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The Galaxy. Consisting of a variety of sacred and other poetry. The whole original and new. By W. Belcher and others. Rochester: by W. Gillman at the Phoenix Printing Office, sold by James Evans, 1790.
4º (229 x 175mm). With half title. (Half title browned at margins, opening leaves creased at bottom edge.) Modern half calf. Provenance: W.A. Pope (transferred bookplate) -- [John Arlott] -- A.E. Winder (bookplate; sold Phillips, A Collection of Cricketana, 20-21 November 1985, lot 362, to:) -- [David Rayvern Allen].
An anthology of Rochester-printed verse containing an entire poem on cricket. Three of the parts have a separate title-page, pagination and register. Two other parts, 'The New Arcadia. A Regulated Pindaric Ode' and 'The Je ne scai quoi. A Poem. The second edition' 1790, have a separate title-pages but a common pagination and register. 'Je ne scai quoi' and the shorter poem following on 'Cricket' are clearly by the same anonymous author, being composed in the same short couplets of three to four syllables. Without attempting to describe the personality of the players, the latter poem outlines the game's critical moments: first the toss, then the placing of the stumps, the batsmen 'in' with the express purpose of guarding their wickets, the bowler keeping a steady 'length', 'the dextrous throw' of fielders, the ball 'trulling' along the ground when hit or becoming a 'tingling catch', that sorrow of missing a catch when 'the plumping ball' falls to earth, and the run out when the two batsmen 'thwarting knock/ With stunning shock'. Things can go against a side 'By mist catch mourn'd,/ By fortune marr'd/ Less blind than hard'. The game may seem to be over but 'youth blest' may 'Retrieve the day/ Flusht bowler mock/ With hit and block'. The bowler then yields 'his place/ and dusty space' and soon the ball 'Scuds o'er the plain/ and mounts amain' as the batsmen retake control. The Rochester anthology is at least AS RARE AS THE NOBLE CRICKETERS, probably more so. It is not in the MCC collection, and is held at only two institutional libraries worldwide, the BL and St. John's College, Cambridge. No other edition of 'Je ne scai quoi' is known. Padwick 6385.
4º (229 x 175mm). With half title. (Half title browned at margins, opening leaves creased at bottom edge.) Modern half calf. Provenance: W.A. Pope (transferred bookplate) -- [John Arlott] -- A.E. Winder (bookplate; sold Phillips, A Collection of Cricketana, 20-21 November 1985, lot 362, to:) -- [David Rayvern Allen].
An anthology of Rochester-printed verse containing an entire poem on cricket. Three of the parts have a separate title-page, pagination and register. Two other parts, 'The New Arcadia. A Regulated Pindaric Ode' and 'The Je ne scai quoi. A Poem. The second edition' 1790, have a separate title-pages but a common pagination and register. 'Je ne scai quoi' and the shorter poem following on 'Cricket' are clearly by the same anonymous author, being composed in the same short couplets of three to four syllables. Without attempting to describe the personality of the players, the latter poem outlines the game's critical moments: first the toss, then the placing of the stumps, the batsmen 'in' with the express purpose of guarding their wickets, the bowler keeping a steady 'length', 'the dextrous throw' of fielders, the ball 'trulling' along the ground when hit or becoming a 'tingling catch', that sorrow of missing a catch when 'the plumping ball' falls to earth, and the run out when the two batsmen 'thwarting knock/ With stunning shock'. Things can go against a side 'By mist catch mourn'd,/ By fortune marr'd/ Less blind than hard'. The game may seem to be over but 'youth blest' may 'Retrieve the day/ Flusht bowler mock/ With hit and block'. The bowler then yields 'his place/ and dusty space' and soon the ball 'Scuds o'er the plain/ and mounts amain' as the batsmen retake control. The Rochester anthology is at least AS RARE AS THE NOBLE CRICKETERS, probably more so. It is not in the MCC collection, and is held at only two institutional libraries worldwide, the BL and St. John's College, Cambridge. No other edition of 'Je ne scai quoi' is known. Padwick 6385.
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