BEATTIE (James):

Poems on Several Subjects. A New Edition, Corrected.

London: Printed for W. Johnston, 1766. Small 8vo, 153 x 93 mms., pp. [viii], 166, contemporary sheepskin, later reback, red morocco label; a good to very good copy with the armorial bookplate of S. Nichol on the front paste-down end-paper, and his autograph on the top margin of the recto of the front free end-paper, and, in a different hand "given to [?Terry]/ Henry Morgan/ Sept. 1832." Beattie (1735 - 1803) published his first volume of poems in 1760, and several of the poems printed there are not reprinted here. Two new poems appear here: "Epistle to Mr. Blacklock," and "The Battle of the Pygmies and Cranes." Two items reprinted here appeared earlier in 1765, "The Judgment of Paris," and Beattie's vicious attack on Charles Churchill, "On the report of a Monument to be erected in Westminster-Abbbey, to the Memory of a Late Author." Beattie describes Churchill as being noted "For ribaldry, for libels, lewdness, lies, For blasphemy of all the Good and Wise"; and these are some of the milder epithets. ESTC locates nine copies in British and Continental libraries, and Boston Athanaeum, Columbia, Illinois, Minnesota, Yale, and Toronto in North America.

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Book number: 8239

Catalogue: Poems

Keywords: poems Scotland literature Scottish Enlightenment

BISHOP (Samuel):

Poems on Various Subjects. The Second Edition.

London: Printed by S. Strahan...For Cadell and Davies..., inter alia, 1800. 2 volumes. 8vo, 160 x 90 mms., pp. xxiii [xxiv note about press errors], 191 [192 blank]; viii, 192, contemporary tree calf, gilt spines, red leather labels; joints rubbed, corners a bit worn, but a very good set with the autograph "John Kearney" on the title-page of each volume. THe poet and school teacher Samuel Bishop (1731 - 1795) wrote a number of poems but published very few in his lifetime. A fine quarto edition was published in 1796 after his death, edited and produced by Thomas Clare, who married Bishop's widow. ODNB notes that Southey said of him, that "no other poet crowds so many syllables into a verse … His domestic poems breathe a Dutch spirit—by which I mean a very amiable and happy feeling of domestic duties and enjoyments." The Monthly Magazine in 1796 announced the subscription volume of 1796: "Proposals have been circulated, soliciting subscribers for the publication of the Poetical Works of the Rev. Samuel Bishop. This gentleman's known talents may be expected to procure a respectable subscription."

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Book number: 9017

Catalogue: Poems

Keywords: poems domestic literature

[BROME (Alexander), editor]:

Rump: Or an Exact Collection Of the Choycest Poems and Songs relating to the Late Times. By the most Eminent Wits, from Anno 1639 to Anno 1661.

London, Printed for Henry Brome...., and Henry Marsh..., 1662. 8vo, 165 x 95 mms., pp. [viii], 376, 72, 83-200, including vertical half-title leaf, engraved frontispiece, engraved title-page, finely bound in 19th century dark green crushed morocco, panelled in gilt on covers, with second enclosed panel with triangular filigree designs in each corner, spine richly gilt in compartments, gilt dentelles, all edges gilt, marbled end-papers. A fine and attractive copy. Alexander Brome (1620 - 1666) was a poet and lawyer, and the title of this collection derives from the so-called "Rump Parliament," which followed the purging of the Long Parliament in 1648. The collection began life as short collection (89 pages) of poems published as Ratts Rhymed to Death in 1660, and reprinted the same year. The present text is obviously much enlarged, with many new poems, including twenty by John Cleveland. The poems in the second part are distinguished, if that's the right word, by their scatological and lubricious content, with obvious jokes and puns around the title word, e. g., "Bum=Fodder or, Waste-Paper, proper to wipe the Nations RUMP with, or your Own." Most of the songs were designed to be sung, with a number giving a tune. "The four Legg'd Elder; or a Relation of a Horrible Dog and an Elders Maid" is to be sung "To the Tune of The Ladies fall; Or Gather your Rose Buds, and 50 other Tunes." How many of these tunes have survived? Samuel Pepys, in an entry for 23 April 1660, alludes to a Rump song: having listened to a composition by Matthew Locke, his host "fell to singing of a song made upon the Rump, with which he pleased himself well - to the tune of The Blacksmith." Wing B4851; Case 127 (c).

