INTRODUCTION
and a value beyond that of perhaps technically better minor poetry produced under English skies.
The first verses actually written and published in Australia seem to have been the Royal Birthday Odes of Michael Robinson, which were printed as broadsides from 1810 to 1821. Their publication in book form was announced in The Hobart Town Gazette of 23rd March, 1822, but no copy of such a volume is at present known to exist. The famous “Prologue,” said to have been recited at the first dramatic performance in Australia, on January 17th, 1796 (when Dr. Young’s tragedy “The Revenge” and “The Hotel” were played in a temporary theatre at Sydney), was for a long time attributed to the notorious George Barrington, and ranked as the first verse produced in Australia. There is, however, no evidence to support this claim. The lines first appeared in a volume called “Original Poems and Translations” chiefly by Susannah Watts, published in London in 1802, a few months before the appearance of the “History of New South Wales” (1803)—known as George Barrington’s—which also, in all probability, was not written by Barrington. In Susannah Watts’ books the Prologue is stated to be written by “A Gentleman,” but there is no clue to the name of the author. Mr. Barron Field, Judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, printed in Sydney in 1819 his “First Fruits of Australian Poetry,” for private circulation. Field was a friend of Charles Lamb, who addressed to him the letter printed in “The Essays of Elia” under the title of “Distant Corre-
xxi
