Harley MS 6913

Quarto manuscript volume containing a miscellany of mostly satirical poetry.

Contents:

• ff. 1-2: ‘Prologue’. First Line: ‘Gentle Reproofs have long been try’d in vain’. Attributed to John Wilmot, 2nd Earl Rochester.
• ff. 3-4v: ‘To Mr Julian from the Lord R.’ First line: ‘Julian in verse to ease thy wants I write’.
• ff. 5-10: ‘MacFlecknoe’. First line: ‘All human things are subject to decay’. By John Dryden.
• ff. 11-18: ‘Essay on satyr’. First line: ‘How dull and how insensible a beast’. Attributed to John Dryden, now believed to be John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave.
• ff. 19-24: ‘Barbara piramidum sileat miracula Memphis’. First line: ‘Of all the wonders since the world began’.
• ff. 25-27v: ‘A familiar epistle to Mr. Julian secretary to the muses’. First line: ‘Thou common shore of this poetick town’. By George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham
• ff. 28-28v: ‘A letter from the D[uke] of M[onmou]th to the K[ing]’ First line: ‘Disgrac'd, undone, forlorn, made fortune's sport’.
• ff. 29-29v: ‘Ross’s Ghost’ First line: ‘Shame of my Life disturber of my Tomb’. Inscribed above the title in pencil is ‘By, the Earl of Roscommon [Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon]. DP. V:1 p124’.
• ff. 30-31v: ‘A ballad: to the tune of An old man with a bed full of bones’. First line: ‘In a famous street near Whetstones Park’.
• ff. 32-33: ‘A letter to a friend by the Lord R’. First line: ‘Tho’ wean’d from all those Scandallous delights’. Attributed to John Wilmot, 2nd Earl Rochester.
• ff. 34-35: ‘The chronicle. In imitation of Mr. Cowley’. First line: ‘Tis thought tall Richard first possest’.
• ff. 36-37: ‘Pindarick’. First line: ‘Let ancients boast no more’.
• ff. 38-38v: ‘Song upon Ld Rochester's death’. First line: ‘As on his deathbed gasping Strephon lay’. By Thomas Flatman
• ff. 39-39v: ‘A ballad’. First line: ‘Of all quality whores modest Betty for me’.
• ff. 40-43v: ‘Colon: by Lord Buckhurst, 1679’. First line: ‘As Colon drove his sheep along’. By Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset
• ff. 44-49v: ‘Rochester's farewell’. First line: ‘Filled with the noisom Follies of the Age’. Attributed to Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset.
• ff. 50-50v: ‘Tacit de vita agric. An Allusion’. First line: ‘The freeborn English generous and wise’. By John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester.
• ff. 51-52v: ‘The Looking Glass’. First line: ‘Methinks I see you newly rissen’.
• ff. 53-54: ‘The Angler’. First line: ‘Methinks I see our mighty monarch stand’.
• ff. 55-55v: ‘Upon six holy Sisters that mett at a Conventicle to alter the Popish word of Preaching’. First line: ‘Six of the Female Sex and purest Sect’. By Sir John Harington.
• ff. 56-57: ‘A Plurality Parson that having three Livings (and a Wife) getts his Maid with Child and marries her to his Man’. First line: ‘How the first bout Parson ‘tis not your due’.
• ff. 58-59: ‘A Ballad’. First line: ‘To Honourable court there lately came’.
• ff. 60-61: ‘Satyr. 1679. Semper ego auditur tantum etc’. First line: ‘Must I with patience ever silent sitt’. Attributed to John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester. Inscribed above the title in pencil is ‘D P v 1 p 2’.
• ff. 62-64v: ‘A Duell [inscribed in pencil ‘of the Crab Lice’] between two Monsters upon my Lady Bennet's c-t with their change of Government from Monarchial to Democraticall’. First line: ‘In Milford Lane near to Saint Clement's steeple’. Attributed to Charles Sackville, Sixth Earl of Dorset and Henry Savile. Inscribed in pencil below the title is ‘By Lord Dorset and H. Savile D P. v i. 132’.
