miscellaneous poems translations von travers henry (2 Ergebnisse)

8vo, pp. xxix, [i], [iv], 366; rather a tired copy in contemporary panelled calf (rubbed, some wear to corners). Second edition (though not so designated); substantially enlarged from the edition of 1731, so as to be virtually a new book. Most of the poems from the edition of 1731 are here reprinted. The most notable additions include The Miller of Trompington, or the Reeve's Tale from Chaucer, and a translation of Books I-II of the Iliad, to accompany the version of Book III already published. The list of subscribers (on 23pp) includes many Oxford and Cambridge names, but the preponderance are from the Yorkshire area, including Laurence Sterne's uncle, Rev. Jaques Sterne, 'Archdeacon of Cleaveland and Precentor of York'. Travers's old friend Thomas Hayter, by now Archdeacon and Prebendary of York, subscribed for six copies. At the end of the preliminaries is a cancel of pp. 123-4; the cancellandum is still in place where printed (Q2), and reveals that the reason for the cancel is that one line of verse had been inadvertently omitted on p. 123. Foxon p. 820.

8vo, pp. [xxiv], 202; one leaf of dedication loose, else a good copy, in contemporary mottled calf, gilt, spine gilt (some wear). First edition of the author's first book. Henry Travers is commonly listed, e.g. in the ESTC and WorldCat, with the date 'fl. 1731', as if nothing were known of him aside from the publication of this book. It is in fact possible to retrieve many details of his life, most particularly from Anonymiana (1809), a posthumously published work by the antiquary Samuel Pegge (1704-1796), edited by the scholar-printer John Nichols. Travers was born in the West Country, and received his early schooling in Tiverton, in Devon, where he was a friend and classmate of Thomas Hayter (1702-1762), later the Bishop of London. His subsequent education was at Queens' College, Cambridge, which is no doubt where he first met Pegge, who was at St. John's; one of the poems in this volume, a paraphrase of Joshua VI, 20 ('Irregular Ode'), is in fact by Pegge, though his name does not appear. Travers then became a Church of England clergyman, and his first post was as a vicar in West Walton, in Norfolk. He subsequently moved to the village of Upwell, near Wisbech, on the Cambridgeshire border, before going on to the parish of Ilkley, in West Yorkshire. By this time his friend Hayter was Archdeacon of York, and it was with his assistance that Travers became the curate at Nunburnholme in the East Riding. Travers died in 1754, and was succeeded by Laurence Sterne, who added the curacy to his position as vicar of Sutton-on-the-Forest. Pegge describes one eccentricity of his friend: 'Mr. Travers had an extreme aversion to a pig, when brought to table; but what is very strange, could eat it when cut to pieces.' This volume, published when Travers must have been just short of his thirtieth birthday, displays a fairly wide range of interests. Included are a number of occasional poems and Biblical paraphrases, as well as 'The Pleasures of Angling', translated from a neo-Latin poem in the popular anthology Musae Anglicanae. The longest pieces are a modernisation of Chaucer's Shipman's Tale, and a translation of Book III of the Iliad. With a 16-page list of subscribers, including many Cambridge names. The dedication in verse is to the Duke of Bedford. The first leaf of the dedication is a cancel (loose from stub), adding the engraved arms of the dedicatee; as first printed, this leaf had no arms. Foxon p. 820, apparently suggesting that some copies of this book have a frontispiece but this appears to be an error, as no copies with a plate have been traced.