Beinecke Osborn c189 | Manuscript Verse Miscellanies

Title	Untitled
Archive	Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library
Call Number	Beinecke Osborn c189
Complete	Yes
Description	Anonymous, ca. 1705. 195 items. Songs, political satire, poems on death, and bawdy poetry.
Format	[smaller than a quarto]
Book Size	13cm x 8cm
Filled Page Count	223
Item Count	195
Poem Count	195
Periods	1701-1730
First Line Index	Yes
Digitized	Yes
Region	[Unknown]
Additional Genres
Print Sources
Major Themes	Bodily functions Death, afterlife Love Public affairs Satire - political Major themes prominent among the manuscript contents in alphabetical order.
Minor Themes	Classical themes French poetry Latin poetry Passions, Sentiments Women Other themes of interest among the manuscript contents in alphabetical order.
Links	firstlines.folger.edu collections.library.yale.edu
Bibliography
Citation	“Beinecke Osborn c189.” Manuscript Verse Miscellanies, 1700–1820, edited by Betty A. Schellenberg, Simon Fraser University, https://mvm.dhil.lib.sfu.ca/manuscript/57. Accessed 25 Oct. 2025.
Created	2019-09-04 1:13:44 PM
Updated	2023-07-19 4:35:14 PM

First Line	Context
Julia once struck me with a Ball of Snow	p. 51. Local title: One, who fell in love with Julia, at her throwing A ball of snow at him. Attributed author: n/a Adaptation: n/a Other variants: First line: "A ball of stiffen'd rain from Julia flew." Other: n/a

First Line

Context

p. 51.

Local title: One, who fell in love with Julia, at her throwing A ball of snow at him.

Attributed author: n/a

Adaptation: n/a

Other variants: First line: "A ball of stiffen'd rain from Julia flew."

Other: n/a

Feature	Note
Author attributions	Occasional.
Binding	Full calf. Spine has probably been repaired.
Decorations - hand-drawn	"On a skeleton sitting on a pile of dead men's bones" is illustrated by a pen drawing.
Hands	Single.
Indications of use	A few notes, possibly later but in the same hand and may simply be a change of ink.
Item formatting	Pages with multiple items may have strokes to mark the end of each. No space between items.
Organization	Many pages written sideways, depending on the length of lines, it seems.
Original poetry	Maybe; unattributed items from the manuscript were mostly attributed in the First Line Index, but not all; there could be a few originals.
Ownership mark	Later note written on an endpaper: The author’s initials seem to be “W.P.” and the date of the manuscript circa 1700.
Page layout	Very crowded pages. Paginated (220 pages originally paginated, then 3 additional pages paginated later by the same hand).