1787 The Temple of Folly, in Four Cantos [With] Poetical Address to His Majesty: occasioned by the Late Royal Visit to Worcester [With] Monody to the Memory of a Young Lady who died in Child-bed [With] The Diabo-Lady: or, a Match in Hell [With] The Diaboliad. A Poe. Part the Second

Description

Early Edition, First Edition, Leather Binding

Comprising two poems by Theophilus Swift: 'The Temple of Folly, in Four Cantos' (ESTC T49932) and 'Poetical Address to His Majesty' (ESTC N40261).  'The Temple of Folly' is the first edition and retains the half-title and engraved frontispiece. It is very scarce and only ten copies are held institutionally worldwide. 'Poetical Address' is also a first edition and retains the half-title. 

The third poem to this anthology is Cuthbert Shaw's 'Monody to the Memory of a Young Lady who Died in Child-Bed'. It is a third edition, of this work which is written about the death of Shaw's wife Ann Rivers during childbirth. It is Shaw's best known poem and brought him to the attention of George Lyttelton, a fellow widower who wrote a similar poem on the death of his own wife. The ODNB notes that this work was still avidly read in the early 19th century. ESTC reference no T41389 for this work, which is held in five locations institutionally in the U.K. 

The final two pamphlets are by William Combe and are 'The Diabo-Lady' and 'The Diaboliad'. ESTC reference numbers T31773 and T112377. Both of these volumes have been bound without the half-titles. 'The Diaboliad' is lacking the final text leaf and advertisement leaf.  To 'The Diabo-Lady' a prior owner's inscriptions to the margins identify the character's real identities. These satires are what brought Combe his popularity. Although, 'The Diabo-Lady' is frequently attributed to a group of authors rather than Combe. 

A scarce collection of poems, which provide a picture of society in the eighteenth century.