Sixteen Years 55 On the Remembrance of a Mother 56 Effusion. To the Right Honourable the Earl of Bristol, &c. 57 Stanzas, Written by Mrs. Yearsley, on her Leaving London 58 Elegy, on Visiting the Hermitage, near Bath, by Mrs. Yearsley, the Bristol Milk-Woman 59 To Mr G*****, who Declined Making Himself known to the Author 60 A Poem on the Inhumanity of the Slave-Trade 61 Absence: Occasioned by some Storms having Deprived the Author of her expected Friends. To ****** 62 To ****** on his Leaving Clift on 63 To Wilmer Gossip Esqr on Offering a 'Sure Guide to Hell' for his Perusal 64 Address to Friendship 65 On Passing the Window of Horatio, and Seeing Him Sitting in a Melancholy Attitude 66 Sappho, Justified, either way To ****** 67 Lines Written to Wilmer Gossip Esqr. on Hearing Him Assert that We were Under the Guidance of Self Interest - Monday Night the 8th Decem. 1788 Past 10 o'Clock 68 On Eliza's Birth Day 69 To the King. On His Majesty's Arrival at Cheltenham 1788 70 To Dorinda on Hearing Her Sing, in an Elegant Circle at Bristol Wells 71 Song 72 Ann Yearsley versus Anthony Pasquin 73 Verses on the Death of Miss Scraft on who died Sept. 1, 1788 Aged Twenty Two Years 74 Stanzas of Woe, Addressed from the Heart on a Bed of Illness, to Levi Eames, Esq. Late Mayor of the City of Bristol 75 To William Cromartie Yearsley. On his Becoming a Pupil to Mr. **** 76 On the Death of Mr. Smith, Surgeon 77 Addressed by Mrs. Yearsley to a recent Widower, with whom She had had a Disagreement 78 Reflections on the Death of Louis XVI 79 Sequel to Reflections on the Death of Louis XVI 80 An Elegy on Marie Antoinette, of Austria, Ci-Devant Queen of France 81 A Poem on the Last Interview between the King of Poland and Loraski 82 Sonnet for June 26, 1794 83 Sonnet on the Snow Drop 84 The Sailor's Song 85 Sonnet 86 The Pilgrim 87 An Original: or the Elegy of Laura, Tuned to the Harp of Apollo 88 Dedicated to Louis XIV 89 Anarchy: a Sonnet by Mrs. Yearsley 90 Peace by Ann Yearsley 91 Brutus, a Fragment 92 Familiar Poem to Milo, an Aged Friend, who Wished the Author Riches 93 Elegy Sacred to the Memory of Lord William Russel 94 Soliloquy 95 The Consul C. Fannius to Fannius Didius 96 Familiar Poem from Nisa to Fulvia of the Vale 97 Familiar Poem from Caius Fannius to Plautus 98 Remonstrance in the Platonic Shade, Flourishing on an Height 99 Address to Friendship; a Fragment. Gratefully Inscribed to the Right Honourable the Earl of Bristol and Lord Bishop of Derry 100 Paroxysm of the Moment 101 To the Memory of James Shiells Esq. Aged Sixty-Six 102 The Captive Linnet 103 Sonnet to - 104 Sonnet to the Same, Written at Morn, on St. Vincent's Rock, Bristol Hot-Wells 105 The Genius of England, on the Rock of Ages, Recommending Order, Commerce and Union to the Britons 106 Bristol Elegy 107 Extempore on Hearing a Gentleman Play a Hymn on his Flute, Thursday July the Thirty-First, Eleven at Night, MDCCXCV. Near the Author's Window at Bristol Wells 108 To Mira, on the Care of her Infant 109 The Rustic's Avowal of Faith 110 Prayer and Resignation 111 To the Lord Bishop of Exeter Mourning the Death of his Son, Mr. C. Buller, who Died of a Decline, which He Bore with Resignation, at Bristol Wells 112 The Indifferent Shepherdess to Colin 113 To Mr Joseph Cottle on Receiving his Elegant Production of John the Baptist Letters Appendix 1: Prefatory Material to Poems on Several Occasions (1785) Appendix 2: Prefatory Material to Poems on Various Subjects (1787) Appendix 3: Prefatory Material to The Rural Lyre (1796) Appendix 4: Selected Letters about Ann Yearsley Appendix 5: Ann Yearsley's Circulating Library Catalogue Appendix 6: Biographical Directory Editorial Notes Index of Poem Titles Index of First Lines Volume 2: Earl Goodwin Yearsley's play Earl Goodwin was performed to acclaim in November 1789 and published in 1791. Republished here for the first time, Andrews offers a full comparison of the play text (as submitted to the Lord Chamberlain in 1789) with the printed text of 1791. Introduction Earl Goodwin, an Historical Play (1791) Preface Prologue Exordium Dramatis Personae Act I Act II Act III Act IV Act V Epilogue Appendix: Actors' Biographical Directory Editorial Notes Volume 3: The Royal Captives The Royal Captives was one of the last radical novels published in the 1790s, and marks the beginning of a significant shift in eighteenth-century literary culture. Yearsley was paid GBP200, an unheard-of sum for a debut novelist. It is republished here for the first time since 1795, with full editorial apparatus. Introduction The Royal Captives: A Fragment of Secret History (1795) Preface Volume I Volume II Volume III Volume IV Editorial Notes

'brings together for the first time all of Yearsley's surviving writings, showing the breadth and depth of her literary achievement ... a major milestone ... sheds important new light on Romantic-era women writers, the nature of patronage at the end of the eighteenth century, and Bristol's literary and political culture.' Notes and Queries 'These volumes are necessary: not merely to complete and correct the late twentieth-century rehabilitation of this understandably pugnacious writer who valued her own "savage, stubborn will", but more importantly, to demonstrate all the things it is that her poems know.' Times Literary Supplement