Christopher Edwards ABA ILAB (Plus de 1 900 résultats)

Small 8vo (130 x 78mm), ff. [viii], 269, [6] index, [1] errata; traces of the correction slip (mostly now worn away) remain on f. 185r; lower outside corner of f. 100 missing (probably an original paper flaw), slightly affecting catchword; else an exceptionally fine copy in contemporary limp vellum, spine lettered in ink by a contemporary hand. First and only edition: a very fine copy. This engaging little anthology of prose was compiled by Robert Allott, whose precise identity is a matter for dispute. He may have been a Lincolnshire man of that name, who was at Oxford and then at the Inner Temple in the 1580s; he was living in London in the late 1590s, but died of the plague in late 1603. Another Robert Allott was at St John's Cambridge in the early 1590s, became a physician and practised in the same city for the rest of his life, dying as late as 1642. This man was addressed by John Weever in one of his epigrams in the year Wits Theater was published: number 4 in the 'Fourth weeke' of Weever's verses brackets Allott with one Christopher Middleton (also at St John's): he praises their quick wits and sharp conceits, and refers to their 'layes', which implies that they were both known as poets. Honigmann prefers to identify this Robert Allott as the editor of Wits Theater, and draws attention to the fact that the following year Nicholas Ling also published a book of poetry by Middleton (The Legend of Humfrey Duke of Glocester: STC 17868). This book is one of a group of anthologies which were commissioned by a wealthy London grocer, John Bodenham (fl. 1599-1610). There are two issues of Wits Theater - in the other, the dedicatee is addressed as 'Maister Iohn Bodenham', but here the dedicator is somewhat more coy: 'To my most esteemed and approued louing friend, Maister I.B. I vvish all happines'. (Note the similarity to the famous dedication of Shakespeare's Sonnets, published only ten years later.) Allott's name is appended to the dedication in the other version, but here he is completely anonymous, although the text otherwise remains entirely the same. The series of compilations which Bodenham inspired are among the most famous little volumes of contemporary English literature: they began with Nicholas Ling's Politeuphuia, wits commonwealth (1597) and Francis Meres's Palladis Tamia, wits treasury (1598). This is the third volume, and it was followed by two volumes of poetry, Belvedere, or the garden of the muses (11600), edited by Anthony Munday, and Nicholas Ling's England's Helicon (also 1600). Together, these five books define much of our idea of the literary culture of England in the last years of Elizabeth. STC 382; Pforzheimer 1094. The printer was James Roberts, and the publisher was Nicholas Ling. For the identification of Roibert Allott, see E.A.J. Honigmann, John Weever (Manchester, 1987), pp. 22ff.

N° de réf. du vendeur 23759

Five works in one volume, 8vo; pp. viii, 30, [1]; 16; [viii], 85, [3] advertisements; 128; x, 94 (with final errata slip); contemporary half calf over marbled boards; marbled edges. Binder's ticket of C. Zillwood, bookseller &c, Dorchester. William Barnes's second book: a notable rarity. Barnes published this book when he was just 21, shortly after his first, Poetical Pieces (Dorchester, 1820). Barnes's dialect poetry was later to be a key influence on Thomas Hardy, who greatly admired his dedication and ability to raise himself from poverty to distinction. The text is decorated with a number of small wood-engravings, which are by Barnes himself he had recently learned to make such illustrations, and advertises his skills on a final leaf. He tells his readers that 'he will feel very grateful for any Orders they may please to honour him with in the Profession of an Engraver, &c. and assures them, he will spare no pains which may enable him to execute them with elegance'; and he also offers his services as a portraitist (7s.6d. to 10s.6d. per likeness), and as a maker of 'correct Drawings' of 'Antiquities, Architecture, Curiosities, &c.' Of the other works in the volume, the second is a poem by Mrs Offley, a moral tale with a tragic ending. It seems that she also lived in Dorchester, and surely was known to Barnes, although she must have been of a higher social standing. This is the only work by her recorded by Jackson (Romantic Poetry by Women, p. 245), but it was reprinted (or, perhaps, reissued) by Criswick of Dorchester the same year. Two of the remaining pieces concern Byron: the fourth edition of English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, and a long prose attack on him by George Burges (d. 1853), a Norfolk clergyman. Rarity. The only institutional copies I have been able to find are those at the British Library, Chicago and Harvard. The BL copy appears to lack the final leaf advertising Barnes as an artist; the Chicago copy, formerly belonging to Simon Nowell-Smith, arrived only recently with the Wachs collection. The Harvard copy is the one formerly belonging to Frederick B. Adams, which was sold at Sotheby's London, 7 November 2001, lot 423 (hammer price £6500); it was acquired in about 2012, with the James Stevens Cox collection of Barnes. An indication of the rarity of this book is that in 1947, it was assumed that no copy had survived, as one could not be found for the Hayward poetry exhibition catalogue (see no. 262). Provenance. From the collection of John Sparrow, sold at Christie's South Kensington, London, 18 December 1992, lot 58. Binding. Although the binding has been heavily repaired, it is interesting that it was originally done by a local Dorchester shop, and the book was doubtless sold by him. Charles Zillwood was from a local family: William, probably a brother, was a schoolmaster in the town. He was in business in High West St, presumably a few doors away from J. Criswick, in the late 1820s, as a bookseller, binder, stationer and printer. At the time of publication, Barnes himself was in shared lodgings above a pastry shop in the same street. Author, printer and binder were therefore just a few steps from each other.

