Since the groundwork had so recently been laid, Winstanley's problem,
far more than that of Phillips, was one of selection. In the _Theatrum
Poetarum_ 252 modern British poets are named. Of these Winstanley chose
to omit the 16 female and 33 Scottish poets. Of the remaining 203, he
dropped 68, and for the student of literary reputation these omissions
raise some interesting questions. Undoubtedly a few were inadvertent.
About a dozen were authors noted but not dated by Phillips, and it is
probable that Winstanley was unable to learn more about them. Fifteen
others were English poets who apparently did not write in the
vernacular. An additional fifteen were poets dated by Phillips but
described as inferior or almost forgotten. Still another fifteen were
older or early Renaissance poets whose names probably meant nothing to
Winstanley. On the other hand, he omits the following late Renaissance
or contemporary poets whose period is plainly indicated in the
_Theatrum Poetarum_ and who, we might suppose, would be known to anyone
attempting literary history in the year 1687: Richard Barnfield, Thomas
Campion, Francis Davison, John Hall of Durham, William Herbert, William
Leighton, Thomas Sackville, Henry Vaughan the Silurist, and Samuel
Woodford.

That most of Winstanley's omissions were deliberate, and were prompted
by some awareness of literary reputation, is suggested not only by his
request for help on a revised edition (which never materialized) but
also by the fact that he was able to add to the _Theatrum Poetarum_
thirty-four poets, almost all of whom could have been noted by
Phillips. Among these were such recent poets as Thomas Tusser, Giles
Fletcher the elder, Sir John Beaumont, Jasper Heywood, Philemon
Holland, Sir Thomas Overbury, John Taylor the Water Poet, and the Earl
of Rochester. The reader of this volume may want to have the additional