RARE "English Poet" William Mason Clipped Signature For Sale

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for sale a RARE! "English Poet" William Mason Clipped Signature. 

1754 and held a number of posts in the church. In 1747, his poem Death of Mr. Pope" was published to acclaim and

quickly went through several editions. Summarizing this poem, a threnody, William Lyon Phelps writes: Musaeus was

a monody on the death of Pope, and written in imitation of in Musaeus bewail Pope's death; Chaucer speaks in an

imitation of old English, and Spenser speaks two stanzas after the metre of

the Shepherd's Calendar and three stanzas in the style of

the Fairy Queen. There is nothing remarkable about these

imitations.... Among

his other works are the historical (both used in translation as libretti

for 18th century et Évélina) and a long poem on

gardening, The English Garden (three volumes, 1772–82). His

garden designs included one for the Viscount Harcourt. He

entered the Church in 1754, and in 1762 became Minster.  He was the friend, executor,

and biographer of Thomas Gray, who was a great influence on his

own work. In 1775 The Poems of Mr. Gray. To which are prefixed Memoirs

of his Life and Writings by W[illiam]. Mason. York, was published.[5] He

was also a friend of Horace Walpole[6] and Joshua

Reynolds. Mason's artwork was considered worthy of showing at

the Royal Academy between

1782 and 1786. In 1785, he was William Pitt the Younger's choice to

succeed William Whitehead as Poet Laureate but

refused the honour. Two of his works of scenes at the York

racecourse, "A Country Racecourse with horses preparing to

start" and "A Country Racecourse with horses running". were

reproduced as mezzotint illustrations in 1786 by Francis Jukes in

collaboration with Robert Pollard. In

1797, Mason hurt his shin on a Friday while stepping out of his carriage. He

was able to officiate in his church at Aston on the following Sunday. He died

from the injury on the following Wednesday, 7 April. Memorial inscriptions for

Mason may be found in the church was rector and at Poet's Corner in

Westminster Abbey. A cenotaph was also erected by Countess Harcourt in the

gardens at Nuneham Courtenay. He

was the guardian of Francis Ferrand Foljambe during his

minority.