ABBOTT (Lemuel):

Poems on Various Subjects. Whereto is prefixed A Short Essay on the Structure of English Verse.

Nottingham: Printed for the Author, by Samuel Cresswell, 1765. FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. 8vo, 207 x 119 mms., pp. [xix], iii - v, 5 - 32, [4], iii- v [vi blank], [3] - 143 [144 blank], including list of subscribers, title-page in red and black, contemporary speckled calf, red leather label, paper label on cover, with the ownership inscription (in red ink) dated 22 April 1905 of Major C. E. Cresswell on the recto of the front free end-paper and the title-page, the oval armorial library stamp of Lt. Col. William Allen Potter, High Sheriff of Nottingham (1944) on the front paste-down end-paper. A very good to fine copy. This is only publication by Abbott (1730 - 1776), a Church of England Clergyman, that I have been able to trace. The subscribers include Isaac Hawkins Browne, Dr. [Erasmus] Darwin, and Charles Jennens (patron of the arts and librettist), to whom the volume is dedicated. The preface, on the aesthetics of poetry, is given over to a responsible discussion of accents and metre, while the topics of the poems include "The Song of Deborah and Barak," hymns, tributes to marriage, an ode to good humour, translations, Moses, and reprints Addison's "On Liberty." ESTC T42671 locates copies in Birmingham, BL, Cambridge, Bodleian, Nottinghamshire County Library, and Leeds in the UK; Cornell, Folger, Harvard, and McMaster in North America.

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Book number: 9344

Catalogue: Poetry

Keywords: poetry literary criticism literature

ADDISON (Joseph):

Poems on Several Occasions.

Glasgow: Printed by Robert and Andrew Foulis..., 1770. 12mo (in 6s), 123 x 69 mms., pp. [iv], 199 [200 blank], contemporary calf, spine ornately gilt in compartments, red leather label; upper and lower joints very slightly cracked, some rubbing of spine, but a very good copy. Gaskell 499,

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Book number: 9666

Catalogue: Poetry

Keywords: poetry printing literature

AKENSIDE (Mark):

The Poetical Works of Mark Akenside, M. D. Collated with the Best Editions: by Thomas Park.

London: Printed at the Stanhope Press, by Charles Whittingham...For John Sharpe..., 1805. 2 volumes in 1. Small 8vo, pp. [iv], 171 [172 blank]; [iv], 140, engraved frontispiece (by P. W. Tompkins after Richard Westall) for each volume, 20th century binding in maroon library cloth.

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Book number: 3302

Catalogue: Poetry

Keywords: poetry literature

ANACREON.

Odes of Anacreon. Translated into English Verse. With Notes. By Thomas Moore, Esq. Ninth Edition.

London: Printed for Carpenter and Son..., 1815. 2 volumes. 8vo, 163 x 99 mms., pp. [ix] x - xv [xvi blank], 175 [176 colophon]; [5] 6 - 148, including half-title in each volume, engraved portrait of Anacreon in volume, contemporary polished calf, gilt borders to a fan motif on each cover, spines richly gilt, morocco labels; an attractive set, but there is some slight damp-staining at the end of volume, the joints are slightly worn, and the upper front corner of volume 1 has been repaired. With the bookplate of Edward Gwent Vaughan Lloyd of Rhagatt, who was Sheriff of Merionetshire in 1891, on the recto of the front free end-paper of each volume and that of Robert H. Hayhurst on the front paste-down end-paper of volume one. Moore (1779 - 1852) published this translation of the odes of Anacreon in 1800, and the work was frequently reprinted. The third edition of 1803 attracted the attention of The Edinburgh Review, where the reviewer, the Reverend John Eyre wrote, "On the whole we think Mr Moore has damped the fire of his work by a profusion of epithet; and that, had he broken the uniformity of his diection with some passages of greater simplicity, he would have heightened our pleasure, without violating materially violating his own plan of translation. That plan, however, we think, is constructed with so little judgment, that he has totally failed in the important point of being faithful to the manner of his original...." Having regretted Moore's rendering of the "licentious" nature of Anacreon's odes, he concludes that Moore's translation "is much better calculated for a bagnio."

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Book number: 9883

Catalogue: Poetry

Keywords: poetry translation literature

ARIOSTO (Lodovico):

Orlando Furioso In English Heroical Verse. By Sir John Harington of Bathe, Knight. Now thirdly revised and amended, with the Addition of the Authors Epigrams. Principb[us], placuisse viris non ultima laus est. Horace.

