More than one hundred pre-1800 editions of Congreve’s plays, poems, and collected works were donated by John Hodges to UT after his death. John Hodges wanted his collection to be available to the wider scholarly community. The editors aimed to provide a catalog of the Hodges collection, with some bibliographical information. 1800 was chosen as the terminal date for two reasons: the end of the eighteenth century marked the end of a particular period of Congreve’s reputation and popularity, and the Hodges collection has few nineteenth-century editions.

The items have been arranged in chronological order according to the first publication of the individual work. For example, the first item listed is Incognita (1692), although the only separate Restoration or eighteenth-century edition of it in the Hodges collection is that of 1713. Each item – whether a distinct edition, a different issue, or a duplicate – has been numbered for reference purposes. The editors have listed together all separate publications of the individual works. The editors have followed the catalog of individual works with the editions of collected poems, the dramatic works, and the collected works, and finally with a list of Congreveana.