Bibliotheca Anglo-poetica; or, a descriptive catalogue of a rare and rich collection of early English poetry: in the possession of Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown / Illustrated by occasional extracts and remarks, critical and biographical.

  • Longman (Firm)
Date:
1815
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Bibliotheca Anglo-poetica; or, a descriptive catalogue of a rare and rich collection of early English poetry: in the possession of Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown / Illustrated by occasional extracts and remarks, critical and biographical. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    192/508 (page 174)
    Lo let his praise the brasen posts And Pvramis outweare, Nor let not Momus canckred tootli The worke praiseworthie teare: But as the Phoenix shall it Hue, Though birth renuing new : And on the fire which waterie thorns, And greene wood doth subdue, Doth flame at length: so maugre spite, it flourish shall to good delight. WOVLD, and would not.—mo- rocco.—London, printed by Tho. C.Jbr Tho. Busliell, 1614. Quarto, pp. 44. . <£ 15. 15s. This very singular performance is prefaced by an address “ To the Reader,” as follows : —“ You that reade, what you would be, I knowr not 5 what you would not be, you know your selfe : But what you should be, God knowes: But for myselfe, 1 have founde what is best to be, and so wishe other, except they neither knowe what they should be : nor well what they would, or would not be: Scorne it not, because it is in verse, or rime, for if you will reade it, you maie perhaps finde more pleasure and profit in it, than a worse piece of prose : not to perswade you to any thing, further then your liking 5 I leaue the censure of it, to your discretion, and my better Labours as they fall out, to your further content. And so, loath to make you beleeue more, then perhaps you shall finde, hoping, that no man will be angry with his owne shadowe, nor saie (meaning me) when he comes to a foole point : But take the best and leaue the worst, and break none of the pale; as kinde hearts doe in the Countrey: I rest, as you may see in my Dis- course, what 1 would, and would not bee: and without would not, would bee as I should be. Your friend and well-wilier, B. N.”— As it cannot be ascertained to whom these initials w'cre intended to apply, a minute description of the Poem is in some measure neces- sarv: it consists of one hundred and seventy-four six-line stanzas, and the following, which arc the first five, will convey an idea of the author’s plan, as well as his manner of treating it: