Item 693 - Poem by Richard Duke, 'To the Queen spoken by Mr Duke in the new Court by the Library'

1 folio sheet.

Purchased from Bernard Quaritch Ltd. No. 18 in 'Autographs and Letters' list, Aug. 2023.

Poem addressed to Queen Catherine of Braganza on the occasion of the visit by Catherine and Charles II to Trinity to view the structure of the Wren Library, then being erected. Title as it appears is 'To the Queen spoken by Mr Duke in the new Court by ye Liberary [sic]'. First line, 'You equall partner in the Royall bed...'

Bodleian Library, Oxford: Rawlinson D. 912 and Wood D319(2), described together as 2166 in Crum, First-line index of English poetry, 1500-1800, in manuscripts of the Bodleian Library, Oxford (1969).

Published by Jacob Tonson, London, 1684, in Miscellany poems. Containing a new translation of Virgills eclogues, Ovid's love elegies, Odes of Horace, and other authors; with several original poems by the most eminent hands [Dryden-Tonson Miscellany], with a few differences from the MS.