N° de réf. du vendeur 26193

Three works in one volume, small 8vo (text block 140 x 92mm); ff. 60; pp. [x], 44, [1] privilege; ff. [120]; woodcut on first title, device on second title, and fine large device on last page of third work; bound in late 16th century olive morocco for Jacques-Auguste de Thou (see below); gilt arms on both covers, and monogram initials in three compartments of spine, with the names of the authors in the other two. (Very slight rubbing on joints.) A splendid binding for the historian and bibliophile Jacques-Auguste de Thou (1553-1617), with his arms as a bachelor. De Thou married three times, and later bindings carry his arms and initials combined with those of his successive wives. The first work in this volume is a very early edition of Savonarola's dialogue between the spirit and the soul, a devotional work titled Solatium itineris mei. The edition follows that printed at Venice the previous year, and is dedicated to Marco Cataneo, auxiliary Bishop of Genoa and titular Archbishop of Rhodes, by Paolo de' Franchi (1490-1544), who surnamed himself 'Parthenopæus'. He describes the year 1536 as the seventh year of liberty, clearly referring to the expulsion of the French from the city in 1528/9, after which Andrea Doria become the de facto ruler of the city. After 1528, de' Franchi seems to have taken an active part in the city's government and intellectual life. He apparently commissioned this work from Antonio Bellone of Turin, who had recently arrived in Genoa - his first recorded book is dated 29 January 1534, and the same year he had printed a political oration by de' Franchi, on the love of one's country (CNCE 54836). The second work is an early book from the press of Christopher Plantin, a collection of pieces by Johannes Hassel on the Council of Trent and other subjects. The third is by the Lutheran theologian Johannes Brenz (1499-1570), who was pastor of Michaelskirche, Schwäbisch Hall. All in all, a very theologically mixed compilation, quite appropriate for a man of de Thou's broad sympathies and tolerant outlook. I: CNCE 32092 (locating only five copies in Italy); Adams S516; not in BMC Italian. II: Adams H84; not in BMC Netherlands. III: VD16 B7479; Adams B2752; not in BMC German.

N° de réf. du vendeur 26019

Two volumes, folio (433 x 260mm), collating as in Fleeman; some very slight stains occasionally found in the text, but generally a very clean copy, bound in contemporary polished calf, with red morocco labels; marbled endpapers, gilt turn-ins; some expert repairs to upper joints by James Brockman; a very fine copy. The final edition published in Johnson's lifetime, and the only edition substantially revised by him. As Chapman and Hazen point out, Johnson devoted 'considerable labour' to this revision, and 'it should be referred to for his considered opinion on any word'. The revision of his Dictionary was a task to which Johnson brought great energy, albeit with his customary difficulties in applying himself to the work. In August 1771 he wrote to Langton that his 'summer wanderings' being almost over, he was now 'engaging in a very great work, the revision of my Dictionary'; by October 1772 he was writing to John Taylor: 'I am now within a few hours of being able to send the whole dictionary to the press, and though I often went sluggishly to the work, I am not much delighted at the conclusion'. The result was published in early 1773. Although Johnson told Boswell that 'having made no preparation, I was able to do very little', the revision was in fact substantial, particularly in the number of new quotations added. He also added an 'Advertisement' after the preface, in which he laments that 'Perfection is unattainable, but nearer and nearer approaches may be made; and finding my Dictionary about to be reprinted, I have endeavoured, by a revisal, to make it less reprehensible'. The binding of this copy has a hint of French or Dutch style, an impression reinforced by the spellings 'DICTIONNAR' on the spine labels, but there is no early provenance to confirm this. Fleeman 55.4D/4a (pp. 425-9); Chapman and Hazen p. 138.