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Book number: 8727

Catalogue: Poems

Keywords: poems politics literature

DOWNMAN (Hugh):

Poems, The Second Edition, Altered and Corrected, With Several Additions.

Exeter: Printed by R. Trewman and Son, For G. G. and J. Robinson..., 1790 8vo, 178 x 114 mms., pp. 256, ms. correction on page 179, contemporary mottled calf, spine ornately gilt in compartments to a fan motif, red morocco label, and numbering label "1" spine; joints cracked, corners worn, top of spine worn; the numbering label suggest that the volume was uniformly bound with other volumes, though there was never a volume 2 of Downman's work. The physician and poet Hugh Downman (1740 - 1809) published the poems in this volume in 1768 in The Land of the Muses, in Spenserian stanzas, and that poem begins this volume, though this time it appears also in rhyming couplets. The volume was reviewed in The Monthly Review for 1791, along with the fifth edition of his most popular poem, Infancy, or the Management of Children. The reviewer remarks, "Dr. Downman's poetry acquires its principal value from the plain and manly good sense with which it everywhere abounds, and which amply compensates for any occasional ruggedness in the metre." The Gentleman's Magazine commented that "The original poems in this collection, that of The Land of the Muses more particularly, do credit to Dr. D's genius and abilities, which the additional ones by no means tend to diminish." ESTC T92237 locates copies in BL, Devon and Exeter Institution Library, Exeter Central Library, Bodleian, Reading Univesity; and Harvard Houghton (2). WorldCat, however, locates a number of other copies in North America.

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Book number: 7712

Catalogue: Poems

Keywords: poems spenserian literature

GRAHAME (James):

Poems by James Grahame. In Two Volumes.

London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme..., 1807. FIRST COLLECTED EDITION. 2 volumes. 12mo, 161 x 93 mms., pp. viii, 219 [220 blank]; [iv], 248, contemporary tree calf, gilt border on covers, spine ornately gilt, red morocco labels; rebacked with old spines laid down (lower portion of spine volume 1 defective). A good set, with this appealing inscription on the recto of the front free end-paper in volume 1: "Mr. Davis presents this book to Mr. Charles Allen as a Testimony of his good Conduct, during the whole of his residence at the School. June 16. 1812." It seems unlikely that this Charles Allen is Charles Manning Allen (?1799 - 1880; aka Charles Edward Stuart), the brother of John Carter Allen (?1795 - 1872, aka John Sobieski Stolberg Stuart), who pretended to be the heirs of Charles Edward Stuart, the Young Chevalier, given that good behaviour was not a feature of their youth. Grahame (1765 - 1811) was one of many whom Byron made sport with in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. Quoting from Grahame's most successful poem, The Sabbath, Francis Jeffrey, in the Edinburgh Review in 1805 commented, "There are many other passages in the poem which bear marks of genius; but the greater part of it is written in a heavy and inelegant manner. The diction throughout is tainted with vulgarity, and there is no selection of words, images, or sentiments, to conciliate the favour of the fastidious reader."

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Book number: 8203

Catalogue: Poems

Keywords: poems association copy literature Scottish

GRAY (Thomas):

Poems by Mr. Gray.

Dublin: Printed by William Streeter..., 1768. 12mo, 173 x 95 mms., pp. [9], 12 - 187 [188 blank], with engraved frontispiece "The Bard" (not included in pagination), engraved title-page (included in pagination), 3 engraved vignettes in text, contemporary calf, red leather label; slight worming of upper front joint, but generally a very good to fine copy, with the contemporary autograph "Richd. [?Chaloner]" on title-page The "Advertisement" following the title-page states, "At the desire of some Gentlemen, for whose Taste and Judgment the Editor hath the greatest Respect, has added in this Edition of Mr. Gray's Poems two Latin Translations of the celebrated Elegy written in a Country Church-yard, with a poetical Address to the Author; one by the Rev. Lloyd, the other by an anonimous [sic] Person, which Translations and Poems, it is hoped, will not be unacceptable to the classical Reader." Sleater issued three printings in 1768; this one corresponds to ESTC T55692.

