Commonplace book of John Thompson. [manuscript] [circa 1694]

[England] ; [circa 1694]

1 volume ; 20 cm

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Great Britain -- England, -- production place.

272835 MS

From dealer's description: "[THOMPSON, John] Late 17th-century manuscript commonplace book. [Circa 1694]. Quarto (text block measures 195 x 153 x 20). 12-page table, [4 (blanks)], 233 (numbered pages), [17, (blanks)]. Contemporary panelled calf, neatly rebacked (probably in the 20th century), rubbed, occasional browning and minor marks to text. A few pressed leaves loosely inserted. Watermark: Coat of Arms (similar to Haewood 369, but not an exact match). Provenance: three ownership inscriptions to front endpaper of “JohnThompson” and dated “1694”. Commonplace books were compiled with varying degrees of organisation or intent, sometimes over years or decades: this example seems to have been a project conceived and executed by its owner within a relatively short time span. The only date (“1694”) is the one to the endpaper, the clear hand and the layout are consistent throughout, and some sections of text have been copied down in batches from their sources. Those sources are not always easy to identify, given the frequency with which texts – especially epigrammatic or aphoristic ones – were anthologised and recirculated, either in print or in manuscript. But Thompson’s first entry, which begins “Garrulity is soe Irksome to Society, that we seldom find it welcom’d”, is taken from Daily observations, or, Meditations, divine, moral, by Arthur Capel (1604-1649), a contention confirmed by his paraphrasing of Capel in his title to this section: “Daily Observations. Divine & Morall”. Thompson’s rendering of extracts in batches from certain sources is far from indiscriminate: for example, the passages between p 175 and p 216 were copied from The courtier’s oracle: or, The art of prudence. Written originally in Spanish, by Baltazar Gracian; and now done into English (two editions: 1685 and 1694), and set down in the order in which they occur in the printed work. But Thompson is selecting and curating, and has included only those which he considered pertinent. The inference is that he has exercised his own quite specific set of criteria in choosing which to include and which to leave out. Among those that do make it into his book are: “To be always usefull”, “The thing and ye Manner of the thing”, “The judicious and Penetrating man”, “The joviall Humour”, “The way to live Long”, and “Silken words”. Thompson’s personal touchstones can be gleaned to some extent by looking though the topic headings in “The Table”, his alphabetically arranged, 12-page index of contents at the front of the volume which includes a wide variety of headings. We list just a few here give a sense of topics covered which range from “Arguing and passion”, “Apparell”, “Beauty”, “Business”, “Contradicting”, “Charity”, “Death”, “Ears”, “Flattery”, “Gaming”, “Happiness”, “Jests”, “Love”, “Memory”, “Oppression”, “Patience”, “Reason”, “Speech”, “Silence”, “Tears and Pain”, to “Women”. His selections regarding “Women” are brief, but they all too clearly represent the misogyny that characterised the culture of this period (and, of course laid the foundations for later generations), via a liberal quantity of illiberal epigrams such as “He yt: can abide a curst wife, need not fear what company he liveth in”, and “If women be butifull, they are won with praises, if proud with Guifts; if covetous with promises”, and one which might resonate with today’s incels: “Women oft in their Love resemble the Apothecary’s in their Arts, who choose the weeds for their Shops, when they leave the Fairest flowers in the Garden”. These all appeared in Nicholas Ling’s (active 1580-1607) Politeuphuia, wits common-wealth, an enormously popular book first published in 1597 and followed by at least 30 editions. Other catchy phrases to prop up the patriarchy reach back to ancient times: “Trust not a woman when she weepeth, for it is her nature to weep when she wanteth her will” appeared in several 17th century works but can be traced as far back as Socrates. Commonplace books can offer an opportunity to examine the aesthetic, literary and moral palates of their owners, and to illuminate parts of the larger world of early-modern publishing and manuscript culture. Thompson’s contribution to the genre is admirably thorough; through his curated selections, we gain an insight into the thoughts and attitudes of a 17th-century reader and their wider society which in turn formed the substratum of the world in which we live today. Ordered from Dean Cooke Rare Books ltd. D9622, 2023-03-24, from Catalogue no. four, item #43, Ref. 8133

272835