London Printed by G. Miller for J. Parker, 1634. Folio, 273 x 164 mms., pp. [xviii], 423 [424 -432 index], [45 Epigrams, 46 blank], engraved title-page with vignette portraits of Ariosto and Harington, a partially clothed female figure to the left of the title (with a rather rude putto), centurion on right, 46 full-page engraved plates, tail-pieces, printed in double columns, with continuous text and registration going from the end of the twelfth book to the beginning of the fourteen (superstition rules), with very fine, well-inked impressions of the plates, bound in 18th calf, gilt border on covers, joints very skilfully restored and richly gilt spine with black morocco label laid down. With the autograph and date "John Barnard/ 1740" on the lower margin of the title-page; Barnard ( c. 1685 - 1764), born into a Quaker family, was a politician, and, according to ODNB "a devoutly evangelical churchman, of a latitudinarian bent, who preferred clergymen to be 'Tories in the Church and Whigs in the state...." He was exceptionally well-read, and I regret the absence of any annotations attributable to him. Peter France, in The Oxford Guide to English Literature in Translation (2000), comments that "Harington adopts the metre of the original, ottava rima. His translation, however, is anything but literal, feeling itself at liberty to abbreviate 'matters impertinent to us' [...], as well as freely reworking the phrasing of the original [...]. The result is a work quite distinct from the original, more robust and more directive of its readers, broader in its humour, less refined and allusive in its language, less airy and speculative in its treatment of the 'marvellous.' Harington's Orlando has been frequently derided (Ben Jonson flatly designated it 'under all translations the worst'). In recent criticism, however, it has tended to find a more sympathetic reception. [...] [C]ertain of Harington's deviations from Ariosto now tend to be seen as determined by cultural differences rather than insensitivity, and he is given credit for the fluency and élan which make his version one of the most enduringly enjoyable translations of the Furioso, as well as one of its most historically interesting readings. At its best, moreover, Harington's translation is not merely dashing but precise, shadowing the inflections of the original with an attentiveness and intelligence few later translators have matched." Stanzas 1 - 50 of Book XXXII were translated by Sir John's younger brother, Francis. The plates were first used in the 1591 edition and derive from Girolamo Porro's illustrations of the 1584 Venetian edition. Thomas Jefferson had a copy in his library. Lowndes p.64; Mary A. Scott, Elizabethan Translations from the Italian (1969); Sowerby, Library of Thomas Jefferson 4312.

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Book number: 9023

Catalogue: Poetry

Keywords: poetry translation literature

[ARMSTRONG (John)]:

The Economy of Love. A Poetical Essay.

Bristol [Printed at The Mercury Press], August 1813. 8vo, pp. xx, 43 [44 blank], including half-title, original boards, uncut; corner cut from blank leaf before half-title, spine defective with most of paper missing. Armstrong (1709 - 1779) published The Oeconomy of Love in 1736, and it was frequently reprinted thereafter, though he did not include it in his collected works. He revised and shortened the work for an edition published in 1768, in which he toned down some of the more lubricious passages. The text of the poem here is 617 lines long. The anonymous editor has supplied an introduction of some 15 pages, in which he makes much of the mention in the poem of Gaspar Tagliacozzi (1545 - 1599), who also has a place in Tristram Shandy, in a discourse about the surgical repair of noses.

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Book number: 5611

Catalogue: Poetry

Keywords: poetry sex literature Scottish Enlightenment

ARMSTRONG ([jOHN]), Dr.

The Poetical Works of Dr. Armstrong. Collated with the Best Editions, By Thomas Park.

London, Printed at the Stanhope Press, by Charles Whittingham...For John Sharpe..., 1807. Small 12mo, 126 x 77 mms., pp. [iv], [3] 4 - 162; [5] 6 - 164, engraved frontispiece in each volume by Cook after Stothardl, attractively bound in contemporary tree calf, gilt spine, red and olive morocco labels, an attractive and very good copy; front cover slightly scored.

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Book number: 9932

Catalogue: Poetry

Keywords: poetry binding literature

ARNOTT (Archibald Davidson):

The Coming of Spring and Other Poems. Privately Printed 1910.

[Liverpool] Ramsay Robb 1910. FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. Small 8vo, 165 x 125 mms., pp. [9], 10 - 71 [72 colophon], including half-title, photogravure portrait of author as frontispiece, original lime green cloth, blocked in gilt on front cover, reddish-brown dustwrapper (slightly tatty), with title and author on front cover; small tear to fore-margin of title-page neatly repaired, but a very good copy. Arnott (1870 - ?1910) was born in Glasgow but moved to London with his parents when he was about ten. He spent a year at the Royal College of Music under C.V. Stanford and Hubert Parry. Afterwards he studied under Frederick Corder. Graduated B. Mus. (1891) and D. Mus. (1901) at the University of Durham. Copac locates a copy at the BL, while OCLC locates several digital copies.