N° de réf. du vendeur 25985

8vo, pp. vii, [i], 64; bound third in a volume with nine other poems (see below); a fine and attractive volume in early calf, the covers stamped in basket-weave pattern, spine richly gilt, morocco label, marbled endpapers and edges. (Upper joint beginning to crack, othewise in very good condition.) Early armorial bookplate of the Rev. W.W. Holland, Chichester, and manuscript list of contents (perhaps in his hand) on free endpaper. A splendid volume of poetry, nicely presented with the spine labelled 'Minor Poems'. This is true for all but one of the pamphlets here - nobody today would describe either Christabel or Kubla Khan as 'minor' - but the accompanying poems certainly put Coleridge's two masterpieces into context. All the publications in this volume were issued by the firm of John Murray, at the time when it stood highest among London publishers: Byron was Murray's greatest success, of course, but Scott and Jane Austen were being published by him at exactly this time, as well as many other authors of lesser importance. This collection must have been assembled by going into 50 Albemarle St and picking out a number of current pamphlets that would have interested the buyer. On the other hand, they could well be a present from the publisher: the first owner was the Rev. William Woollams Holland (1785-1855), educated at Oxford and at this time vicar-choral at Chichester Cathedral. More importantly, he was married to Jane Murray (b. 1780), known as Jenny, elder sister of the publisher: they had at least one son, John Murray Holland (1818-77), who was a fellow of New College Oxford, and who followed his father into the church. When the elder John Murray had died in 1793, Jenny and her mother and sisters had gone to live in Shropshire, where she met and married Willam Holland in 1809, but she retained an interest in the family business: Zachs notes that she and her elder brother John were actively pursuing the firm's assets in 1800, at about the time that John gained effective control. The other works bound in here are: 1. [CROLY, George.] PARIS IN 1815. A poem. London: John Murray. 1817. 8vo, pp. [iii]-xii, [iii], 75, [1]. Jackson, Annals, p. 423. First edition 2. SCOTT, Walter. THE FIELD OF WATERLOO; a poem. Edinburgh: printed by James Ballantyne & co, for Archibald Constable and co. Edinburgh; and. John Murray, London. 1815. 8vo, pp. 56. Todd & Bowden 84Aa; Jackson p. 392. First edition. 3. [MALCOLM, Sir John.] PERSIA: A POEM. With notes. Second edition. London. John Murray. 1814. 8vo, pp. [iv], 38. Rare: neither the first nor this edition mentioned in Jackson, Annals. Malcolm (1769-1833) published his standard History of Persia the following year. 4. [KNIGHT, Henry Gally.] ILDERIM: A SYRIAN TALE. London: printed for John Murray. 1816. 8vo, pp. [vi], 74. Jackson p. 406. First edition. 5. HEMANS, Felicia Dorothea. THE RESTORATION OF THE WORKS OF ART TO ITALY: a poem. Second edition. Oxford. for J. Murray. 1816. 8vo, pp. [viii], 37. Jackson p. 412. 6. SMEDLEY, Edward. THE DEATH OF SAUL AND JONATHAN. A poem. London. for John Murray. 1814. 8vo, pp. [viii], 33. Jackson p. 378. First edition. 7. SMEDLEY, Edward. JONAH. A poem. London. for John Murray. 1815. 8vo, pp. [iv], 24, [4]. Jackson p. 394. First edition. 8. SMEDLEY, Edward. JEPHTHAH. A poem. London.for John Murray. 1814. 8vo, pp. [iv], 27, [1]. Jackson p. 380. First edition. 9. [CROKER, John Wilson.] THE BATTLES OF TALAVERA. A poem. Eighth edition, with some additions. London. for John Murray. 1810. 8vo, frontispiece portrait of Wellington, engraved map and pp. 43; slightly foxed. Jackson p. 335.

N° de réf. du vendeur 20173

4to, pp. viii, 23, [1] advertisements; final page a little dusty, else a very fine, fresh copy, uncut and disbound. Preserved in a black morocco-backed slipcase, titled in gilt. First edition thus, a retitled edition of Collins's Persian Eclogues, first published in 1742. Collins had originally written the poems when at school at Winchester: they were certainly largely finished by the time he went up to Oxford in 1740. Despite the fact that the first edition sold badly, by the 1750s his poems were gaining a critical reputation, and the youthful eclogues were - to his displeasure - more appreciated than the later and more mature Odes, which he felt better represented his talent. Although it is often presumed that this second edition is a mere reprint with the title altered by one word, in fact Collins made numerous small changes to the text, and the spelling and capitalisation is regularised. This is perhaps indicative not only of the poet's change of mind, but also of a shift in authorial and typographical practice in the intervening fifteen years - and, perhaps, of the effect that Johnson's Dictionary had had upon the language. A very fine copy, uncut. Rothschild 654; Williams, Seven XVIIIth century bibliographies, p. 112. See Lonsdale's edition of the poems (Longman, 1969) for an account of Collins's changes to the text.

