Miscellany

Language: English

Context and purpose

D/EP F40A, a miscellany begun in 1683, displays the diversity of Sarah Cowper's interests. The volume includes not only excerpts from Plutarch's Morals and the lives of bishops, but also observations concerning the chins of Austrian princes, rules for health, historical anecdotes, and various other random bits of information, such as that some writers think Helen "when she was stolen by Paris was 38 and at the destruction of Troy was 52" (p.242).

Although Cowper transcribes the works of others, she provides various insights into her own views through marginal annotations. She suggests her support for the revolution, by writing "King W" beside Plutarch's declaration that "They who can be content to strike sail a little do ordinarily go beyond those who think to gain all by force" (p.49). The quotation, "Such a woman as doth not dissemble but discover openly that she is in love a man would avoid and detest for such shameless incontinency", has "Sa: Stout" beside it in the margin - the name of the Quaker woman whom Cowper's son Spencer was later accused of murdering (p.94). "Sr W" (most likely a reference to Cowper's less than beloved husband) is written beside the declaration, "His perverse behaviour does exasperate and ruffle the minds of all that relate to him and does disturb and muddy the stream of affairs which would otherwise run smooth and clear" (p.373).