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The foure ages of England : or, The iron age. With other select poems

Archive Print Item: BC Lt d/C--

Details

Type of record: Book

Title: The foure ages of England : or, The iron age. With other select poems

Level: Item

Classmark: BC Lt d/C--

Creator(s): A. C

Additional creator(s): Cowley, Abraham (1618-1667) (Other)

Related people: Cowley, Abraham; Cowley, Abraham

Publisher: [s.n.]

Publication city: [London]

Date(s): 1648

Language: English

Size and medium: [6], 70, [4] p

Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/268067

Printed items catalogue: https://leeds.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?vid=44LEE_INST:VU1&docid=alma991017602719705181

Collection group(s): English Literature

Description

Although ascribed to Cowley on the title page of this edition, "The foure ages" was repudiated by him in the Preface to "Poems", 1656, and this is now thought to be correct on stylistic grounds etc. (see G.R. Noyes and H.R. Read "An essay upon satyr [etc.] in University of California Publications in English 7 (3), 1948). The Postscript to "The iron age" is "signed" A.C.


The work is divided into four sections, "The golden age", "The silver age", "The brazen age" and "The iron age", the latter part being by far the longest.


Pages 61-2: "To my Lord Lieutenant of Ireland", an unsigned poem.


Pages 63-70: "A satyre against separatists", an unsigned poem now thought to be by Abraham Cowley (see Noyes and Mead), but which has also been attributed to John Taylor, the "water poet" and Peter Hausted.


Dedication signed in Greek, Philokarlo, [i.e. a friend or supporter of Charles I, then imprisoned].


Last two leaves blank.


Wing C6671.

Additional description

Wormholed in inner margins affecting a few words

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