View Item
16. A volume of pamphlets shelved at G3.4.13.
Requested on: 5 November 1866.
This volume contains eleven separate pamphlets published between 1678 and 1687. They testify to a strong sense of Tory politics and Anglican religion on the part of the original seventeenth-century collector.
Shown here is John Dryden’s poem Absalom and Achitophel, which projected Britain’s crises of the 1680s back into the biblical story of Absalom’s treasonous rebellion against King David. It is intriguing to note again (see item 10 above) the presence of Dryden in Stoker’s reading matter.
Much of the volume is given over to religious and political topics. A Discourse Concerning the Object of Religious Worship accuses Rome of ‘Pagan Idolatry’ in worshiping ‘Saints and Angels.' There are also strident attacks on the Mass and several tracts against fundamental points of Catholic doctrine, including transubstantiation. Even in the nineteenth century, these were unusual topics for the eighteen-year-old Stoker to wish to consult.
Citation:
16. A volume of pamphlets shelved at G3.4.13.,
Marsh's Library Exhibits,
accessed May 6, 2024,
https://web.marshlibrary.ie/digi/items/show/505