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Book number: 7986

Catalogue: Poems

Keywords: poems translation literature

HANDS (The Most Eminent):

The Altar of Love: Or, the Whole Art of Kissing In all its Varieties. Consisting of Poems, And other Miscellanies. By the most eminent Hands. Now first collected into a Volume. The Third Edition.

London: Printed in the Year..., 1731. 8vo (in 4s), 190 x 118 mms., pp. [2] 3 - 32; [1] 2 - 40; [vi] [1] 2 - 32; [iv], v - vii [viii blank], 39 40 blank]; [iv[ v - viii, 39 [40 blank]; [iv], [1] 2 - 22; [viii] [1] 2 - 106 [107 -108 Contents]; [1] 2 - 16; [ii] 22, one full-page engraved plate, recently rebound in quarter calf, raised bands between gilt rules on spine, red morocco label, marbled boards; title-page soiled, a few other very small spots and stains, ex-library, with library stamp ("Free Public Library Wigan") in blind on title-page and library stamp on verso, but a clean text in a fine modern binding replicating an 18th century binding. A similar title was first published by "H. Curll," with different registration, and the edition statement is a nonsense for this nonce collection, whose contents seem to vary from copy to copy. The texts included here are The Art of Kissing; Popeana ("Advice before Marriage"); Jacob: The Rape of the Smock; Gay: The Hoop-Petticoat; The Patch; A Recipt for Soup [no title-page called for in collation[; Bury-Fair; William Bowman: Poems on Several Occasions; Addison: Oratio, An Oration in Defense of the New Philosophy; and An Apology for the Writings of Walter Moyle, being the last item, written by Curll, who was also the printer and publisher of this volume. It is not immediately clear what the last essay has to do with "the Whole Art of Kissing...." ESTC and other online resources, as well as Foxon, record a number of different configurations for the works included under the catch-all title (possibly one of Curll's many jokes), but so far as I can tell, not this one.

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Book number: 8714

Catalogue: Poems

Keywords: poems kissing literature

HETRICK (Robert):

Poems & Songs by Robert Hetrick, Dalmellington.

Ayr: Printed for the Author. 1826. FIRST EDITION. Large 12mo (in 6s), 172 x 105 mms., pp. viii, 178, including half-title and list of subscribers, uncut, original boards, paper label on spine, autograph "David Barbour/ Manchester/ 1839" on recto of front free end-paper; lacks the front (top) board. Among the poems that Hetrick (1769 - 1849) includes are "Elegy on the Death of Burns" and "Prologue to the Gentle Shepherd." Hetrick was brought up as a weaver but later became a blacksmith. In the preface, he describes himself as "an untutored country mechanic." The collection was re-issued in 1898. Johnson: Provincial Poetry 1789 - 1839 (1992), 431. Copac locates copies in NLS, Edinburgh, Glasgow; WorldCat adds BL; University of California, Davis, University of South Carolina, Yale University, Columbia University, Harvard University; Waseda Univrsity Library. I have not had the binding restored just in case none of the extant copies is in boards, so at least there is some idea what the volume looked like on its first appearance.

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Book number: 8939

Catalogue: Poems

Keywords: poems songs

MOSTYN-OWEN (David):

Poems.

