Edmund Waller, Instructions to a Painter

Glyn Pursglove (Swansea University)
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Waller's

Instructions to a Painter

has an importance in the history of English poetry rather greater than the one its own relatively modest qualities might suggest. The poem's full title was

Instructions to a painter, for the drawing of a picture of the state and posture of the English forces at sea, under the command of His Royal Highness in the conclusion of the year 1664

. Its first publication was as a broadside. An expanded second edition (1666) added to essentially the same title a clause to explain that the poem dealt with

the battel & victory obtained over the Dutch, June 3, 1665

. In 1658 Waller contributed commendatory verses to a translation, by his friend Sir Thomas Higgons, of the Italian poet Giovanni Francesco Busenello's poem (addressed to the painter Pietro Liberi) in…

421 words

Citation: Pursglove, Glyn. "Instructions to a Painter". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 October 2000 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4463, accessed 19 March 2024.]

4463 Instructions to a Painter 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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