The Collected Verse of John, Lord Hervey (1696-1743)
- Submitting institution
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Loughborough University
- Unit of assessment
- 27 - English Language and Literature
- Output identifier
- 1817
- Type
- R - Scholarly edition
- DOI
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- Title of edition
- The Collected Verse of John, Lord Hervey (1696-1743)
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- ISBN
- 9781107010178
- Open access status
- -
- Month of publication
- November
- Year of publication
- 2016
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- Yes
- Double-weighted statement
- Hobby’s contribution to this output required her to access primary sources which were extended, complex and in some cases difficult to access. Transcriptions of thousands of manuscripts containing Hervey’s verse had to be checked and corrected in the Suffolk Record Office; hundreds more were located in archives that allow only limited access and by appointment, and no photographic reproduction: the Harrowby Manuscripts Trust, Sandon Hall, Stafford; the John Murray Archive, London. Dozens of manuscripts were checked in more mainstream sources, including the British Library, the Bodleian and the Beinecke libraries. Hobby worked on this throughout 2014-16.
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This is the first collection of the verse of John, Lord Hervey (1696-1743), whose Memoirs are a key source for historians, but whose poetry is largely unknown. This edition seeks to reinstate Hervey within eighteenth-century literary culture, to chart his poetic development and experimentation, and to examine his dissident sexual identity. The 107 items range from a 5-Act play in verse that survives only in manuscript, to short verse sections that Hervey incorporated into letters to personal friends. Most of these works have never before been printed; others have not been reprinted since they appeared in eighteenth-century newspapers and anthologies. The editorial commentaries and other information provided make possible further research into such matters as the variety of eighteenth-century verse forms, the history of sexuality, and the practice of manuscript circulation of verse.
Elaine Hobby determined the edition’s textual policy, and undertook lengthy research in archives (including the Suffolk Record Office, Sandon Hall, and the British Library). She spent a further six months correcting transcriptions and creating the textual apparatus that forms pp. 619-758 of the volume. She also produced the final version of the work submitted to the Press and oversaw its copy-editing and proof correction.
Before Hobby’s involvement, Bill Overton (d. September 2012) conducted archival research across the UK and USA to establish the corpus; collated the witnesses in manuscript and print, choosing base-texts and establishing editorial principles; and drafted most of the headnotes and commentary notes. He also transcribed Hervey’s play, Agrippina, the editing being completed by James McLaverty. McLaverty also drew on Overton’s published and unpublished work for the edition’s introduction.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