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Book number: 8562

Catalogue: Poetry

Keywords: poetry privately printed literature

ASHBY (Samuel):

Miscellaneous Poems. The Illustrious Friends; Address to Music and Poesy, &c. &c.

London: Printed for W. Miller..., 1794. FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. 4to, 245 x 190 mms., pp. xiv [xv Contents, xvi blank], 158, including list of subscribers, recently rebound in quarter calf, raised bands between gilt rules, morocco label, marbled boards; text washed but remains of large stain (approximately one quarter of each leaf, lower left-hand corner) persist to about page 66. With the contemporary autograph of the M. P., Edward Monckton, one of the subscribers, on the title-page. Monckton also subscribed to Leigh Hunt's Juvenilia (1803). Ashby is unknown to ODND, but he was a native of Bungay, and many of the subscribers are from East Anglia. The poems include "Reply to the Goitre," "The Captive Fly," "The Anniversary of Belinda's Birth-Day," and concludes with "Address to Music and Poesy." One poem, "Event in Scotland," seems curiously mis-named, as it is a rape narrative, in which a Youth, who "glows with wild desire" pursues the daughter of Acasto, a Scottish laird (apparently), who, in repelling him, throws herself off a precipice to her death. Whether this alludes to an actual "event" (hence the title) or is intended to be an allegory in the manner of the next poems, "Bride-Cake; An Allegorical Vision" is unclear. ESTC T39429 locates copies in BL, Cambridge, Bodleian; American Philosophical Society, Princeton, Minnesota, Yale. OCLC adds Indiana and National Library of Australia.

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Book number: 6374

Catalogue: Poetry

Keywords: poetry provincial literature

[ASHLEY (Florence Emily)]:

Darmayne and Other Poems.

London: Printed for the Author by Cassell, Petter, & Galpin, Ludgate Hill, E. C. 1872. FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. 8vo, 185 x 124 mms., pp viii [9] 10 - 162, including half-title, publisher's original green cloth, blocked in gilt on front cover; corner cut from half-title, but a very good copy. Copies in UCLA, Yale, North Carolina, BL, Aberdeen. Waterloo, York (Toronto).

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Book number: 10190

Catalogue: Poetry

Keywords: poetry women literature

BAILEY (Thomas):

The Carnival of Death. A Poem, In Two Cantos.

London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown..., 1822 FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. 8vo (in 4s), pp.l [iv], 122 [123 - 124 adverts], original boards, uncut; binding slightly soiled, paper label on spine, top and base of spine chipped, ex-library with City of Nottingham Public Library bookplate on front paste-down end-paper and their stamp on verso of title-page. The newspaper editor and author of several books, Thomas Bailey (1784 - 1856) began his working life with his father, a silk hosier, then became a wine merchant, and turned his hand to politics and poetry. The present work was reviewed in The Imperial magazine; or, Compendium of religious, moral and philosophical Knowledge, commenting that Bailey had commenced his task "under many disadvantages. The imagination of his readers anticipates the brilliancy of his thoughts and descriptions, and expectation grows too sanguine for the efforts of genius to gratify. On occasions like these, every man becomes a poet; and from the beams that sparkle in the vision is of a glowing but bewildered fancy, the productions of the highest order of intellect are perused with something bordering on dissatisfaction. Hence, the negative awards of critical justice, to the poet who creates or annihilates worlds, deluges the earth with water, or lights kup the final conflagration, operate with all the influence which decided approbation can impart, on occasions which nothing momentous commends. Under so peculiar and inauspicious, the author who escapes censure may be said to merit praise." Now you know.

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Book number: 10215

Catalogue: Poetry

Keywords: poetry devil literature

BAKER (Henry):

The Universe. A Poem. Intended To restrain the Pride of Man. By Mr. Baker.

