British Library Add. MS 37684 | Manuscript Verse Miscellanies

Title	Untitled
Archive	British Library
Call Number	British Library Add. MS 37684
Complete	Yes
Description	William Taylor of South Weald, ca. 1730. 61 poems. Miscellaneous poetry collection including many Latin and Jacobite-related poems, in addition to original poetry. Irregular folio numbering suggests a post-bound compilation.
Format	Octavo
Book Size
Filled Page Count	127 pages
Item Count	62
Poem Count	61
Periods	1701-1730
First Line Index	Yes
Digitized	Yes
Region	Brentwood, Essex Essex
Additional Genres	Prose - sermon
Print Sources
Major Themes	Celebrities Humour, wordplay Latin poetry Public affairs Major themes prominent among the manuscript contents in alphabetical order.
Minor Themes	Animals, pets Classical themes Education Illness Theatre, drama Visual arts Women Other themes of interest among the manuscript contents in alphabetical order.
Links	firstlines.folger.edu lst-gale-com.proxy.lib.sfu.ca
Bibliography
Citation	“British Library Add. MS 37684.” Manuscript Verse Miscellanies, 1700–1820, edited by Betty A. Schellenberg, Simon Fraser University, https://mvm.dhil.lib.sfu.ca/manuscript/397. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.
Created	2022-08-20 8:10:53 AM
Updated	2023-07-20 3:40:35 PM

Contributor	Role
Edward Littleton	Major author
Mary Wortley Montagu	Major author
Nicholas Rowe	Major author
William Taylor (1673–1750)	Primary compiler Major author

First Line	Context
A Man of Wisdom may disguise	ff. 32-34 Local title: A Tale. Numps. Attributed author: WT. Adaptation: n/a Other variants: n/a Other: n/a
Hear all you Friends to Knighthood	f. 16 Local title: On Sir W Morgan, Knight of the Bath, losing the Badge of his Order. Attributed author: n/a Adaptation: n/a Other variants: n/a Other: n/a
Indulgent Nature to each Kind bestows	f. 3 Local title: On the Burser of St. Johns Oxon. cutting down a fine row of Trees. Attributed author: n/a Adaptation: n/a Other variants: n/a Other: n/a
O thou, who labour'st in this rugged Mine	f. 4 Local title: By Mrs Cowper in her Bro' Coke upon Littleton. Attributed author: Mrs Cowper. Adaptation: n/a Other variants: n/a Other: n/a
Since you, dear Doctor, sav'd my Life	ff. 24-26v Local title: C.H. to Sir Hans Sloan who sav'd his life & desir'd him to send over all the Rarities he cou'd find in his Travels. Attributed author: n/a Adaptation: n/a Other variants: n/a Other: n/a

Feature	Note
Author attributions	Frequent; generally appears next to the title of each poem.
Binding	Paper.
Hands	Single, though it varies greatly.
Indications of use	The two indexes (one at the beginning and one at the end of the book) call into question what the book's intended use was. If the second index was intended as a correction to the first, why not tear out the first? The book appears to be something between a messy and clean copy. Occasional, minor corrections, mostly in the same hand (although a few look like later edits). These corrections are frequently to diction in the original poems (e.g., p. 25) or capitalisation/spelling. One of the poems with later corrections in a different hand is "Lewis Lucinda weds oh that my tongue..." (p. 48) which the FLI claims was written by Anna Taylor, William's wife. If this is the case (though the digitisation shows no sign of a specific attribution for this item) she was possibly the later hand that made minor changes to diction and added "By a Lady" next to the title. Pen trials on pp. 124–125. Note on front flyleaf: “C[?] [?] translated [?] & M[?] p. 13. 22.”
Item formatting	Lines between items. Frequent use of numbered stanzas. No lines under titles; titles are simply centred on the page.
Organization	The catalogue calls this book "Vol. III." but it's unclear if this designation was assigned by them or copied from the spine of the book.
Original poetry	Yes, plenty of poetry by the compiler (William Taylor) and potentially a single poem by his wife, Anna.
Page layout	Most pages are completely full; poems are almost always copied back-to-back. Paginated by the compiler, corrected to folios by a later cataloguer.
Table of Contents	Yes, two—one at the beginning of the volume and one at the end. Titles vary between each Table and only the second Table has recorded the correct page numbers for every item (though the page numbers in the first Table are also mostly correct).