Description of Special Collection

Collection Level Description: Peter Pindar Manuscripts

---

Collection name: Peter Pindar Manuscripts

Collection code: GB 033 ADD 420-429

Date range: 1780s-1810s

Extent: 3 boxes

Language: English

Created by: Peter Pindar (John Wolcot), poet (1738-1819)

Held by: Durham University Library, Archives and Special Collections

Part of : Additional Manuscripts

---

Contents:
This group of collections of manuscript works by Wolcot, many in his own hand, consists of work that seems not to have been published at the time. It consists of files of poems with the following working titles: "Anacreontics", "Cantab & Poet, a dialogue", "For young folks", "For young folks, in imitation of Watts' Moral songs ", "Glees", "Madrigals", "New-old ballads composed for Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary of Scotland, Lord Surrey, Sir Thomas Wyatt, Sir Fulke Greville, &c. by P. Pindar Esq.", "Poems & hymns for young folks", "Sacred poems", "Tales & fables for young folks".
About the creator:
John Wolcot ("Peter Pindar"), 1738-1819. After training and practising as both a doctor and a priest, John Wolcot found fame under the pseudonym "Peter Pindar" as a writer of satirical verse in the late 18th century. In the 1780s and 1790s his poems, commenting on society and royalty in Georgian London, proved extremely popular with everyone but the subjects. He produced a large quantity of work, ranging from the bestseller to the ephemeral.
Provenance:
Bought from G.F. Sims, Catalogue 22, item 123.
Access:
Open for consultation.
Usage:
Permission to make any published use of material from the collection must be sought in advance from the Sub-Librarian, Special Collections (e-mail PG.Library@durham.ac.uk) and, where appropriate, from the copyright owner. The Library will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material.
Catalogues:
Catalogue
Related collections held at Durham:
C. C. Abbott Literary Manuscripts: correspondence between Wolcot (ABL 590-598) and James Northcote (ABL 221-224).
Bibliography:
DNB entry: http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/29828
T. Girtin, Doctor with two aunts (1959)
G. Sinko, John Wolcot and his school: a chapter from the history of English satire (1962)

---

Index terms

Pindar, Peter, 1738-1819.
Wolcot, John, 1738-1819.
Literary manuscripts and papers.

---

Date last modified: 16 May 2010