[London] Privately Printed (Designed and produced by S. R. Fuller and W. P. Green for Truslove and Hanson in Blado Italic with titles in Poliphilus on Arnold's mould-made paper. Composition and presswork at the Chiswick Press - from the colophon). 1949. FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. Tall 12mo (?), 254 x 156 mms., pp. [10] 11 - 36, large black-and-white frontispiece portrait of author facing title-page, edges uncut, quarter light blue linen spine, title in gilt on spine, cream boards (slightly soiled). No. 4 of 50 copies. Lieutenant David Littleton Mostyn-Owen (1924-1945) of the 1st Battalion of the Tower Hamlets Rifles was the son of "Lt.-Col. Roger Arthur Mostyn-Owen, D.S.O, and of Margaret Eva Mostyn-Owen (nee Littleton Dewhurst), of West Felton"; the poet is buried in St. Chad Churchyard in Haughton, Staffordshire. He was educated at Hawtreys and Eton, joined the Rifle Brigade in 1942 and was commissioned in April 1944. He was killed on active service on 17th January 1945. There is no entry on David Mostyn-Owen in Catherine W. Reilly's English Poetry of the Second World War: A Biobibliography (Boston, Mass: G. K. Hall & Co., 1986). The only copy that I have located is in the BL.

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Book number: 9001

Catalogue: Poems

Keywords: poems war literature

NORRIS (John):

A Collection of Miscellanies: Consisting of Poems, Essays, Discourses & Letters. Occasionally Written. The Second Edition Corrected.

London, Printed for J. Crossley, and Samuel Manship..., 1692. 8vo, 183 x 115 mms., pp. [xvi], 467 [468 blank. 469 - 472 adverts], contemporary sheepskin, light brown labels; title-page off-setting on verso of previous leaf, joints slightly cracked, binding scratched, but a good copy inscribed in a contemporary hands on recto of front free end-paper, "The gift of Henry Milborne Esq/ to his Executor/ George Bonnett." With the book label Richard Luckett on the front paste-down end-paper. Luckett (1945 - 2020) was formerly Pepys Librarian and University Lecturer in Seventeenth-Century Literature at Cambridge. The first edition of this work by the philosopher and clergyman John Norris (1657-1712) appeared in 1687, and at least three other editions, including this one, were published. Richard Acworth notes that "several of the essays in the Miscellanies express ideas that [Norris] developed further in his later writings. The Miscellanies also includes almost all of Norris's poetry. In the final poem he bids farewell to his muse, but he later composed two further poems, one in each part of his Theory of the Ideal World. The Miscellanies was to prove the most lastingly popular of all Norris's writings with the general public, and even in the nineteenth century it was reported that 'this is the most popular of all his works, and affords the picture of a truly amiable mind' …" (Oxford DNB). The beautiful seventeenth-century manuscript inscription, showing this to be a contemporary presentation copy of Norris's Miscellanies, reads, "The gift of Henry Milborne Esq / to his Executor / George Bonett". The words mark the volume as a gift at the end of the life of one of the more powerful, wealthy, yet shadowy figures of late seventeenth-century Wales: Henry Milborne or Milbourne, who was Recorder of Monmouth; the most influential magistrate of the region; a member of the Middle Temple, one of the four inns of Court in London, entitled to chambers; as well as steward and agent of the Duke of Beaufort, and a figure implicated in the Popish Plot. For his dates, Henry Milborne's Wikipedia article says he was born "circa 1600" and died "after 1692". But from his will, and the proving of the will, we know Milborne died between September 1692 and the next March, which would be either March 1692 (Old Style) or March 1693 (New Style). His long will is an important document of Monmouthshire history, and George Bonnett appears prominently within it as the nephew and the sole executor to his wealthy and powerful uncle Henry Milborne (the will is printed in its entirety in A. W. Hughes Clarke, ed., Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica, volumme 3, fifth series (1918-1919), pp. 241-244). Current academic work references Milborne's importance as a frequent opponent of anti-Catholic policies in the region, and as an influential political operative in seventeenth-century Wales. In her book, Beaufort: The Duke and His Duchess, 1657-1715 (Yale UP, 2001), Molly McClain deems "Henry Milborne of Wonastow and Llanrhyddol" to be "one of the most influential men in north Monmouthshire" (p. 129). In Political Culture and Cultural Politics in Early Modern England (Manchester UP, 1995), edited by Susan Dwyer Amussen and Mark Kishlansky, it is noted that Milborne's contemporary John Arnold complained Milborne was an "undoubted papist," remarking that although he "only held lands worth £100 per annum in one county," he was yet "made justice of the peace in four" (p. 122). Wikipedia's article on one of Miborne's residences, Hilston House, calls him an "important 17th century magistrate of the county." Meaningful and mysterious, Milborne's gift of this book (of deeply philosophical meditations by the most mystical of the Cambridge Platonists), to his nephew and executor, George Bonnett, silkman of London, was probably among the last gestures he made at the end of his days.

