Commonplace book, 1766-1800.

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Commonplace book, 1766-1800.

1766-1800

https://orbis.library.yale.edu/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=7041957

Volume I, titled "Poems on Several Occasions Collected from Different Authors," is a manuscript collection of approximately 150 poems and excerpts, primarily epitaphs and elegies, poems in praise of virtues, odes dedicated to women, and poems on nature and weather. Multiple poems and excerpts attributed to: Milton, Mr. [Alexander] Pope, Mr. Gray, Mr. Thomson, Mrs. Elizabeth Cartier, Miss Aikin, Mr. Addison, Mason, Shenstone, Miss More, and Mr. Goldsmith. Also of note: brief excerpts from Shakespeare; a poem written by Queen Elizabeth I; epitaph on Lancelot ["Capability"] Brown. Two poems by Phyllis Wheatly, a "Negroe Slave at Boston." Occasional patriotic and religious poems. Entries dated 1766 to 1783 are from Bombay, Surrat, Dhuboy, Anjengo, and Barocke, and entries dated 1791 to 1800 are from London and Stanmore Hill. Volume II, titled "Mems. of Literature, 1766", is a manuscript log of Forbes' own reading, including date, location, summary, review, and occasional excerpts of various prose works, including romantic and heroic novels, treatises on virtue, collections of correspondence, periodicals, histories, travel diaries, poetry, and dramatic works. Of note are "Arabian Night's Entertainment," "Tristram Shandy," Pope's translation of the "Iliad" and "Odyssey," Dryden's works, Orrery's letters, Congreve's works, Pope's works, Milton's "Paradise Lost," and individual works by Thomas a Kempis, Xenophon, Seneca, Pliny, Rev. Spence, Lord Orrery, and many others, dated 1766 to 1784 from Bombay, Calcutta, and other locations including ships. A note at end, dated 15 April 1785 Stanmore Hill, reads: "From the time of our landing in England in July 1784 to my being settled in my house on Stanmore Hill, the beginning of this month, I have been in a scene of hurry and almost perpetual motion with very little time for reading, or making any remarks on such desultory studies."

2 v. (ca. 500 p.)

eng, Latn

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 8025517

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Related Entities

There are 6 Entities related to this resource.

Brown, Lancelot, 1716-1783

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6w38g9s (person)

British architect and landscape gardener. From the description of Plan, 1778. (Getty Research Institute). WorldCat record id: 145992509 "Capability Brown", English landscape gardener. From the description of Autograph letter signed : Hertford Street [London], to an unnamed peer, 1779 Dec. 16. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270903124 ...

Wheatley, Phillis, c. 1753-1784

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6998x2t (person)

Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753-1784), first Black woman poet in America, was brought as an African slave in about 1761 to Boston, Mass., where she was purchased by John Wheatley. Educated in the Wheatley household, first by Wheatley's wife Susannah and later by his daughter Mary, Phillis Wheatley began writing poems in her early teens. It was through her published poetry that she became a member of Boston's literati and travelled briefly to England, returning in 1773 during Mrs. Wheatley's final illn...

Milton, John, 1608-1674

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69k48bs (person)

English poet. From the description of Documents relating to Kensington mortgage, 1651-1700. (Rosenbach Museum & Library). WorldCat record id: 122475458 Epithet: poet British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000297.0x00012e John Milton (1608-1674), the poet. For fuller details of his life and achievements see the Dictionary of National Biography. From the guide to the English translat...

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6qk86d3 (person)

William Shakespeare was likely born April, 23, 1564; he was baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon on April 26, 1564. He grew up, had a family, and bought property in Stratford while working in London, the center of English theater. As an actor, a playwright, and a partner in a leading acting company, he became both prosperous and well-known. His parents were John and Mary Shakespeare. John was a leatherworker and involved in local politics, first becoming an alderman and eventually a town bailiff. ...

Forbes, James, 1749-1819

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6w95vvf (person)

Pope, Alexander, 1688-1744

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gh9g3w (person)

A general outline of the life and works of the poet Alexander Pope, 1688-1744, can be found in the Dictionary of National Biography, but there are numerous biographical and critical evaluations if more detailed information is required From the guide to the Verse translation of Book III, metre 9 of Boethius's, De consolatione philosophiae, by Alexander Pope, ca.1703-1704, (GB 206 Leeds University Library) A general outline of the life and works of the poet Alexander Pope can ...