Della-Cruscans [key] [from the Accademia della Crusca, founded for linguistic purity, Florence, 16th cent.], a group of English poets living in Italy at the end of the 18th cent. who published pretentious, sentimental verse in The Arno (1784) and The Florence Miscellany (1785). Robert Merry, writing as “Della Crusca,” Bertie Greatheed, William Parsons, and Mrs. Piozzi, under other names, were the contributors. In England their poetry and that of their followers, including Hannah Cowley, was published in the World and collected in the British Album (1789–91). Their verses were ridiculed by William Gifford.
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