WHALEY, John.. A COLLECTION OF POEMS. London: printed for the author; by John Willis and Joseph Boddington at the Angel and Bible in Great-Tower-Street and sold by Messieurs Innys and Manby; at the West End of St. Paul's-Church-Yard; Messieurs Bettesworth and Hitch at the Red-Lion in Paternoster-Row and T. Astley at the Rose in St. Paul's-Church-Yard, 1732.

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Description: 8vo, pp. [xvi], '287' (mistake for 289); contemporary panelled calf, rebacked at an early date, red morocco label (some wear to spine and corners, joints cracked). First edition of the author's first book. John Whaley (1710-1745) was born in Norwich, the son of a tradesman. He was educated at Eton, and King's College, Cambridge, where he gained a reputation as 'a man of genius and a poet', and gathered around him a set of bright young men; an acquaintance, William Cole, later described Whaley as living 'a dissolute and debauched kind of life', which probably suggests that he was gay. At some point early on Whaley had formed a connection with the Walpole family, and in 1735 he was appointed tutor to Horace Walpole, who thought highly of him, and shared his interest in connoisseurship. 'Whaley was a socially ambitious man, and his journal indicates that he was able to gain an entrée into some of the most illustrious houses in England. He never married' (Oxford DNB). This collection of poems was published just after Whaley received his undergraduate degree. 'An accomplished, witty performance in a variety of styles and measures. The poems range from formal panegyrics and imitations of Greek and Latin authors, and versified Biblical stories in the manner of Prior, to informal epistles to friends, and fables in Dryden's style. Some of the material reveals Whaley's connection with his home city, for instance a prologue and epilogue for a Norwich school play. A number of poems indicate (or feign) familiarity with Venice and Rome, and an interest in art history, notably the 'Essay on Painting' in couplets' (Oxford DNB again). Included in this volume, without acknowledgement, are two youthful poems by George Lyttelton, Whaley's contemporary at Eton and Oxford, both of which had already been separately published. i.e. Blenheim (1728; Foxon L330) and An Epistle to Mr. Pope, from a Young Gentleman at Rome, (1730; Foxon L331). Included as well are nine poems (pp. 177-220) identified simply as having been contributed 'by a friend'. These were in fact by a classmate at King's College, Sneyd Davies (1709-1769), a curious and seemingly diffident young man who went on to become a domestic chaplain in Lichfield to Frederick Cornwallis, later Archbishop of Canterbury. The first of the poems is an imitation of an ode of Horace, called 'To a Gentleman in Love with a Negro Woman'. 'Sneyd Davies was a poor horseman, except on a chamber-horse; he was fond of smoking his pipe, and had a passion for bowling. He was never married, and was singularly simple, modest, and unworldly' (Oxford DNB). Davies never collected his poems, but many of them were reprinted in a long rambling biography by George Hardinge, published as part of Nichols's Illustrations (1817). Whaley's volume was published by subscription; a ten-page list of subscribers contains almost 700 names, including 'Horatio Walpole'. This copy is signed on the title-page by Spark Molesworth, whose name appears in the subscriber's list as a student at Trinity Hall, Cambridge (along with Hender Molesworth, of Clare Hall); on the front flyleaf is the shelf mark, "Pope book 5, shelf 3," which at least one later bookseller appears to have misinterpreted as indicating that this was actually Pope's own copy. Later bookplate of Oliver Brett, Viscount Esher. Foxon p. 888.

Seller: Christopher Edwards ABA ILAB, Henley-on-Thames, OXON, United Kingdom