Manuscript, in multiple hands, of a collection of 35 poems, bound in together. The verses are primarily lighthearted and address the subjects of love and women, occasionally in the form of occasional verse. Titles include A tale of Fidelia’s quarrell with her looking-glass; On a robin redbreast that in a stormy day flew in at a window and settled on a lady’s breast; The dangler; A prologue spoken at the opening of Punches Theatre at Bath; To Mrs Catherine Flemming at the Lord Digby’s at Coleshill; and The comical dreamer. Two comic poems address the marriages of Mary Eleanor Bowes, Countess Strathmore. The collection also includes Colley Cibber’s Ode for the new year as well as poems by John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, and Anne Finch, countess of Winchilsea.
Subject (Geographic):
Great Britain --Social life and customs --18th century
Subject (Name):
Cibber, Colley, 1671-1757, Montagu, Mary Wortley, Lady, 1689-1762, Rochester, John Wilmot, Earl of, 1647-1680, Strathmore, Mary Eleanor Bowes, Countess of, 1749-1800, and Winchilsea, Anne Kingsmill Finch, Countess of, 1661-1720
Manuscript concludes with a table of contents, "A poem in fashion after my late lord's decease" that begins, "As I walkd by my self, Thus I saide to my self....;" and a letter to the young Earl Fitzwilliam signed, "John Catlin, Living in Stepney, Northamptonshire.", Manuscript presentation copy of a work addressed to the young Earl Fitzwilliam, offering "my opinion on Gods workes, with some proper rules... [for] health, long life, ritches, virtue, wisdom, viygor and victory." The text opens with a generalized cosmology, including discussion of the nature of light and of the Zodiac, and mentioning the meteor fireball of March 1719. Most of the text offers detailed information on the four humours; on "the rules of Health", "Physicke and ointment;" the "Limmits of Pleasure;" and rules "To govern Servants.", Prefatory material: Five varying and highly decorated dedication pages to Lord Fitzwilliam, including a dedicatory poem "Not that I think my Lord will want to learn....;" several English and Latin maxims, and a dedicatory letter addressed to "My Lord.", and With: foldout diagram on parchment of signs of the Zodiac (numbered as p. 22).
Description:
Binding: contemporary full panelled calf., For information on the source of acquisition, consult the appropriate curator., and Paginated as rectos only. Most versos blank, not digitized, excepting p. 21-22..
Subject (Name):
Fitzwilliam, William Fitzwilliam,--Earl,--1719-1756