Metaphysical poets Flecknoe" and Joseph Addison, in quoting him, singled out the poetry of George Herbert as providing a flagrant example. There is no scholarly consensus regarding which English poets or poems fit within the Metaphysical genre. In his initial use of the term, Johnson quoted just three poets: Abraham Cowley, John Donne, and John Cleveland. Colin Burrow, writing for the "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", singles out John Donne, George Herbert, Henry Vaughan, Andrew Marvell, and Richard Crashaw as 'central figures', while naming many more, all or part of whose work has been identified as sharing its characteristics. Herbert Grierson’s "Metaphysical
Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets also included more Scottish poets (though excluding dialect poetry) and two volumes of translations from the Classical writers. The accompanying biographies of the poets were written by Anderson himself. From the point of view of comprehensive coverage, Alexander Chalmers advanced little beyond his predecessor in his "The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper" (1810). The main difference is that for those poets who appeared in the ‘Johnson edition’, Johnson’s lives are retained. At this date it is conceded in the preface that, “after all the objections that have been offered, [they] must ever be the foundation of