The English Short Title Catalog Entry for Matthew Prior, Poems on several occasions: consisting of odes, satyrs and epistles; with some select translations and imitations.  1707

ESTC System No.	006346555
ESTC Citation No.	T75635
Author - personal	Prior, Matthew, 1664-1721.
Collective title	Poems. Selected poems
Title	Poems on several occasions: consisting of odes, satyrs and epistles; with some select translations and imitations.
Publisher/year	London : printed for R. Burrough, and J. Baker, at the Sun and Moon in Cornhil, and E. Curll, at the Peacock without Temple-Bar, 1707.
Physical descr.	[8],128[i.e.144]p. ;  8o.
General note	The author Matthew Prior is named in the prefatory advertisement.
	An unauthorized edition.
	With an initial advertisement leaf.
	Pp.43-58 repeated in pagination.

        This "collected edition" of Prior's work, published while he was still alive, is one of the most "modern" things about his work.  He operates as modern poets do, publishing single poems or groups of poems periodically, and reissuing them in collections to appeal to the audience built up by the the smaller, cheaper editions.  When "unauthorized editions" emerged, such as this one, he welcomed the spread of his fame and used the occasion to produce his own editions.  Poets in this era still lived by the "patronage" system, which accounts for Prior's extensive, to our eyes fulsomely praise-stuffed dedicatory prefaces to the lords Dorset and Harley.  The nobles' gifts and control of governmental appointments were as essential to the careers of men like Prior as livings in the Church had been for Donne, Herrick, and Herbert in an earlier era.  The alternative was "subscription" publication, which gradually allowed collaborating printers and poets to establish a pool of money sufficient to support printing and sale of new works.  Think of this as C17-18 "crowd sourcing."

        An example of Prior's earliest publications were the "broadsheets," single folio leaves containing a single poem, designed to be sold on the street for a penny or less. This is the earliest example in the ESTC:

ESTC System No.	006166632
ESTC Citation No.	R172574
Author - personal	Prior, Matthew, 1664-1721.
Title	A ballad on the battle of the two dukes.
Publisher/year	[London : s.n., 1688?]
Physical descr.	1 sheet (2 p.) :  ill. (woodcut) ;  39 cm (2⁰)
General note	Caption title.
	Imprint from Wing.
	First line: To lordings proud I tune my song,.
	With one woodcut illustration.