N° de réf. du vendeur 18777

Folio, pp. 20; full marbled calf, gilt, spine and inner dentelles gilt, by Riviere (spine a bit worn, upper joint weak); in a cloth slipcase. First edition. The first of nine installments of Night-Thoughts, arguably the greatest, or at least the most influential, long poem of the 18th century; in time Young's masterpiece, a quasi-autobiographical narrative in blank verse, would be illustrated by Blake and read with close attention by Wordsworth and Coleridge, and it remained popular throughout the 19th century. This first 'night' was published shortly after Young had turned 59, when many assumed his literary career was near its end; in fact he continued to publish for another two decades. This was the only part to be printed as a folio, as all subsequent parts were issued in a quarto format. As a result, the original printing is comparatively rare, and has long been difficult to acquire, in much the same way as Thomson's Winter, which was also the only folio poem in a series. Foxon Y24; Hayward 165; Rothschild 2619. ESTC now lists fourteen copies in eleven libraries; there are also copies in the Forster collection at the Victoria and Albert and the Robert H. Taylor collection at Princeton. This copy has a distinguished lineage of owners: it bears the bookplates of John Gribbel, Clarence S. Bement, David and Lulu Borowitz, and H. Bradley Martin; no other copy has appeared on the market since the Martin sale in 1990. An unidentified early reader has made a few manuscript 'improvements', most notably the alteration of the last word in line 42 from 'Woe' to 'Grief', presumably because 'Woe' is also the last word in line 45; Young himself soon observed this infelicity (or misprint?), but chose instead to change the first use of 'Woe' to 'Soul'.

N° de réf. du vendeur 23904

8vo, pp. [xii], 68; a little spotted but generally a very good copy, in contemporary tree calf, spine gilt, joints cracked. Sole edition of a rare volume of poems by Janetta Philipps, issued by subscription: the list of those who patronised the publication is quite substantial, amounting to pre-publication orders for over 500 copies. Although almost nothing is known about Janetta Philipps herself, the subscription list is on its own quite informative: she presumably lived in Oxford, as there is a good preponderance of university and town names taking copies, but there is also a fair number from Somerset, notably from Bridgewater but also including Taunton, Stowey, Pawlet and Queen Camel. She must have been well-connected in high society, because there are several titled subscribers, led by the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough but also including the Earl of Dysart, Lord and Lady Bagot, the Earl of Stamford and so on. The most notable name on the list, however, is that of 'Mr. P.B. Shelley', who took six copies; other members of his family were also subscribers, such as his sisters Elizabeth and Hellen, and friends such as Thomas Medwin, Edward Graham and his future wife Harriet Westbrook (they were to elope in August the same year). Shelley took six copies, but this is not the end of his interest in the book: we know from a letter to Miss Philipps, written on 16 May of this year from the family home at Field Place, that he saw the manuscript of her poems before publication, and that he 'offered to print the Mss. at my own expence' (Letters I p. 88). When he wrote that letter, Shelley was in disgrace: he had been sent down from Oxford in late March, but had presumably been able to see the MS in Oxford through the good graces of his friend Strong, who is mentioned in the letter too. A subsequent letter, perhaps written later the same month (I p. 89), reacts forcefully to a letter she had written to him, which seems to have protested against the publication of his Necessity of Atheism (which he had mentioned in his previous letter). He did not forget her after this: next month he wrote to Hogg saying that Miss Philipps had 'twice the genius' of his sister Elizabeth (after whom Hogg was currently hankering). There is, however, no evidence that they were in touch after this and his interest in her was as transient as was that he took in the young Felicia Dorothea Browne (later Mrs Hemans). One feature of the book intriguingly suggests that this may not be Philipps's only publication: pp. 31-2 carry a poem headed 'Stanzas inserted in the novel of Delaval', which begins: 'Then teach me, ah! teach me that pang to subdue'. This set of five four-line stanzas does indeed appear on p. 117 of the anonymous gothic novel Delaval, published by the Minerva Press in 1802. No attribution has hitherto been made for the authorship of this piece of fiction, but it seems reasonable to suggest that Janetta Philipps could well have been responsible for it. See Garside, Raven & Schöwerling II p. 146 and Blakey, Minerva Press, p. 202. Jackson, Romantic Poetry by Women, p. 256. No copy of this book seems to have been sold at auction in the past forty years. Copac locates copies at the BL, Bodleian and NLS; there are also copies at Harvard, NYPL and Yale. Provenance. This copy belonged to an Oxford woman reader some twenty years after publication: it has the ownership inscription on the upper pastedown of Mary Barnett, Holywell St, Oxford, dated 1831. She must be the wife or daughter of Thomas Barnett, who kept a livery stables in Holywell (see Pigot's 1830 trade directory for Oxford): presumably he was prosperous, because when he died in 1841 he was designated 'gentleman'.

