Edmund Smith (1672–1710), born Edmund Neale, was a minor English poet in the early 18th century. He is little read today but Samuel Johnson included him in his Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets in 1781.

Biography

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The son of a successful merchant, Edmund Smith attended Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford where he stayed until 1705.[1] Smith translated Phèdre by Racine which was staged in 1707 [2] and died in Wiltshire in 1710.

Notable works

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  • Phaedra and Hippolitus (1707) (translation of Phèdre by Racine)
  • A poem on the death of Mr. John Philips (1710)
  • Works (1714) (posthumous publication)
  • Thales; a monody, sacred to the memory of Dr. Pococke. In imitation of Spenser (1750) (posthumous publication)

Notes

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  1. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1781). Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets vol. 2. pp. 1–22. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 21 August 2007.
  2. ^ Chalmers, Alexander (1812–17). General Biographical Dictionary 28. pp. 107–13. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 21 August 2007.
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