Folger Shakespeare Library
CELM

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.

    • RoJ 485 ff. 11r-12v

      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.

      John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, To Love ('O Love! how cold and slow to take my part')
    • RoJ 385 f. 13r-v

      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.

      John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, Song ('Give me leave to rail at you')
    • RoJ 440 f. 14r

      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.

      John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, Song ('What cruel pains Corinna takes')
    • RoJ 622 ff. 14v-15r

      Copy.

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

      John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, Woman's Honor ('Love bade me hope, and I obeyed')
    • RoJ 462 f. 15v

      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.

      John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, The Submission ('To this moment a rebel, I throw down my arms')
    • RoJ 92 f. 16r

      Copy.

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

      John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, The Fall ('How blest was the created state')
    • RoJ 449 f. 16v

      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.

      John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, Song ('While on those lovely looks I gaze')
    • RoJ 408 f. 20r

      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.

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

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