N° de réf. du vendeur 19350

Nine works in one volume, 4to, listed separately below. Nicely bound in late 18th century half calf over marbled boards, a bit rubbed but very sound. A fine volume of mostly academic poetry, much of it published in the 1780s and put together by the aspiring poet Henry Kett (1761-1825), fellow of Trinity College Oxford. Kett himself published some poetry, and attempted to become Professor of Poetry at Oxford in 1793 and again in 1802. He was a well-respected tutor and the author of several books, as well as being a notable wit. In this volume of nine works, although only one of them is noted as a presentation copy (item 4, from George Richards), it is very likely that several others were too, as almost all of the authors were academic contemporaries at the two universities. There is a list of contents on the flyleaf, quite probably by Kett himself. The volume was later bought by John Johnson (d. 1831), Fellow of Magdalen Oxford, who has noted on the flyleaf 'Purchased at a Sale probably at Mr Ketts'. In the twentieth century the book belonged to H.W. Luttman-Johnson (perhaps a descendant), a proto-fascist and associate of Oswald Mosley who was interned during World War II. The separate pieces are: 1. LIPSCOMB, William. POEMS. Oxford: printed for J. Walter. London. Sold also by D. Prince and J. Cooke in Oxford; and J. Todd in York. 1784. 4to, pp. [iv], iii, [i], 111. Lipscomb (1754-1842) was at Corpus Christi, Oxford, and graduated in 1774, having won a prize for English verse in 1772. 2. CROWE, William. LEWESDON HILL. A poem. The second edition. Oxford: at the Clarendon Press, 1788. Sold by D. Prince and J. Cooke, Oxford; J.F. and C. Rivington, T. Cadell, and R. Faulder, London. 4to, pp. [vi], 28, [1]. Crowe (1745-1829) was a Fellow of New College and Public Orator from 1784. 3. RICHARDS, George. MODERN FRANCE: A POEM. Oxford: sold by J. Cooke; by G.G.J. and J. Robinson [etc]. London; and W. Lunn, Cambridge. 1793. 4to, pp. 18, [1]. Inscribed 'Mr Kett' at head of title in a contemporary hand. George Richards (1767-1837) had been at Christ's Hospital with Charles Lamb and then went on to Trinity College under Kett - he was very probably tutored by him. This poem expressing horror at the excesses of the French Revolution could well be a presentation copy from the author, who was by this time a fellow of Oriel. 4. RICHARDS, George. MATILDA; OR THE DYING PENITENT: a poetical epistle. Oxford: printed for J. Cooke, and sold by G.G. and J. Robinson [etc]. London. 1795. 4to, pp. 20. Inscribed 'The Gift of the Author Feb 7 1795' at head of title page. 5. TWEDDELL, John. JUVENUM CURAS. [colophon:] In comitiis maximis. Jul. 7, 1789. Joannes Tweddell, Trinitatis Collegii Scholaris apud Cantab. [Cambridge, 1789] 4to, pp. 4; in Greek throughout except for title and colophon; early MS note on first page. Very rare: ESTC locates just two copies, at the BL and Bodleian only (although there is now a third copy known, at Trinity Cambridge). John Tweddell (1769-99) was an outstanding student at Trinity College Cambridge, where he became a fellow in 1793 - these Greek verses were published while he was still an undergraduate were presumably circulated privately. He was a passionate revolutionary and moved in Godwin's circle, meeting George Dyer, Thomas Holcroft and even William Wordsworth. He travelled widely in the 1790s spent much of his energy recording Greek antiquities; on his death in Athens in 1799 he apparently left a large collection of drawings and notes that later disappeared. As ODNB states, 'In death Tweddell became almost a mythical figure, with many laments at the genius cut off before it could show itself. Lord Byron was among those who in 1810 marked his grave with a block of marble from the Parthenon.' 6. LOWTH, Thomas Henry. REI NAUTICAE INCREMENTA. [Oxford, 1773] 4to, pp. [ii], 10. Lowth was born in 1753 and was the eldest son of the churchman Robert Lowth, who by the time his son went up was Bishop of Oxford. The young man promised well, but he died young in 1778. This piece - very likely a prize poem from his undergraduate career - celebrates nautical achievements, including those of Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Drake, Anson and Byron. 7. CHAPPELOW, Leonard, translator. THE TRAVELLER: AN ARABIC POEM, INTITLED TOGRAI, written by Abu-Ismael; translted into Latin and publish'd with notes in 1661. now render'd into English in the same iambic measure as the original; with some additional noes to illustrate the poem. Cambridge, printed by J. Bentham printer to the University. 1758. 4to, pp. [ii], 38. One of the few ventures into poetry of the orientalist Leonard Chappelow (d. 1768): according to ODNB it 'inaugurates the Cambridge tradition of turning Arabic poetry into English verse'. 8. KNIGHT, Samuel. ELEGIES AND SONNETS. London: printed for T. Cadell, in the Strand. 1785. 4to, pp. [ii], v-70; last leaf with short internal tear (no loss). Probably not wanting the half title, as the title page is a cancel and both half title and title were probably cancelled at the same time. A rare volume by Samuel Knight (1754-1829), who had been at Trinity Cambridge but was later at the Middle Temple. This is a reissue of the original work, with a cancel title page identifying the author. No copy of either issue in the British Library. 9. [MONRO, Thomas?] MELE EPHEMERIA [graece]. Oxford: printed for the author: and sold by Mess. Fletcher, bookseller, in the Turle; and by W. Jackson, in Oxford. 1783. 4to, pp. [viii], 36. The manuscript list of contents on the flyleaf identifies this as 'Monro's Mele Ephemeria', and it is almost certainly by Thomas Monro (1764-1815), then still only 19 and an undergraduate at Magdalen College: Monro founded and edited the Oxford periodical Olla Podrida (1784-87), to which Henry Kett contributed. The work has a list of subscribers - almost all Oxford men - and consists of English, Latin and Greek verses.

