Folger MS N.b.3 | Manuscript Verse Miscellanies

Title	Miscellany Poems with Two Plays by Ardelia
Archive	Folger Shakespeare Library
Call Number	Folger MS N.b.3
Complete	Yes
Description	Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, ca. 1685–1701 or 1702. 109 poems. Poems and plays.
Format	Folio
Book Size	37cm x 23cm
Filled Page Count	320 pages
Item Count	111
Poem Count	109
Periods	1701-1730
First Line Index	Yes
Digitized	Yes
Region	Eastwell Park, Kent Kent
Additional Genres	Prose preface, Theatre
Print Sources
Major Themes	Conduct, morality Courtship, marriage Devotional writing, religio... Passions, Sentiments Theatre, drama Major themes prominent among the manuscript contents in alphabetical order.
Minor Themes	Animals, pets Classical themes Death, afterlife Friendship Historical subjects Illness Imitation, parody Literature Local interest Nature Public affairs Women Other themes of interest among the manuscript contents in alphabetical order.
Links	firstlines.folger.edu hamnet.folger.edu shakespeareandbeyond.folger.edu
Bibliography	Finch, Anne. The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Anne Finch Countess of Winchilsea Early Manuscript Books. ed. Keith, Jennifer; Kairoff, Claudia Thomas, vol. 1, Cambridge University Press, 2019.
Citation	“Folger MS N.b.3.” Manuscript Verse Miscellanies, 1700–1820, edited by Betty A. Schellenberg, Simon Fraser University, https://mvm.dhil.lib.sfu.ca/manuscript/383. Accessed 21 Dec. 2024.
Created	2020-09-03 9:31:54 AM
Updated	2023-07-25 11:09:30 AM

Contributor	Role
Anne Kingsmill Finch	Major author Primary compiler
Heneage Finch	Primary compiler

First Line	Context
Blest be the Man! his Memory at least	p. 12. Local title: To a friend in praise of the invention of writing letters. Attributed author: n/a Adaptation: n/a Other variants: n/a Other: n/a
How gaily is at first begun	p. 254 Local title: Life's Progress. Attributed author: n/a Adaptation: n/a Other variants: n/a Other: n/a
Sure of Success, to You I boldly write	p. 4 Local title: A Letter to Daphnis Attributed author: Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea Adaptation: n/a Other variants: A letter to the same person. October 21, 1690. Other: n/a
What art thou, Spleen, which everything dost ape?	p. 52 Local title: `The spleen' Attributed author: Anne Finch, Countess Winchilsea Adaptation: n/a Other variants: n/a Other: n/a

Feature	Note
Author attributions	Regular; two attributed commendatory letters, and the rest of the work is original to the compiler—though not individually attributed, this is understood from the preface.
Binding	Original paneled calf sides. Subsequently rebacked.
Hands	Single (Heneage Finch's hand), with several corrections in Anne Finch's hand.
Indications of use	Frequent ink cross-outs and corrections. “Appears to address a wider audience” than the Northamptonshire manuscript (Keith, p. lxii) — two introductory layers ie. the two commendatory poems and the preface (Keith, p. lxiii). Pencil crosses next to items throughout the manuscript. Pencil annotation on title page says "All the poems marked thus (+) are printed."
Item formatting	Double lines between items. Single lines under titles.
Organization	The two plays are bound midway through the folio ie. at the book’s centre (Keith, p. lxv).
Original poetry	Yes, all original to Anne Finch.
Ownership mark	Many pencilled annotations by Sir Edmund Gosse (nineteenth-century). An autograph letter of Richard Garnett tipped in.
Page layout	Paginated (by the compiler, in the margins). Margin rules in ink.