The collection of pre-1825 printed music in the Fitzwilliam Museum is one of the most important in the British Isles after the British Library and the Bodleian Library, particularly for its holdings of late seventeenth- and eighteenth-century music, areas in which the collection is noticeably strong. Many of the books are from the library of the Museum's founder, Richard Fitzwilliam, 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam of Merrion and of Thorncastle (1745–1816), one of the finest collections of the later eighteenth century that not only continued to grow in the early nineteenth but also survived intact. This in itself makes Fitzwilliam's collection of music a fascinating monument in the history of musical taste. Italian music looms large, but his interests were also broad enough to include French music by then unfashionable composers such as Lalande, Lully and Rameau, as well as the works of English seventeenth-century composers. The collection, considerably enriched by subsequent donations, is he
How was Alexander Pope's personal experience of women transformed into poetry, and how in turn did he and his writing figure in the lives of the women he wrote about? How characteristic of his age was Pope's attitude towards women? What exactly was the role in his life of individual women such as his mother, Patty Blount and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu? Valerie Rumbold's is the first full-length study of these important issues. Making use of previously little-known manuscripts, she focuses both on Pope's own life and art, and on early eighteenth-century assumptions about women and gender. She offers readings of some of the well-known poems in which women feature prominently, and follows Pope's response throughout his writings in general. His own alienation from the dominant culture (through religion, politics and physical handicap) and his troubled fascination with certain kinds of women make this subject complex and compelling, with wide implications. Dr Rumbold brings to light new
On April 12, 1861, the long-simmering tensions between the American North and South exploded as Southern troops in the seceding state of South Carolina fired on the Federal forces at Fort Sumter in Ch
This?new addition to the celebrated Longman Annotated English Poets Series will become the gold standard edition of Pope's most significant poem, The Dunciad.Best available scholarly edition of Pope?s
The Dunciad in Four Books of 1743 was the culmination of the series of Dunciads which Alexander Pope produced over the last decade and a half of his life. It comprises not only a poem, but also a mass
