Add MS 69823

VERSE MISCELLANY: comprising copies of eleven poems by or attributed to John Dryden, Thomas Sprat, the Earls of Orrery and Dorset, etc.; circa 1667-1668. The two poems of Dryden (ff. 33-63v, 64-65v) may have been copied from one of the three issues of Annus Mirabilis that were published in 1667 but the rest seem mostly to have been taken from manuscript sources. Thomas Sprat's Pindaric ode on Abraham Cowley (ff. 25v-32v) was first printed in Dryden's Miscellany Poems (1716), and 'A Copy of Verses supposd to be made by the Ld. Buckorth [i.e. Buckhurst]' (ff. 18v, 19), beg. 'Though Phillis your prevailing charms', in the Temple of Death (1701). To Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery, are here attributed the verses 'To Mr Cowly on his Davidaeis by the Ld. Broghill' (ff. 15-17), which remained unpublished until it was edited from a manuscript at Longleat in Modern Philology, vol. 76 (1978), pp. 236-248, and 'A Copy of Verses supposed to be made by the Ld. Broghill' (ff. 17v-18v), beg. 'Reproach me not how heretofore'. The author of the 'Pindarique ode in praise of an excellent grove' (ff. 1-4), beg. 'The gods of old that woods inhabited', is not named. The Second and Third Advice and The Fourth Instruction to a Painter (ff. 19v-25, 69v-80v and 65v-69) are here attributed to Sir John Denham by an anonymous early owner who has also noted details of publication by the head of these poems and of Dryden's Annus Mirabilis, adding 'Printed mihi' by them in the contents-list (f. 86v) and deleting the texts in pencil. The present compilation is closely related to Egerton 669 which was copied by the same scribe and bears annotations, circa 1686 (cf. f. 90v), by the same early owner. The contents of the Egerton manuscript and certain names jotted on f. 95v (vol. rev.) suggest a connection with Christ Church, Oxford. Formerly owned by Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton (d.1885), and his son Robert, Marquess of Crewe. Purchased from Quaritch, Oct. 1989.

Paper; ff. iv+86. 145mm x 137mm. Contemporary binding of blind-ruled smooth calf, later rebacked and lettered 'M.S. Poems Time of Charles II'. The front cover bears the gilt wheatsheaf stamp of Baron Houghton, and on the front paste-down of the manuscript is preserved (f. ii) the armorial bookplate, circa 1911-1945, of the Marquess of Crewe. On f. 1 is inscribed in a contemporary hand 'Mr Mathews, Bookbinder, D. Mar. 16.-67. 0.0.6.': an almost identical note occurs in Egerton 669, f. 1.