Beinecke Osborn c241 | Manuscript Verse Miscellanies

Title	Untitled
Archive	Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library
Call Number	Beinecke Osborn c241
Complete	Yes
Description	Richard Chaloner Cobbe, ca. 1753. Thick boards seemingly worn by use. 67 items. Seems reflective of an Oxford circle of male poets. Latin poetry, bawdy satire, and poems about women.
Format	Quarto
Book Size	21cm x 17cm
Filled Page Count	131 pages
Item Count	67
Poem Count	64
Periods	1731-1760
First Line Index	Yes
Digitized	No
Region	Oxford, Oxfordshire Oxfordshire
Additional Genres	Prose letters
Print Sources
Major Themes	Bodily functions Courtship, marriage Humour, wordplay Latin poetry Satire - social Women Major themes prominent among the manuscript contents in alphabetical order.
Minor Themes	Imitation, parody Literature Other themes of interest among the manuscript contents in alphabetical order.
Links	firstlines.folger.edu
Bibliography
Citation	“Beinecke Osborn c241.” Manuscript Verse Miscellanies, 1700–1820, edited by Betty A. Schellenberg, Simon Fraser University, https://mvm.dhil.lib.sfu.ca/manuscript/60. Accessed 29 Nov. 2025.
Created	2019-09-04 1:13:44 PM
Updated	2024-10-15 11:03:41 AM

Contributor	Role
Richard Chaloner Cobbe	Primary compiler
Sir Charles Hanbury Williams	Major author

First Line	Context
Clio, behold this charming Day	p. 47 Local title: Ode to Henry Fox esqr. Attributed author: n/a Adaptation: n/a Other variants: n/a Other: n/a
Mistaken fair, lay Sherlock by	p. 14 Local title: On the Countess of Walsingham's reading Sherlock on Death Attributed author: Lord Chesterfield Adaptation: n/a Other variants: n/a Other: n/a
Remote from Liberty and Truth	pp. 15–18 Local title: Ode by Mr Nugent; on his Conversion to the Protestant Religion. Attributed author: Mr Nugent. Adaptation: n/a Other variants: Nothing here addressing Pulteney, as normally in the last stanzas of the poem. Other: n/a
Since you, dear Doctor, sav'd my Life	pp. 125–129. Local title: Letter from C.H. to Dr. L. Attributed author: C.H. Adaptation: n/a Other variants: n/a Other: n/a

Feature	Note
Author attributions	Occasional.
Binding	Thick boards, without title. Worn by use, it seems. Perhaps originally a very thin calf or vellus half-binding, but could just be some kind of waxed paper.
Decorations - hand-drawn	Pen drawings (doodlings) on verso of page 129.
Hands	Single.
Indications of use	Sketch on back page looks like a dress fashionable at the turn of the nineteenth-century or later – perhaps signals continued reading of the book, or simply use of the book for scrap paper. Book cover corners quite dog-eared, which could signify frequent reading. Boards worn by use.
Item formatting	Uniform presentation of poems, with single diagonal lines under titles and double diagonal lines between items.
Organization	Latin and English poems (unusually) integrated.
Original poetry	Seems possible, given sense of local poems centred around Oxford, bawdy short poems, etc. – but this is also the type of material that would circulate anonymously.
Ownership mark	Pasted inside front cover: bookplate of Richard Chaloner Cobbe.
Page layout	Paginated.
Table of Contents	Yes, at the beginning of the manuscript.