Christopher Smart, Jubilate Agno

Neil Curry (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.05: English Writing and Culture from the Glorious Revolution to the French Revolution, 1689-1789.
Vol. editors: Paul Baines (University of Liverpool), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Pat Rogers (University of South Florida), Nicholas Seager (University of Keele)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1758 - 1763

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poetry (any)

Resources

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From dated entries in the text of the poem itself it is possible to calculate that Smart began writing

Jubilate Agno

in June 1758, when he was confined in a private madhouse run by Dr Potter in Bethnal Green, London. The handwritten last line – the text stops half way down the page, so it cannot be considered as a

final

line –was written on 30th January 1763, the day when he was ‘liberated' (it does not seem that he was officially released) by John Sherratt. What happened to the manuscript then is not known. Somehow it came into the possession of the Revd. Thomas Cawardine, who was involved in the treatment of William Cowper, who had also been locked up in another madhouse. What possible use they could have made of it in their ‘treatment' is hard to imagine, but it remained among…

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1902 words

Citation: Curry, Neil. "Jubilate Agno". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 December 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=23057, accessed 19 April 2024.]

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