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Book number: 10316

Catalogue: Poems

Keywords: poems essays prose

PRIOR (Matthew):

Poems on Several Occaions.

Aberdeen: Printed and Sold by F. Douglas and W. Murray..., 1754. 12mo in 6s), 165 x 93 mms., pp. 194 [195 - 196 Contents]; vii [viii blank], [9] - 185 [186 blank, 187 - 188 Contents], contemporary cat's paw calf, morocco labels, gilt spines (faded); lacks numbering label on volume 1, boards sprung, some wear to extremities, but a good set. Samuel Johnson commented on his "occasional poems": "His occasional poems necessarily lost part of their value, as their occasions, being less remembered, raised less emotion. Some of them, however, are preserved by their inherent excellence. The burlesque of Boileau's Ode on Namur has, in some parts, such airiness and levity as will always procure it readers, even among those who cannot compare it with the original." The publishers in Glasgow seemed to have a greater appreciation for Prior's poetry than those elsewhere in Scotland: the Foulis Press published editions of his poetry in 1751, 1759, 1769, and 1771; and Urie published editions in 1744 AND 1750. There were editions in Edinburghin 1773, 1777, and 1784.

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Book number: 7998

Catalogue: Poems

Keywords: poems provincial imprint literature

[TOPHAM (Edward), editor]:

The British Album. Containing the Poems of Della Crusca, Anna Matilda, Arley, Benedict, the Bard, &c. &c. &c. Which were originally published under the Title of The Poetry of the World. Revised and Corrected by their Respective Authors. Second Edition. Also, a Poem, never before published, called The Interview, by Della Crusca. And other Considerable Additions.

London: Printed by and for J. Bell..., 1790. Two volumes in 1, small 8vo, 156 x 93 mms., pp. [viii], 172 [173 Errat, 174 blank]; [vi], 172 [173 Postscript], 174 blank, separate title-page and engraved portrait frontispiece for each volume ("Della Crusca" and "Anna Matilda," respectively, contemporary calf, recently rebacked, with gilt spine and red morocco label; corners worn. Inscribed on rear free end-paper: "Charles Arliss/ Gainsbro/ May 21 A. D. [sic] 1821." The journalist and playwright Edward Topham (1751 - 1820) published an account of his six months in Scotland, mainly in Edinburgh, in 1776, Letters from Edinburgh, 1774 and 1775, a very useful source of information and insight about Edinburgh when it was a "hot-bed of genius." The Poetry of the World and The British Album were the first publications to bring before the public the writings of a group of English authors living in Florence and styling themselves the Della Cruscans. Della Crusca has been identified as the poet Robert Merry (1755 - 1798). On the whole, the Della Cruscan poets have not been received with wild adulation: Walter Scott called them "a set of coxcombs who have humbugged the world long enough," while Hazlitt and Macaulay thought them less than dilettantes. George Saintsbury had even better lines in invective, charging them with "pretentiousness and imbecility not easy to parallel...," styling them and their followers as people who "drank themselves drunk at the heady tap of Sturm-und-Drang romanticism, blending it with French sentimentality and Italian trifling, so as to produce almost inconceivable balderdash." You have been warned. Three editions were published in 1790, including one in Dublin. See W. N. Hargreaves-Mawdsley, The English Della Cruscans and their time, 1783-1828 (1967).

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Book number: 7872

Catalogue: Poems

Keywords: poems doggerel literature