• ff. 65-68v: ‘The parting between Sireno and Diana’. First line: ‘Close by a stream (whose flow'ry bank might give’. Attributed to Sir Carr Scrope.
• ff. 69-71v: ‘Satyr’. First line: ‘Curse on those critticks ignorant and vaine’.
• ff. 72-75v: ‘Satyr unmuzzell’d’. First line: ’Who'd be the
• ff. 76-79v: ‘Utile dulce’. First line: ‘Muse lett us change our Stile and live in peace’.
• ff. 80-82: ‘An Essay of Scandall’. First line: ‘Of all the Plagues with which this world abounds’.
• ff. 83-85v: ‘The Ladies March’. First line: ‘Stamford's countess led the van’.
• ff. 86-86v: ‘The sham Prophesy’. First line: ‘In Sixteen Hundred seaventy eight’
• ff. 87-88: ‘A Ballad’. First line: ‘Have you hear’d of a Lord of noble descent’.
• ff. 89-90: ‘Lampoon’. First line: ‘Cleavland was doubtless to blame’.
• f. 90v: ‘Riddle me Riddle what's this’. First line: ‘A load of guts wrap’t in a Sallow skinn’.
• f. 91: ‘A pert imitation of all the Flatteries of Fate’. First line: ‘All the World can't afford’.
• ff. 92-93: ‘To the tune of - If Dr P- take exception’ First line: ‘Stamfords is her sex's glory’.
• ff. 94-96: ‘A Panegyrick’. First line: ‘Of a great Heroin I mean to tell’.
• ff. 97-98v: ‘Some nonsense to the tune of the Magpyes’. First line: ‘Old Wainscote is ith right with a hey with a hey’.
• ff. 99-102v: ‘An Heroick poem’. First line: ‘Of Villains Rebells Cuckolds Pimps and spies’.
• ff. 103-104: ‘Scotch song’. First line: ‘Ye London Ladds be sorry’.
• ff. 105-107: ‘Scandall Satyr’d’. First line: ‘Of all the Fools these fertile times produce’.
• ff. 108-112v: ‘Canto, inscribed above the title in pen is the fuller title ‘The quarrel between Frank and Nan (the Ld Newport & Nan Capell ye Orange Woma) 1681’. First line: ‘Nan and Frank two Quondam Friends’.
• ff. 113-113v: ‘A Farewell to his Mistress’. First line: ‘Tell me Armida tell me why’.
• ff. 114-116v: ‘A Supplement to the late Heroick Poem. Ille ego qui Quondam or The same Hand again’. First line: ‘I who of divers Villains sung before’.
• ff. 117-118v: ‘Satyr’. First line: ‘Of Fields I write famous for mighty Lust’.
• ff. 119-119v: ‘Satyr’. First line: ‘Let Talmish preach to his dull simple Crowd’.
• ff. 120-121v: ‘Satyr of the Towne’. First line: ‘The town has thought fitt’.
• ff. 122-123v: ‘An ill Song To a good old Tune’. First line: ‘A Countess of Fame’.
• ff. 124-125: ‘An addition to wonder not Nelly’. First line: ‘I’me apt now to think’.
• ff. 126-126v: ‘The decription of a Poetress’. First line: ‘A famous Poetress has lately writ’.
• ff. 127-127v: ‘Newmarkett Ballad’. First line: ‘Give ore ye dull Sotts’.
• ff. 128-129: ‘Letter’. First line: ‘Sir, Twas Sasfields Parsons & Mon Sherman’s witt’.
• ff. 130-131v: ‘A Satyr against Love and Woman’. First line: ‘Thou doating fond besotted am’rous Fool’. Inscribed in pencil above the title is ‘DP v1, 278’.
