NEREIDES: OR, SEA-ECLOGUES.

[DIAPER, William.]

Verlag: London printed by J.H. for E. Sanger at the Post-House at the Middle-Temple-Gate in Fleetstreet, 1712

8vo in fours, pp. x, 69; a fine copy in contemporary calf, spine neatly gilt. First and only separate edition. Diaper came from Somerset, and was educated at Balliol College Oxford, after which he began the process of becoming a priest, though he may never have been fully ordained. This is his first separate publication, dedicated to William Congreve - whom, perhaps, he had never actually met. Somehow, however, he certainly did meet Jonathan Swift, who mentions him in the Journal to Stella: 'Here is a young Fellow has written some Sea Eclogues, Poems of Mermen, resembling Pastoralls of Shepherds, & they are very pretty, and the Thought is new. I must do something for him, and get him out of the Way. I hate to have any new Witts rise; but when they do rise I would encourage them' (12 March 1712, p. 512). In the only surviving letter between the two (30 April 1713), Swift promised to get a living for the young trainee parson, but it was not long before he himself was posted to Dublin, and with the change of government, and of monarchy, in the summer of 1714, his influence evaporated. Diaper died sometime in 1717, and this is one of his very few published works. Foxon D294. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 22786

Bibliografische Details

Titel: NEREIDES: OR, SEA-ECLOGUES.
Verlag: London printed by J.H. for E. Sanger at the Post-House at the Middle-Temple-Gate in Fleetstreet
Erscheinungsdatum: 1712
Einband: Softcover