Henry Hall (c. 1656-1707), Organist of Hereford Cathedral and composer of church music, was also a compulsive writer of lively and irreverent verse, a notably convivial local personality, and a fiercely Jacobite opponent of William III and Mary II. Political satires feature prominently among the 150 mainly unpublished poems and songs attributable to him. These also include outspoken epistles to like-minded male friends, local satires, drinking songs, love poems, riddles, and tributes to national figures, among them John Dryden and his friend Henry Purcell. In this first study of Hall's poetic output Oliver Pickering places him in context and surveys in detail the manuscript and printed circulation of his work. Twenty-five poems have been chosen for editing, all but one previously unpublished.

Oliver Pickering, formerly Deputy Head of Special Collections in Leeds University Library, is Honorary Fellow in the School of English at Leeds and a Fellow of the English Association.