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20. A volume of pamphlets shelved at K4.4.27
Requested on: 30 March 1867.
A volume of eleven long-forgotten poetic and dramatic works by minor late-Elizabethan and early-Stuart writers.
In their day these cheap, poorly-printed texts were part of a vibrant culture of literary production in London. They were soon consigned to oblivion by the passage of the years and changing literary tastes.
The first item (pictured) is a long poem of 1606 by Nathaniel Baxter. It claims to be a synthesis of Christian doctrine and Greek philosophy, but is little more than a pedestrian attempt by Baxter to secure patronage from the family of the Elizabethan poet, Sir Philip Sidney (1554-86).
It is hard to imagine what drew Stoker to these fragile, unlovely texts in 1867, but his close friend, the Shakespearean scholar Edward Dowden, came to Marsh’s to read this volume in 1875 and 1876. It is surely likely that Stoker mentioned these pamphlets to Dowden in some context.
Citation:
20. A volume of pamphlets shelved at K4.4.27,
Marsh's Library Exhibits,
accessed May 4, 2024,
https://web.marshlibrary.ie/digi/items/show/512