The Works of Richard Hurd, Volume 1 (of 8)

This volume marks the opening of an ambitious collected edition of one of eighteenth-century Britain's most discerning literary critics. Richard Hurd, the Bishop of Worcester and celebrated commentator on classical literature, turns his considerable analytical powers to Horace's "Epistle to the Pisos" (the "Ars Poetica"), that ancient treatise on the art of verse that has shaped poetic theory for two millennia. Hurd offers both a meticulous English commentary on Horace's often knotty text and a series of critical dissertations that range far beyond mere explication. He reflects on his own intellectual formation, tracing the arc of his education to establish the authority behind his interpretations. The volume tackles the big questions that have tormented poets and critics alike: the nature of poetic license, the demands of unity in composition, and the delicate balance between innovation and fidelity to tradition. For modern readers discovering Hurd, this volume reveals a critic of considerable intellectual honesty, willing to challenge established interpretations while remaining deeply respectful of his classical source. It stands as a window into how educated Britons once approached the ancients: not as dusty monuments but as living interlocutors in an ongoing conversation about art.