Seventeenth Century

MICHAEL DRAYTON (1563-1631) 

Poly-Olbion, or A chorographicall description of tracts, riuers, mountaines, forests, and other parts of this renowned Isle of Great Britaine: with intermixture of the most remarquable stories, antiquities, wonders, rarityes, pleasures and commodities of the same digested in a poem by Michael Drayton, Esq. ; with a table added, for direction to those occurrences of story and antiquitie, whereunto the course of the volume easily leades not. 

London: Printed by H.L. for Mathew Lownes, I. Browne, I. Helme, and I. Busbie, 1613-1622 

With “illustrations” or notes by John Selden (1584-1654). Each of the songs is preceded by a double map of the countries referred to, in which the towns, rivers, etc. are represented by allegorical figures. 

THOMAS FULLER (1608-1661) 

The history of the worthies of England 

London: Printed by J. G. W. L. and W. G., 1662 

Thomas Fuller was an English churchman and historian. Dedication and preface by the author’s son, John Fuller (1641-1667), who finished the printing of the work, “according to the copy the author left behind him.” Arranged by counties, with the commodities, manufactures, etc., of each followed by brief biographies of its “worthies.” The Worthies of England is an antiquarian’s delight, notable, among other things, for being the first book to provide a biographical mention of William Shakespeare.  

From the Mary Ellen Fisher & Harold Wilson Fisher collection. 

ALEXANDER BROME (1620-1666) 

Songs and other poems by Alex. Brome 

London: Printed for Henry Brome ... 1668 

Commendatory verses by Charles Cotton, Izaak Walton, Valentine Oldys and others. 

Part of the collection of John Lee Brooks, former professor of English at SMU. Gift of his nephew John W. Freese, M.D., 2009. 

ABRAHAM COWLEY (1618-1667) 

The works of Mr. Abraham Cowley. Consisting of those which were formerly printed: and those which he design’d for the press, now published out of the authors original copies. 

London: Printed by J. M. for Henry Herringman, 1674 

The 4th edition. Includes “An account of the life and writings of Mr. Abraham Cowley. Written to Mr. M. Clifford” by Thomas Sprat (1635-1713). 

THOMAS NORTH (1535-1601?) 

The lives of noble Grecians & Romans compared together, by that grave learned philosopher & historiographer Plutarch ...  

Cambridge: Printed by John Hayes, for George Sawbridge, at the Bible on Ludgate-Hill, London, Anno Dom. M.DC.LXXVI. [1676] 

This is the 7th edition. North’s translation was first published in English in 1579. Plutarch’s Lives, illustrating the moral character of his subjects through a series of anecdotes, were highly influential in the Renaissance (Shakespeare drew upon them for Julius Caesar, Coriolanus, and Antony and Cleopatra) and after, inspiring other biographical projects, such as the British Plutarch and the Biographia Britannia. 

Gift of Mary Spillman, 2009 

JOHN DRYDEN (1631-1700) 

Of dramatick poesie, an essay 

London, H. Herringman, 1684 

Dryden’s first major critical work, cast in the form of a dialogue among four speakers, Eugenius, Crites, Lisideius, and Neander. 

They debate a series of three topics: (1) the relative merit of classical drama vs. modern drama; (2) whether French drama is better than English drama (supported by Neander, who calls Shakespeare "the greatest soul, ancient or modern"); and (3) whether plays in rhyme are an improvement upon blank verse drama. 

VIRGIL

The works of Virgil: containing his Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis translated into English verse by Mr. Dryden in three volumes, adorned with above a hundred sculptures.

London: Printed by Jacob Tonson ... 1709

Includes Chetwood’s Life of Virgil and Preface to the Pastorals (v. 1, pages 13-100) and Addison’s An essay on the Georgics (v. 1, 77-92)

APHRA BEHN (1640-1689)

Poems

In: Poems by the most eminent ladies of Great-Britain and Ireland ... : selected, with an account of the writers

London: Printed for T. Becket and Co. and T. Evans, at No. 50, near York-Buildings, Strand, MCCLXXIII [1773]

The second edition. Editors George Colman (1732-1794) and Bonnell Thornton (1724-1768) brought out the first edition in 1755. Poems by the Most Eminent Ladies was the first collection of verse devoted exclusively to poetry by women. They included 18 poets in two duodecimo volumes, containing over six-hundred pages. Arranged alphabetically, each poet's section begins with a brief biography.