Beinecke Osborn c360 (1/3) | Manuscript Verse Miscellanies

Title	Untitled
Archive	Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library
Call Number	Beinecke Osborn c360 (1/3)
Complete	Yes
Description	Gabriel Lepipre, ca. 1744–45. 252 poems. Mostly sociable verse, especially arising out of interactions with women, and public affairs.
Format
Book Size	21cm x 17cm
Filled Page Count	163 pages
Item Count	252
Poem Count	252
Periods	1731-1760
First Line Index	Yes
Digitized	No
Region	Bath, Somerset Kent Somerset Tunbridge Wells, Kent
Additional Genres
Print Sources	Guardian
Major Themes	Celebrities Courtship, marriage Death, afterlife Historical subjects Literature Local interest Public affairs Women Major themes prominent among the manuscript contents in alphabetical order.
Minor Themes	Humour, wordplay Illness Latin poetry Satire - social Theatre, drama Visual arts Other themes of interest among the manuscript contents in alphabetical order.
Links	firstlines.folger.edu
Bibliography
Citation	“Beinecke Osborn c360 (1/3).” Manuscript Verse Miscellanies, 1700–1820, edited by Betty A. Schellenberg, Simon Fraser University, https://mvm.dhil.lib.sfu.ca/manuscript/67. Accessed 21 Dec. 2024.
Created	2019-09-04 1:13:44 PM
Updated	2024-02-10 4:29:26 PM

Contributor	Role
Gabriel Lepipre	Primary compiler Major author

First Line	Context
Before creating Nature will'd	p. 45 Local title: Riddle on nothing. Attributed author: n/a Adaptation: n/a Other variants: Last line: Read, and you have it for your pains. Other: n/a
Could but our tempers move like this machine	p. 121 Local title: On a watch. Attributed author: n/a Adaptation: n/a Other variants: n/a Other: n/a
Cries Celia to a reverend Dean	p. 61 Local title: Epigram. Attributed author: n/a Adaptation: n/a Other variants: n/a Other: n/a
Hear all you Friends to Knighthood	p. 171. Local title: On Sir William Morgan of Tredegar, Knight of the Bath, being robbed of his badge of that order. Attributed author: n/a Adaptation: n/a Other variants: First line: Hear all ye Friends... Other: n/a
Indulgent Nature to each Kind bestows	p. 37. Local title: Epigram wrote by a young student of Oxford on the bursar of St John's College, cutting down a fine row of elm trees. Attributed author: A young student of Oxford. Adaptation: n/a Other variants: n/a Other: n/a
O thou, who labour'st in this rugged Mine	p. 157 Local title: Wrote by... in her brother's Coke upon Littleton. Attributed author: n/a Adaptation: n/a Other variants: n/a Other: Also seemingly (judging by FLI entry) imitated on the same page, first line, "O thou who laborestà..."
Oh, spotless paper, fair and white!	p. 10 Local title: XIX Verses by Miss Talbot a young Lady of 12 Years of Age. Attributed author: "Miss Talbot" then corrected to "Miss Laetitia Van Lewen," see below. Adaptation: n/a Other variants: n/a Other: On p. 9v: "Miss Talbot disowns these Verses. they were written by a young Lady in Dublin. viz: Miss Laetitia Van Lewen, who afterwards Married the Revd Mr Pilkington but making an Elopement went to London where she turn’d a common Prostitute of the Town, and publish’d her Memoirs. She Died in Dublin on Sunday July the 29 1750."
The old Egyptians hid their Wit	pp. 66–67 Local title: On the Picture of Beau Nash at full Length being plac’d in Lovelace’s Assembly Room at Bath between the Busts of Sir Isaac Newton & Mr Pope. Attributed author: n/a Adaptation: n/a Other variants: n/a Other: n/a

Feature	Note
Author attributions	Occasional.
Binding	“Vol. III” on spine. Vellum-covered boards, decorative vine-pattern tooling around page edges.
Catchwords	Occasional faint catchwords, mostly at the beginning of the manuscript.
Hands	Single.
Indications of use	Some pages used for handwriting practice in another hands eg. p. 1v, p. 6v. Noticeable water damage eg. p. 3 but really up to around p. 35—this book got wet at some point around the edges. Annotations explaining literary references, giving marriage dates etc. as to the female subjects of his poetry. Blank paper pasted over versos of many pages eg. pp. 4v, 12v, 38v etc. Different colour and not stained like some of the earlier pages are so seemingly a more recent addition. p. 9v updating context behind poems as he learns more information.
Item formatting	Very standardised presentation of titles, suggesting the manuscript was compiled over a shorter period of time. Many (at least half) items dated (perhaps all the ones original to Lepipre). Lines between items.
Organization	All poems recorded on the recto sides of the pages with versos left blank or used for annotations, other notes. Often uses loose thematic groupings (not necessarily arranged ahead of time, perhaps just a series of items the compiler chose to re-copy all at once because they were stored together ie. from the same period or on the same subject) eg. pp. 6–16 centred around trip to Tunbridge Wells/ Bath; pp. 34–44 bunch of poems from 1713, mostly centred around Tunbridge Wells and women; pp. 53–57 three items on “pretty Sally,” a barmaid, from 1732, pp. 80–88 epitaphs and/ or descriptions of ills that befell famous men (mostly politicians) etc.
Original poetry	Yes, many, probably around half the items or more. Lots of sociable verses, rebuses, riddles arising out of his social circle, especially interactions with women. Also many versical responses to the authors of other poems disapproving of their treatment of their subjects eg. pp. 29, 132, 153
Ownership mark	Note at the end of the Table of Contents on p. 164: “I finish’d this Book in upper Brook Street near Grosvenor Square London on Saturday March ye 9 1744/5 Gab Lepipre.”
Page layout	Unpaginated, but numbered items—frequent skips ie. 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13… unexplained.
Table of Contents	Yes, reverse-orientation at the end. Numerical (not by page number), and beginning with CXCV so at least one page missing.