Dalacourt James (2 results)

First edition, a finely bound dedication copy, inscribed by the Earl of Orrery on the front flyleaf: "sent to Me by the Author from Corke. 1734". De-La-Cour wrote A Prospect of Poetry while studying for his MA at Trinity College, Dublin. It became his best-known work and the only one reissued during his lifetime. James De-La-Cour (1709c. 1785; styled Dalacourt on the title page here), spent most of his life in County Cork and was both clergyman and poet. His verse, containing "many beautiful pastoral descriptions ornamented with subtle classical allusions", made him "greatly esteemed in polite society" (DIB). His dedicatee, John Boyle (17071762), 5th Earl of Orrery and later Earl of Cork, was a noted literary figure, a friend of Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, and Samuel Johnson, and an author in his own right. Provenance: Carl H. Pforzheimer Library; Gerald E. Slater (sale, Christie's New York, 12 February 1982, lot 49). Stephen C. Massey, purchased from Ximenes, 1982. ESTC T477. Octavo (182 x 112 mm), pp. 64. With woodcut headpieces and factotum initials. Contemporary red morocco, spine with black morocco label and decorated in gilt compartments, sides with frames of gilt rolls, board edges and turn-ins gilt, marbled endpapers, edges gilt. Inscription "The gift of L[ord] Cork D D" and former library marks on front free endpaper verso. Joints just cracked at foot, some refurbishment, touch of wear to corners. A very good copy.

8vo, pp. 64; light waterstain to several pages, disbound. First London edition: first printed in Dublin earlier the same year. The Rev. James Dalacourt (also De-la-cour) was born in co. Cork in 1709 and died sometime in the 1780s. A much later collected edition of his poems (Cork, 1778) includes a poem addressed to him, by 'J. Thomson, Author of the Seasons' but apparently that had been disclaimed by Thomson. Much of the first poem here (pp. 3-58) is a discourse of the literature of antiquity, but there are substantial references as well to various Scriblerians, especially Swift, and also to Pope, whose Dunciad and translation of Homer are specifically cited. Near the end is a passage calling attention to the talents of Irish poets: Nor let proud Albion thus her neighbours scorn, As if her sons alone were poets born; We too may boast ourselves the sons of fame, Nor are we foreign to that sacred name: Juvernas' genius yet shall wear the bay, And drink as deep of Helicon as they; In spight of all our hopeful foes abroad, Prevail at last, and soar into a god; The Dunciad comes, sure omen of their fate, And Ireland yet may be the muses' seat. Foxon D13; O'Donoghue p. 103.