'The Imployment of my Solitude . T[homas, lord] F[airfax]', written in about 1660-1670 by lord Fairfax
'The Imployment of my Solitude . T[homas, lord] F[airfax]', containing:
(p. 1). A translation of the Psalms in English verse, preceded by a short verse preface, and followed (p. 390) by the Canticles ('Songs of the Old & New Testament').
(p. 432). 'The Songe of Salomon', in English verse.
(p. 480). Miscellaneous pieces, consisting of:
- 'Honny dropps', proverbial distichs or quatrains (p. 480);
- four 'Hymnes' (p. 510);
- 'The Recreations of my Solitude, T. F.', twenty-eight poems, chiefly moral, some personal (on his new house at Nunappleton, 1665, p. 593, etc.): one is a translation from Petrarch (p. 604), one by lady Cary (p. 596), one by his great uncle Edward Fairfax (p. 647).
Dates
- Creation: written in about 1660-1670 by lord Fairfax
Language of Materials
- English
Physical Description
ii + 734 pages
Shelfmark
MS. Fairfax 40
Other Finding Aids
Falconer Madan, et al., A summary catalogue of western manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford which have not hitherto been catalogued in the Quarto series (7 vols. in 8 [vol. II in 2 parts], Oxford, 1895-1953; reprinted, with corrections in vols. I and VII, Munich, 1980), vol. V, no. 28697.
Custodial History
This MS. passed into the possession of Ralph Thoresby (d. 1725), see his Ducatus Leodiensis (1816) Catal. p. 69.
It bears the bookplate of the duke of Sussex (vi H. b. 18), and was bought at his sale in 1844 (pt. 2, lot 434), by William Pickering, the London bookseller, from whom dr. Bliss purchased it in the same year.
Lot 116 in portion iii. of the sale of the Library of Philip Bliss.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The Library acquired this manuscript for £ 36 10s.
Bibliography
- A full account of this MS. is in H. Cotton's Editions of the Bible (1852), p. xviii, and in manuscript in the Library.
Physical Description
ii + 734 pages
Dimensions
8 × 6 3/8 in.
Repository Details
Part of the Bodleian Libraries Repository
Weston Library
Broad Street
Oxford OX1 3BG United Kingdom
specialcollections.enquiries@bodleian.ox.ac.uk