Miscellaneous
UNPUBLISHED VERSES
[ALSOP
(Anthony, 1671 or 1672 - 1726, Prebendary of Winchester 1715, Latin poet)]
MS Copy of his Latin hexameter verses addressed to John Nicoll,
(1684 or 1685 - 1765, 2nd Master of Westminster, 1714, Headmaster 1733-1753), headed D[omin]o Nicol A. Alsop, gently urging him to take a wife, rather in the manner of Gilbert's 'Take a pair of sparkling eyes', but in grammatical terms, talking of singular and plural, perfection in mood and figure, increasing in the genitive (like some 3rd declension nouns), principal parts ('genitum' follows 'genui'), altogether a most polished set of verses, 34 lines, this copy 2 sides 8vo., no date, c.
Item Date: 1750
£375
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Background
Alsop was a fine writer of lyric verses, which he dedicated to his friends and patrons. He and Nicoll were both at Westminster, and will have overlapped at Christ Church, Oxford, where Alsop was tutor to 'the principal noblemen and gentlemen'. In 1717 Alsop was involved in a breach of promise of marriage and, losing the case, left England for a while. The present verses are apparently unpublished. They are found with Alsop's other Latin odes in BL MS Add 31062 (owned in 1718 by A. Brooke). Although they there follow an ode to John Nicoll in Sapphic metre, they are untitled; the present MS is confirmation that Nicoll was the dedicatee. A few of the Latin odes were printed in the early numbers of the Gentleman's Magazine, but not the present verses. The present verses were also omitted when Alsop's Odes were published in 1752 (containing only Sapphics, including the two others to Nicoll).
small tear in bottom edge without loss of text
Stock No. 51652
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