Professor Pierre Danchin, Nancy, France

[Ashley MS]

Fragment of a quarto miscellany of poems on affairs of state.

Originally 90 leaves, but many excised and now comprising 24 leaves (plus blanks), ff. 4r-22r in a single professional hand; ff. 22v-6v (first stanza) in a later, less tidy, hand of the early 18th century; ff. 26v [after first stanza]-27r apparently in a third hand.

Late 17th-early 18th century.

Inscribed twice on the front paste-down Richard Ashley and a deleted inscription possibly reading Lowes Park. Purchased c.1960 from a bookstall in Paris.

A complete facsimile edition of this MS, with discussion of the texts, in Pierre Danchin, A Late Seventeenth-Century Miscellany, Cahiers Élisabéthains, 22 (Université Paul Valéry-Montpellier, October 1982), 51-86. Recorded in IELM, II.ii (1993) as the Ashley MS: RoJ Δ 5.

ff. 11r-12v

RoJ 485: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, To Love ('O Love! how cold and slow to take my part')

Copy, headed O nunquam pro me satis indignate Cupido / To Love.

First published in Poems on Several Occasions (Antwerp, 1680). Vieth, pp. 35-7. Walker, pp. 49-50. Love, pp. 12-13.

f. 13r-v

RoJ 385: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, Song ('Give me leave to rail at you')

Copy, headed To Thirsis.

First published (first stanza only) in Songs for i 2 & 3 Voyces Composed by Henry Bowman [London, 1677]. Both stanzas in Poems on Several Occasions (Antwerp, 1680). The second stanza only (beginning Kindness has resistless Charms) also in Valentinian (London, 1685). Vieth, pp. 10-11. Walker, pp. 20-1. Love, p. 18.

Some texts accompanied by Lady Rochester's Answer to the poem (beginning Nothing adds to love's fond fire), her autograph of which is in University of Nottingham, Pw V 31, f. 15r. It is edited in Vieth, p. 10; in Walker, pp. 21-2, 154; in Kissing the Rod, ed. Germaine Greer et al. (London, 1988), pp. 230-2; and in Love, pp. 18-19.

f. 14r

RoJ 440: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, Song ('What cruel pains Corinna takes')

Copy, headed Song.

First published in Poems on Several Occasions (Antwerp, 1680). Vieth, p. 31. Walker, p. 20, as To Corinna. A Song. Love, p. 20, as To Corinna.

ff. 14v-15r

RoJ 622: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, Woman's Honor ('Love bade me hope, and I obeyed')

Copy.

First published in Poems on Several Occasions (Antwerp, 1680). Vieth, p. 14. Walker, pp. 22-3. Love, p. 21.

f. 15v

RoJ 462: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, The Submission ('To this moment a rebel, I throw down my arms')

Copy, headed Song, imperfect, lacking the last three stanzas.

First published in Poems on Several Occasions (Antwerp, 1680). Vieth, p. 15. Walker, pp. 18-19. Love, p. 22, as Song.

f. 16r

RoJ 92: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, The Fall ('How blest was the created state')

Copy.

First published in Poems on Several Occasions (Antwerp, 1680). Vieth, p. 86. Walker, p. 26. Love, p. 26.

f. 16v

RoJ 449: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, Song ('While on those lovely looks I gaze')

Copy.

First published in A New Collection of the Choicest Songs (London, 1676). Poems on Several Occasions (Antwerp, 1680). Vieth, pp. 12-13. Walker, pp. 43-4. Love, pp. 26-7.

f. 20r

RoJ 408: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, Song ('Love a woman? You're an ass!')

Copy, headed Love to a Woman, heavily deleted.

First published in Poems on Several Occasions (Antwerp, 1680). Vieth, p. 51. Walker, p. 25. Love, p. 38, as Love to a Woman.