Miscellany of English verses [manuscript].
1687
Items
Details
Title
Miscellany of English verses [manuscript].
Created/published
England, circa 1687.
Description
1 volume.
Associated name
Stapleton, John, compiler.
Stapleton, Miles, compiler.
Stapleton, Miles, compiler.
Scope and content
Contents include poems attributed to Samuel Ward, Queen Elizabeth, Lady Jane Grey, Hoccleve, several on the Spanish Armada, and an epitaph on Philip Sidney; maxims; proverbs; notes on Turkish customs, Venice and historical occurrences; quotations from and comments on classical authors, the Fathers and leaders of the Reformation; a reference to Chaucer (p. 119); A compendious and profitable way of studying (p. 86); My Lord treasurer his ten commandments [to his son Robert], whose text resembles that of Folger MS X.d.212 but differs from the 1636 edition of Burghley's Precepts (p. 12); Mr John Bruen's reasons for detesting gaming, which vary slightly from those set forth in William Hinde's A faithful remonstrance of the holy life ... of John Bruen ... 1641, p. 121 (p. 167).
Note
This is a PRELIMINARY RECORD. It may contain incorrect information. The "FAST ACC" number is a temporary call number. Please email catalog@folger.edu for assistance.
Genre/form
Manuscripts (documents)
Poems.
Poems.
Place of creation/publication
Great Britain -- England.
Item Details
Call number
FAST ACC 270961 (quarto)
Folger-specific note
Purchase made possible by The Eric and Mary Weinmann Acquisitions Fund. From dealer's description: "Late 17th-century manuscript miscellany of English verses. [Circa 1687]. Octavo (180 mm x 120 mm x 28 mm). A total of 213 text pages on 162 leaves, some possibly missing but continuous . 19th-century panelled calf, worn, boards detached. Text damp-damaged with resultant fraying to edges and small areas of loss to text fore-edge, archival repairs to first leaf. 17th-century ownership inscriptions and short notes to last leaf by the compiler, “John Stephenson”. Also inscribed “Miles Stapylton” in a 17th- century hand. Bookplate of Joseph Gillow (1850-1921), Roman Catholic biographer and lexicographer. The manuscript is nicely written in the same neat italic hand with red borders throughout. John Stephenson’s inscription has certain slight flourishes that match the hand of the text. Stephenson’s compilation comprises two substantial sections of metaphysical poetry with a glossary of terms from classical antiquity sandwiched between them. Interestingly our 17th-century scribe is responding to the similarities in these poets and collecting them together long before Samuel Johnson neatly encapsulated their work under the collective name, “metaphysical poets”. The first section features 47 poems by Abraham Cowley (1618-1667) including: “Looking on, and discoursing wth. his Mistress”; “Resolv’d to loue”; The heart-breaking”; “Ode. Of Wit”; “In imitation of Martials Epigr:”; “My Picture”; “The Frailty”; “The Concealment”; “My heart discovered”; “Clad all in white”; “The diet”; “The dispair”, etc. and 2 epigrams from Martial translated by Cowley. The poems are neatly transcribed to rectos, with red borders throughout. A few poems are written to versos; Stephenson presumably added these slightly later as they are without borders. They include Thomas Randolph’s (1605-1635) “A dialogue betwixt a Nymph and a Shepherd” and “Against Loue. Orinda” Katherine Philips (1632-1664). There are some 14 poems by John Cleveland (1613-1658), including: “An Elegie upon Doctor Chad[erton] the first master of Emanuel Coll in Cambridge”; “Upon a fly that flew into a Ladies eye, and there lay buried in a tear”; “To a Lady that wrought A Story of ye Bible in Needle work”, etc. Notable authors with single entries are: Thomas Flatman (1637-1688); Robert Randolph (d. 1671); Richard Benfield; James Graham, Marquess of Montross (1612- 1650); and John Donne (1573- 1631), as above. There are two poems by “the matchless Orinda” herself, Katherine Phillips (1632-1664). This manuscript is in part a reflection of contemporary tastes, but Stephenson’s careful curation of this most inventive strain of English poetry is very specific and markedly idiosyncratic in its Delphic arrangement." Ordered from Dean Cooke, Manuscripts & Rare Books D 9243 2018-10-17, 2018 ABA Chelsea Book Fair, London, item 11.
Folger accession
270961