London: Printed for T. Worrall..., [no date] [1734]. 8vo, 187 x 117 mms., pp. 8, 40 [41 - 48 adverts], engraved frontispiece (detaching at upper margin); disbound; corners creased. Baker (1698 - 1774) will be remembered by collectors and scholars as the author of two books on the microscope, The Microscope Made Easy (1742) and Employment for the Microscope (1753). Later editions of this work put the word "Philosophical" before "Poem." The work was reprinted several times in the 18th century and in 1808, with notes by A. Crocker, with the reviewer in The Annual Review and History of Literature for 1809 commenting that "The versification of Mr. Baker is of the good old school, that of Dryden and Prior. Though somewhat negligent, it has in parts a force and freedom which followers of Pope have vainly endeavoured to unite with their more regular harmony." ODNB in its article on Baker refers an edition of 1727 as the first publication of the poem. ESTC does not list this edition. OCLC refers to a digital version " Printed for T. Morral sic]" published in 1727 and 19840508 locates three copies, Colordao at Denver, Michigan, and Princeton. These copies are also undated and lack the adverts. However,1727 as a conjectural date is probably wrong. See G. R. Potter's note on the dating of the work in Modern Philology (1932), 29, 3; 301 -321.

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Book number: 8127

Catalogue: Poetry

Keywords: poetry cosmology literature

BARBAULD (Anna Laetitia):

Poems. A New Edition, Corrected, to which is added, An Epistle to William Wilberforce.

London: Printed for Joseph Jonson..., 1792. 8vo, 190 x 118 mms., iv, 152, contemporary tree calf, gilt rules on spine, black leather label; some slight wear to joints but a very good copy, with, in a contemporary hand "Doncaster" and "Rob. Price/1801" on the top margin of the title-page. Barbauld's fine poem addressed to William Wilberforce, "Epistle To William Wilberforce, Esq. on the Rejection of the Bill for Abolishing the Slave Trade" appears here for the first time.

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Book number: 10292

Catalogue: Poetry

Keywords: poetry women LITERATURE

BATTISTA (Giuseppe):

Delle Poesi Meliche di Giuseppe Battista. Parte Prima [Quarta[. All'Ilustriss & Eccelentiss. Sig. Francesco Mario Caracciolo, Principe d'Auellino, gran Cancelliere, e Capitan generale della Cacualleria Napoletana nelo Stato di Milano. Quarta Impressione.

In Venetia, Presso Abbondio Menafogiio, Et Valentino Mortal. M.DC.LVI. 1666. 4 volumes i 1. 12mo, 132 x 70 mms., pp. [xxxii], 197 n[198 - 204 contents]; 150 [151 -154 contents]; [xvi, 161 [162 - 164 contents]; [xii], 308, with title-pages for parts 2, 3, and 4 dated 1665, fine engraved general frontispiece for the four parts, bound in contemporary vellum (somewhat soiled), ink title on spine. A very good copy. * The Itlalian poet Giuseppe Battista (1610 - 1665) is described as a marinist poet; and Wikipedia tells me that "marinism" is "Marinism (Italian: marinismo, or secentismo, "17th century") is the name now given to an ornate, witty style of poetry and verse drama written in imitation of Giambattista Marino (1569–1625), following in particular La Lira and L'Adone." His poetry is said to have enjoyed great popularity in its day, and there were several reprints of these particular volumes. His baroque, epigrammatic verse has clear overtones of deliberate novelty for novelty's sake.

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Book number: 10202

Catalogue: Poetry

Keywords: poetry baroque literature

BEATTIE (James). CHALMERS (Alexander), editor:

[Poems] The Minstrel; Or, The Progress of Genius: with Other Poems, Many of which, including the translations, are now reprinted from the scarce copies, and are not to be found in any other edition. To which are prefixed Memoirs of the Life of the Author, by Alexander Chalmers, F. S. A.

London: Printed for F. C. and J. Rivington..., 1811. 12mo, 157 x 95 mms., pp. [ii], xxxiv, [6], 216, engraved portrait of Beattie (offsetting onto title-page), 3 other engraved plates. UNIFORMLY BOUND WITH: The Minstrel: In Two Books With Some Other Poems. By James Beattie, D. D. To which are now added, Miscellanies by James Hay Beattie. With an Account of his Life and Character. In Two Volumes. Volume II. London: Printed by J. McCreery...For J. Johnson..., 1807. 2 volumes. Contemporary half red sheepskin, grey boards, gilt spines (a bit rubbed). A good, but probably made-up set, with the armorial bookplate of W. D. Sneyd and his autograph and date - "William Debank Sneyd/ g. 21st 1817" - on the free end-papers of each volume. Chalmers' assertion that some of the works are printed from "scarce copies" is correct, especially in the case of Beattie's translation of Virgil. His son, James Hay Beattie (1768 - 1790) was cogently memorialized by his father in the account of his life that opens the second volume.

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Book number: 9184

Catalogue: Poetry

Keywords: poetry biography Scottish Enlightenment