Author: BYROM (John):
Title: Miscellaneous Poems.
Description: Manchester: Printed by J. Harrop, 1773. FIRST EDITION. 2 volumes. 8vo, 193 x 109 mms., pp. [ii], vi, 352; [ii], vi, 351 [352 blank], 2 engraved vignette head-pieces, contemporary sheepskin, neatly rebacked with old red morocco labels preserved. A very good set with the armorial bookplate of Sir William Browne Ffolkes (probably the second baronet, 1786 - 1860, and MP 1830 - 1837) on the front paste-down end-paper of each volume; and two earlier inscriptions in each volume, viz., "Jane Houghton 1786/ Saml Curteis 1790" and "The present of Mrs. Jane Houghton of Babuley in Cheshire/ 1790." Byrom's subjects are nothing if not eclectic, e. g., inoculation, John Brown's Estimate, a quarrel between Conyers Middleton and Warburton, the fall of man, a future state, though a larger number of the poems are either hymns or on religious themes. The well-known hymn, "Christians Awake, Salute the Happy Morn" also appears here (II, 58), as well as the six-line epigram, composed in 1725, on the feuds between Handel and Bononcini, ending, "Strange all this Difference should be, /'Twixt Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee!" Byrom (1692 - 1763) perhaps had less musical acumen than he had skill for a system of shorthand, which was used by John and Charles Wesley, David Hartley, Horace Walpole, and prominent members of the aristocracy.

Keywords: poetry religion literature


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