N° de réf. du vendeur 17059

8vo, pp. [ii], 100, [2] advertisements; entirely uncut (short tears in pp. 27-8 and 33-34 due to careless opening, but with no loss); slightly browned, else a fine copy, rebound by Philip Dusel in drab boards, dark red morocco spine, lettered in gilt. First and only edition: 'one of the rarest Landor first editions' (Weissman). This series of fourteen open letters to Lord Liverpool, the Prime Minister, urges the government to be resolute with France and ruthless with Napoleon, to prevent a recurrence of imperial ambitions. The letters were begun in late 1813, in the wake of the news of the allies' victory at Leipzig (the last one is dated 20 December); they were supposedly for publication in The Courier, but in fact they never appeared in a periodical and this is their first appearance in print. The book was advertised as 'in the press' on 24 December, and it was therefore probably available very early in January 1814. Landor was very discontented with the result (no surprise there) and complained to Southey that 'The evil genius to whom I committed the manuscript has printed what he chose and omitted all the best' (Super p. 25). Shortly afterwards, in May, Landor moved his household to Jersey and then to France, where he had the satisfaction of seeing the defeated Emperor at Tours, on his way into exile. This pamphlet became notoriously rare, and in 1923 Wise thought that his own complete copy - he also possessed one mutilated by Landor - was 'the only perfect copy of the book known to have survived'. In fact we can now trace eleven copies apart from this one: two in the British Library (Wise's Ashley copies), Aberdeen University, and two in National Trust houses (Nostell Priory and Calke Abbey); one each in the National Library of Ireland and Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; two at the Library of Congress and one each at the Huntington and Chicago (Wachs collection). In addition, the pamphlet was reissued by Colburn in 1814 - perhaps without Landor's knowledge or permission - as part of a collection of essays against Napoleon, titled Offerings to Buonaparte. The lead pamphlet was one by Chateaubriand, Of Buonaparte and the Bourbons, and there were two others besides Landor's also included. Of that reissue, I can trace just five copies: British Library, Bibliothèque Nationale, Harvard, Chapel Hill and DePaul University (Chicago). Wise actually admits in the bibliography that his complete copy was extracted from a copy of Offerings to Buonaparte, but otherwise nobody seems to have noticed this alternative form of publication. Super, Publication of Landor's Works, pp. 24-5; Wise and Wheeler, Bibliography of Landor, 15; Wise, Ashley Library, III p. 68; Weissman, Poetic Associations, p. 168.

