POEMS BY THE EARL OF ROSCOMON. To which is added, An Essay on Poetry, by the Earl of Mulgrave, now Duke of Buckingham. Together with poems by Mr. Richard Duke.

8vo, pp. [xx], 536; contemporary calf, gilt spine (rubbed, joints worn), with label (chipped). First edition, and a copy on large paper. The leaves measure 217 x 135mm, a good 3cm taller than the ordinary copies. This volume is important primarily for its inclusion of the first and only early collection of the poetry of Richard Duke (1685-1711), a clergyman who was a close friend of Dryden, Otway, and Prior. A preliminary note to the reader, possibly by Tonson, provides a few details, particularly with regard to a poem called 'The Review', which is printed here for the first time: As for the poems of the late Mr. Duke; whatever has not been printed before, I have of his own Hand-Writing, to satisfy any Person that doubts of their being his. The Beginning of the Poem, call'd the Review, he wrote a little after the publishing of Mr. Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel; he was persuaded to undertake it by Mr. Sheridan, then secretary to the Duke of York; but Mr. Duke finding Mr. Sheridan design'd to make use of his Pen to vent his Spleen against several Persons at Court that were of another Party, than that he was engaged in, broke off proceeding in it, and left it as it is now printed. Also of interest is a an early appearance in print by Laurence Eusden, later Poet Laureate. In discussing the Earl of Roscommon's poems, the preliminary note adds the following: 'His Essay on Translated Verse has been very much esteem'd; it is from the Ingenious Pen of Mr. Eusden of Cambridge that you have the Latin version of it, which was never printed before'. Provenance: Jolliffe family bookplate. Case 301; Macdonald, Dryden, 326.…