pp. 13, 359 + Mezzotint portrait frontis by J. Faber Junior, after H. Hawkins. Portrait soiled and worn at bottom edge. Mezzotints of this era are scarce. Nice head and tail pieces, and decorative initials. Folio. 320 mm. Modern plain full black leather binding. Hardbound. Very good. Thomas Newcomb (1681/2-1765), poet, was born in Shropshire. At Corpus Christi College he met the poet Edward Young, his most significant literary associate. Newcomb took the degree of BA in 1704 and became chaplain to Charles Lennox, first duke of Richmond. He was rector of Stopham in Sussex from 1705 to at least 1723. He was also rector of nearby Barlavington from 1707 until his death. He began his literary career in 1709 with An Epistle from the Duke of Burgundy to the French King, a panegyric on Marlborough, returning to the theme with Pacata Britannia (1713), on the treaty of Utrecht. His satiric voice was established with Bibliotheca: a Poem. Occasion'd by the Sight of a Modern Library (1712), along lines suggested by Jonathan Swift's Battle of the Books; it contains virulent attacks on many modern writers, especially Daniel Defoe and Richard Bentley, a panegyric on Richard Steele, and a vision of the goddess Oblivion, whose resemblance to Alexander Pope's Dulness was noted by John Nichols and Joseph Warton. In 1723 Newcomb published, by subscription, this Miltonic epic. It was dedicated to the Earl of March, who succeeded that year to the title of Duke of Richmond. Scarce. **PRICE JUST REDUCED! W151
