Item 36 - Poems of the time of Charles II, Part I

1 volume (33 x 21 cm), containing 169 leaves. Bound in tooled leather.

This volume and Crewe MS 37 form a set. The compilation is similar to one in the National Library of Scotland (Advocates’ Library, MS 19.1.12), and several items only occur in MS in these two collections: see e.g. Crewe MS 37, ff. 133–4, 199–200, and 285–7; Crewe MS 38, f. 62–4. The spine-labels record that the contents were collected for Robert, Viscount Bodmin, but though the copies of diplomatic documents at one end of the first book (pp. 315–21) are probably in his hand, the remaining items cannot have been copied for him, because many of them, including the very second (pp. 5–14), were composed after his death in 1682. The diplomatic documents, which were written before the other contents, must have been written some time between 1679, the date of the earliest, and 1682. The remaining contents, which appear to have been written by one writer over a fairly short period, were probably written about 1689, the approximate date of the latest items. The armorial bookplates of Jonathan Boucher and Robert, Earl of Crewe, are pasted inside the front cover. The former bears some pencil marks which may relate to a sale.

Poems and other literary pieces, with transcripts of some diplomatic documents. On the spine is stamped: ‘M.S.S. Poems of the Time of Charles II. Collected for Robert Viscount Bodmin. Part I.’ The table of contents is at the end (pp. 302–7).

Paginated i–iv, 1–81, 81a, 82–332. The binding of the book is upside down with respect to most of its contents, and the pagination begins at the back. It appears that the binding was repaired or altered at some point, since the free endpapers do not match those pasted to the boards, and perhaps the book’s orientation was altered at that time.

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(Abbreviations used in the description of this manuscript are in brackets.)

Arthur E. Case, A Bibliography of English Poetical Miscellanies, 1521–1750, 1935 (Case)

Court Satires of the Restoration, ed. John Harold Wilson, 1976

The Poems of John Dryden, ed. Paul Hammond and David Hopkins, 5 vols. (1995–2005)

The Poems of George Etherege, ed. James Thorpe, 1963

John Locke, An Essay concerning Toleration, and Other Writings on Law and Politics, 1667–1683, ed. J. R. Milton and Philip Milton, 2006

George de Forrest Lord, ‘Satire and Sedition: the Life and Work of John Ayloffe’, Huntington Library Quarterly, vol. xxix (1966), pp. 255–73

Harold Love, English Clandestine Satire, 1660–1702, 2004

The Poems of Andrew Marvell, ed. Nigel Smith, 2003

The Prose Works of Andrew Marvell, ed. Annabel Patterson, etc., 2 vols., 2003

Poems on Affairs of State, ed. George deF. Lord, etc., 7 vols., 1963–75 (POAS)

The Literary Works of Matthew Prior, ed. H. Bunker Wright and Monroe K. Spears, 2nd ed., 2 vols., 1971

The Complete Works of Thomas Shadwell, ed. Montague Summers, 5 vols., 1927

David M. Vieth, Attribution in Restoration Poetry: A Study of Rochester’s ‘Poems’ of 1680, 1963

Plays, Poems, and Miscellaneous Writings associated with George Villiers, Second Duke of Buckingham, ed. Robert D. Hume and Harold Love, 2 vols., 2007 (Plays, etc., of Buckingham)

John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, Familiar Letters, 1699 (ESTC No. R182833)

The Complete Poems of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, ed. David M. Vieth, 1968

The Works of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, ed. Harold Love, 1999

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SEVENTEENTH- AND EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MISCELLANIES (in chronological order)

Lycidus, or the Lover in Fashion … with a Miscellany of New Poems, 1688 (ESTC No. R10984) (the ‘Miscellany’ is paginated separately)

Poetical Recreations, 1688 (ESTC No. R7698; Case 186)

A Collection of Poems on Affairs of State, 1689 (ESTC No. R23725; Case 188(1)(a))

A Collection of Poems on Affairs of State, another ed., 1689 (ESTC No. R202112; Case 188(1)(b))

The Second Part of the Collection of Poems on Affairs of State, 1689 (ESTC No. R10478; Case 188(2))

The Third Part of the Collection of Poems on Affairs of State, 1689 (ESTC No. R22081; Case 188(3))

A Second Collection of … Poems, Satyrs, Songs, etc., against Popery and Tyranny, 1689 (ESTC No. R7993; Case 189(2))

A Third Collection of … Poems, Satyrs, Songs, etc., against Popery and Tyranny, 1689 (ESTC No. 26292; Case 189(3))

The Fourth (and Last) Collection of Poems, Satyrs, Songs, etc., 1689 (ESTC No. T95794; Case 189(4))

The Muses Farewel to Popery and Slavery, or a Collection of Miscellany Poems, Satyrs, Songs, etc., 1690 (ESTC No. R23130; Case 191(1)(b))

The Annual Miscellany for the Year 1694, being the Fourth Part of Miscellany Poems, 1694 (ESTC No. R22916; Case 172(4)(a))

Chorus Poetarum, or, Poems on Several Occasions, 1694 (ESTC No. R3195; Case 202)

Poems on Affairs of State, 1697 (ESTC No. R26892; Case 211(1)(a))

Poems on Affairs of State, another ed., 1697 (Case 211(1)(c))

State Poems, continued, 1697 (ESTC No. R219192)

Poems on Affairs of State, vol. iii, 1698 (ESTC No. R28488; Case 215)

Sylvae, or the Second Part of Poetical Miscellanies, 1702 (Case 172(2)(d))

Poems on Affairs of State, vol. ii, 1703 (Case 211(2)(a))

Poems on Affairs of State, vol. iii, 1704 (Case 211(3)(a))

The Miscellaneous Works of the Right Honourable the late Earls of Rochester and Roscommon, 1707

Familiar Letters of Love, Gallantry, and Several Occasions, 1718

The Works of the Earls of Rochester, Roscomon, and Dorset, the Dukes of Devonshire, Buckinghamshire, etc., 2 vols., 1756 (the second volume has a slightly different title) (Works of Rochester, etc.)

The literary pieces are in verse and in English unless otherwise stated. Some of the attributions are derived from other sources (see ‘Publication notes’). Efforts have been made to reflect the current state of scholarship, but the attributions and dates of many items are uncertain. Details are given, where known, of the occasion on which a version of each piece first appeared in print, with some references to other printed versions, particularly the Yale edition of Poems on Affairs of State (POAS) and Wilson’s Court Satires of the Restoration (Court Satires). There are usually variations between the versions in this MS and the printed texts, but these have only been mentioned if they are particularly pronounced. For other MS copies of the pieces listed see the references to the Index of Literary Manuscripts (IELM) and English Clandestine Satire (ECS).

ESTC = English Short Title Catalogue (online).
Wing = D. G. Wing, Short-Title Catalogue of Books … 1641–1700 (3 vols., 1945–51).