N° de réf. du vendeur 22607

4to, pp. [viii], 61; with an engraved frontispiece; bound in full brown morocco, gilt, spine and edges gilt, by Riviere. First edition of a remarkable poem on cock-fighting, described by the author in his dedication as a 'diversion. daily growing into esteem'. The author was himself an enthusiast of this violent sport. Much of the verse is devoted to the breeding of birds and the hatching of eggs, but the poem concludes with a vivid, if crudely-written, description of an actual match, with the spectators engaged in excited wagering: Thus circling round the glitt'ring Guineas fly, As various Odds become the gen'ral Cry, And Five to Two the nice Advent'rers ply Now hostile Rage each daring Foe maintains, And Death as Fate inclines alternate Reigns, In various Shapes the missive Blow appears, And dire Destruction 'midst the Conflict bears; Now purple Life unloads the turgid Veins, And gushing down the crouded Circus stains, Or stagnates, swells the Throat, and vital Air restrains. (pp. 53-55) The odds are explained by one of the author's many informative footnotes: 'Five to two is a common Bett with the Groom Porters, when the Cocks on both Sides are judg'd of an Equality, against naming the Side which wins the following Battles, but if either Party be judg'd superior to the other, their Bett is then Five and a Half to Two against the weakest winning two together.' Particular attention is paid to the sharp metal spurs attached to the birds' feet, to make the contest lethal. A reference to an 'ingenious artist' named Smith is glossed: 'Mr. Thomas Smith, near Katherine-Street, being allow'd the most curious and noted Maker of Silver Cock-Weapons.' As printed here, the lines of the poem are very widely spaced, and this with some uneven inking gives the book a striking and distinctly provincial appearance. Francis Howgrave established his press in Stamford in 1732, where he published the Stamford Mercury, a newspaper which lasted for much of the 18th century. The Hallams were an old Lincolnshire family, and this Isaac Hallam is quite likely an ancestor of the historian Henry Hallam, and thus of his son Arthur Henry Hallam, Tennyson's friend. The book has a two-page list of subscribers, including the printer himself, as well as Mr. Thomas Howgrave, Sir Thomas Trollope (1691-1784, great-grandfather of the novelist), Thomas Trollope, and T. M. Trollope: the Trollopes were also from Lincolnshire. The frontispiece by Emanuel Bowen shows three gentleman, one holding a bird, one a sack and key, and the other a numbered scroll. Foxon H6. This is a fine copy of a very rare Lincolnshire imprint: Foxon locates just three copies (BL, Clark and Yale), and ESTC adds only one more, at the Huntington.

N° de réf. du vendeur 23448

12mo in sixes, pp. 46, including engraved frontispiece (repeated at p. 30); without the final blank leaf but a fine, fresh copy in later half vellum over marbled boards, spine gilt, black morocco label (label a little worn). First edition of a mock-heroic poem on hare-hunting: of very great rarity. The preface is largely an argument against the current prejudice that haring as opposed to fox- or stag-hunting - was not a proper form of hunting: 'But if it should be ask'd, why my choice was rather a Hare, than a Fox, Deer, &c. my Reason is, that I don't know of any wild Creature in these Kingdoms, usually hunted, that will afford such Variety of Diversion as an old Hare'. The poem begins with the usual epic conventions, but these are soon largely discarded for a tale set in an idyllic countryside, where the local squire is Sir Roger possibly a conscious imitation of Addison's Sir Roger de Coverly. 'The story is composed of two episodes: the killing of poultry by Rogue, the dog kept by Bess, one of Sir Roger's tenants, and the hunting of the hare, in which many people join and out of which much excitement and exercise grow. The chase is described at some length and Sir Roger's enthusiasm played up throughout' (Bond). There was a 'second edition' published (also by Chetwood) in 1720, which may well be a reissue of the same sheets: in that edition the author is given as 'H. Morgan, of the Inner-Temple, gent'. The only H. Morgan who was at the Inner Temple in this period was one Hawten (also spelt Hawtaine or Houghton) Maria Morgan, son of a Welshman, William Morgan, from Neath. Born in 1654-5, he entered the Inner Temple in May 1674, but he also matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford, in May 1675, and took his BCL there in 1676. At this point his family owned Calthorpe House, near Banbury, Oxfordshire. Morgan had come into the estate and his unusual first name through his mother, Mary Hawten, whose family had owned Calthorpe House since the beginning of the century; he and his grandmother, Katharine Hawten, sold the estate in 1680. We do not know of his later movements or occupation, but he was presumably still alive, and perhaps still practising law, in 1720. The attractive frontispiece of a hunting scene was engraved by Elisha Kirkall, a mainstay of Tonson's stable of illustrators who was also widely known for his mezzotints; Pope refers to him in his Dunciad as 'bounteous Kirkall'. Oddly enough, since the poem not only defends but also concerns the hunting of hares, the plate actually shows a stag-hunt. Foxon M443; Bond, English Burlesque Poetry: 1700-1750, 61. Only the two editions or issues were published, and both are exceptionally rare. Only three copies of this first issue are recorded: at St. John's Cambridge, Yale and College of William and Mary. The second issue is rarer still, with just one copy located, at the Bodleian (possibly the same copy which Bond saw, then owned by J.B. Keogh); that copy apparently lacks one of the two plates.

