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Introduction


What little is known of the life of Samuel Cobb (1675-1713) may be found
in the brief article in the _Dictionary of National Biography_ by W.P.
Courtney. He was born in London, and educated at Christ's Hospital and
at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he obtained the degrees of B.A.,
1698, and M.A., 1702. He was appointed "under grammar master" at
Christ's Hospital in 1702 and continued his connection with this school
until his early death. He had a reputation for wit and learning, and
also for imbibing somewhat too freely. In his poetry he especially
cultivated the style of the free Pindaric ode, a predilection which won
him a mention without honor in Johnson's life of Pope (_Lives of the
Poets_, ed. Birkbeck Hill, III, 227). Even the heroic couplets of his
poem on "Poetry" aim rather at pseudo-Pindaric diffuseness than at
epigrammatic concentration of statement. As a critic Cobb deserves
attention in spite of his mediocrity, or even because of it. He helps to
fill out the picture of the literary London of his time, and his
opinions and tastes provide valuable side-lights on such greater men as
Dennis, Addison, and Pope. "Of Poetry" belongs to the prolific literary