• ff. 132-133: ‘Satyr’. First line: ‘This way of writing I observe by some’. Inscribed in pencil above the title is ‘DP. V,3 67’.
• ff. 134-136v: ‘To the tune of Hey Boys up go wee’. First line: ‘Send foorth dear Julian all they Books’.
• ff. 137-137v: ‘Satyr on a particular Lady’. First line: ‘I sing the praises of a dirty thing’.
• ff. 138-140v: ‘A Ballad to the tune of Chevy-chace or When as King Henry rul’d ye Land’. First line: ‘Come all you Youths that yet are free’.
• ff. 141-143: ‘Chevy Chace 2nd part’. First line: ‘Assist me Stannop whil’st I sing’.
• ff. 144-145v: ‘Lady Fretchwell’s Song of the Wives. To the tune of 4 able Phistians are lately come down etc’. First line: ‘You Scribblers that writt of Widdows and Maids’.
• ff. 146-146v: ‘Song’. First line: ‘Alas for poor St James’s Park’.
• ff 147-147v: ‘Dorsett’s Lamentation for Mall Howard’s absence’. First line: ‘Dorsett no gentle Nymph can find’. By Charles Sackville, Sixth Earl of Dorset.
• ff. 148-148v: ‘A Ballad from Tunbridge 1682’. First line: ‘To Tunbridge I went’.
• ff. 149-150: ‘The Character of two Scotch Bards (after long strowling) lately arriv’d att Tunbridge’. First line: ‘Ladies take heed a northern Beast approaches’.
• ff. 151-152: ‘To Julian’. First line: ‘Julian how comes it that of late wee see’.
• ff. 153-154: ‘The Paralell’. First line: ‘As when proud Lucifer aim’d at the Throne’.
• ff. 155-157: ‘Mrs Nelly’s complaint. An Elegy’. First line: ‘If Sylla’s Ghost made bloody Cat’line start’. By Sir George Etherege.
• ff. 158-158v: ‘Advice to the Satyricall Poetts’. First line: ‘Satyr’s despotick; now none can withstand’.
• ff. 159-160v: ‘To the Secretary of the Muses: A New-Years Gift’. First line: ‘Julian with care peruse the Lines I send’.
• ff. 161-162: ‘A new Ditty to an old Tune of three Travellers’. First line: ‘I’ll show you a Captains of Aubrey Vere’.
• ff. 163-167: ‘A Satyr. Ignis Ignibus extinguitur’. First line: ‘But why this Fury all that ‘ere was writt’.
• ff. 168-172v: ‘The Golden Age’. First line: ‘Blest Age when every Purling stream’.
• ff. 173-175: ‘On three late Marriages’. First line: ‘Three Nymphs as chast as ever Venus bred’.
• ff. 175v-181v: ‘Ogle’s History’. First line: ‘A Widow young, whose name is Bess’.
• ff. 182-187v: ‘A Satyr upon the Mistresses’. First line: ‘Immortal Powers, Inspire me, while I Sing’.
• ff. 188-190v: ‘An Essay’. First line: ‘Of all the Vermin that did e’re debase’.
• ff. 191-196v: ‘Whigland’. First line: ‘Since all the World’s grown mad, I’ll een go Sing’.
• ff. 197-206: ‘Mantuan Eclogue 4th. Fæminuim servile genus crudele superbum’. First line: ‘You sacred Nymphs of Lebethra, be by’.
• ff. 207-210v: ‘A Satyr, In answer to a Friend’. First line: ‘Tis strange that you, to whom I’ve long been known’. Inscribed above the title in pencil is ‘BH Vol 3. 35’.
• ff. 211-215: ‘Rochester’s Ghost. Adressing to the Secretary of the Muses’. First line: ‘From the deep vaulted Den of endless night’.
• ff. 215v-219v: ‘Sardanapalus’. First line: ‘Happy, great Prince! & so much happier thou’.
• ff. 220-222v: Index