Suffolk Record Office, Lowestoft

194/F1/1

A folio volume of poems chiefly on affairs of state, in a non-professional hand, with a table of contents (listing some 125 poems), once containing upwards of 240 pages, but all of which after p. 22 have been excised. Late 17th century.
pp. [2*] and 1-13
RoJ 641.5: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, Sodom and Gomorah ('')

Copy of a five-act version, without any prologues or epilogues, headed The farce of Sodome, cited in the table of contents as Bolloximion A play.

First published (?) at Antwerp [i.e. London], (?)1684. The only known extant early printed exemplum is a probably early 18th-century octavo entitled Sodom, or the Gentleman Instructed. A Comedy. By the E. of R., sold at Sotheby's 16 December 2004, lot 54 (with facsimile pages in the sale catalogue), now in private ownership; reprinted in colour facsimile (Berlin: Antiquariat Ars Amandi, [2005]).

Edited from MS copies as Rochester's Sodom, ed. L.S.A.M. von Römer (Paris, 1904), and as Sodom (Olympia Press, Paris, [1957]). Love, pp. 302-33, in his Appendix Roffensis.

Of uncertain authorship. For discussions of authorship and texts, see notably Rodney M. Blaine, Rochester or Fishbourne: A Question of Authorship, RES, 22 (1946), 201-6; James Thorpe, New Manuscripts of Sodom, Princeton University Library Chronicle, 13 (Autumn 1951), 40-1; A.S.G. Edwards, Libertine Literature in Restoration England: Princeton MS AM 14401, BC, 25 (Autumn 1976), 354-68, and The Authorship of Sodom, PBSA, 71 (1977), 208-12; Larry Carver, The Texts and The Text of Sodom, PBSA, 73 (1979), 19-40; John D. Patterson, Does Otway ascribe Sodom to Rochester?, N&Q, 225 (August 1980), 349-51; J.W. Johnson, Did Lord Rochester Write Sodom?, PBSA, 81 (1987), 101-53; and Nicholas D. Nace, Some New Light on Sodom, BC, 63 (Winter 2014), 557-67.

pp. 14-18
MaA 158.5: Andrew Marvell, A Dialogue between the Two Horses ('Wee read in profane and Sacred records')

Copy, headed A dialogue the marble horse & the brass horse.

First published in The Second Part of the Collection of Poems on Affairs of State (London, 1689). Margoliouth, I, 208-13, as probably Marvell's. POAS, I, 274-83, as anonymous. Rejected from the canon by Lord.

p. 22
WaE 689.5: Edmund Waller, Upon our late Loss of the Duke of Cambridge ('The failing blossoms which a young plant bears')

Copy, headed On the death of the Duke of cambridg.

First published in Poems, Fourth edition (London, 1682). Thorn-Drury, II, 79.

pp. 32-5 (now missing)
MaA 121.5: Andrew Marvell, Britannia and Rawleigh ('Ah! Rawleigh, when thy Breath thou didst resign')

Title only (Britannia & Rawleigh) in the table of contents for a text which originally appeared on pp. 32[-5] but has been excised.

First published in A Collection of Poems on Affairs of State (London, 1689). Margoliouth, I, 194-9, as of doubtful authorship. POAS, I, 228-36, attributed to John Ayloffe. See also George deF. Lord, Satire and Sedition: The Life and Work of John Ayloffe, HLQ, 29 (1965-6), 255-73 (p. 258).

p. 72 (now missing)
MaA 229.5: Andrew Marvell, The Statue at Charing Cross ('What can be the Mistery why Charing Cross')

Title only (On the Statue at charing crosse) in the table of contents for a text which originally appeared on p. 72 but has been excised.

First published in Poems on Affairs of State (London, 1698). Margoliouth, I, 199-201. POAS, I, 270-3. Lord, pp. 201-4. Smith, pp. 418-19.

p. 211 (now missing)
EtG 108.5: Sir George Etherege, Mrs. Nelly's Complaint ('If Sylla's ghost made bloody Catiline start')

Title only ([N]elly's complaint an Elegy), of what is probably this poem, in the table of contents for a text which originally appeared on p. 211 but has been excised

First published in Miscellaneous Works, Written by…Buckingham, Vol. I (London, 1704). Thorpe, pp. 62-4.