N° de réf. du vendeur 23589

Folio, pp. [ii], 5-15; in modern red half morocco, spine lettered in gilt. First edition, second issue. This poem was first published anonymously the previous year as The Folly of Industry, or the Busy Man expos'd, by Ann Baldwin of Warwick Lane. In this reissue, there is a new title page with a different title, the author is named, and the (rather uninformative) preface is cancelled: presumably the poem had attracted little attention as an anonymous work and Benjamin Bragg bought up the sheets on the understanding that he could publish it as Wycherley's work. The theme of the poem is that in the course of making money, the life of a man of business is consumed with anxiety, whilst supposedly pursuing greater leisure: So Bus'ness is the Bane of active Life, Which shou'd procure our Ease, maintains our Strife; Which wears out Life, whilst Life it shou'd sustain, Till our Death, by our Livelihood, we gain. (p. 6) It was at about this time that the young Alexander Pope, then a mere seventeen years old, came to know Wycherley, now sixty-four, but there is no suggestion that Pope had anything to do with this publication, even though it was understood to be one of Pope's tasks to sort through his literary work and make it publishable. This 'second edition' appears to be an attempt to dispose of unsold sheets perhaps it had attracted little attention without Wycherley's name on the title page; but meanwhile it had been included (under this new title) in his collected poems of 1704, a volume which was something of an embarrassing failure. Nevertheless, this is the authorised reissue of the first edition of a late work by one of the age's greatest dramatists. Foxon W575. Both issues of this poem are rare. Of the first, ESTC lists six copies (British Library; Huntington, Harvard (2 copies), Clark and Newbery), to which Foxon adds a copy at Yale. This reissue is rarer still: just three copies have been located, at Longleat, Dr Williams's Library, and Harvard. Provenance: John Brett-Smith.

N° de réf. du vendeur 23902

Two parts in one volume, small 4to, ff. [viii], 140; 28; with printer's device on titles and three full-page woodcut illustrations in the second part; both title-pages strengthened (with paper patches, where stamps possibly removed, on versos); early binding with vellum spine (lettered in ink) and sides made from old musical MS. First edition. The first part of this work consists of a large number of letters from Gesner (and, on a few occasions, to him) to various eminent botanists, physicians, scientists and scholars of his time throughout Europe. Amongst those with whom Gesner corresponded were Johann Crato von Krafftheim, Achilles Pirminus Gasser (editor of Peregrinus's De Magnete, with whom he discussed the magnet), Adolf Occo (to whom he wrote in both Greek and Latin), Felix Platter, Theodor Zwinger and Leonhard Fuchs. 'These 226 letters on a wide variety of medical topics, edited by Caspar Wolf, Gesner's literary executor, and published posthumously, indicate the wide interests and scientific insights of this great Renaissance scholar. The book contains two botanical tracts and three fine woodcuts of plants from Gesner's huge collection of drawings and woodcuts of plants which were to form the illustrative portion of his projected history of plants' (Heirs of Hippocrates). These illustrations, of which Gesner had drawn and collected some 1500, were prepared for a proposed monumental treatise, an Opera Botanica, which he never finished. He entrusted Caspar Wolf with the project, but Wolf was not able to fulfil his commission. He sold the material, including some blocks already cut, to Johann Camerarius the younger and these later came into the hands of C.J. Trew. Some of them were published by Schmiedel in the 18th century, but the printing here of the three blocks is remarkable in being near-contemporary. These cuts appear in the second part of the work, which has a separate title page. It is a monograph (taken from the proposed Opera Botanica) on aconites and hellebore - indeed, it is the first monograph on these plants. Provenance. Nicholas Franchimont a Frankenfeld, with his ownership inscription and monogram on first title, and his underlinings and marginal MS annotations. Franchimont a Frankenfeld (1611-84) was professor of medicine at Prague. Amongst other medical topics, he wrote on lithotomy. Adams G526; Bird 1062; Durling 2067; Heirs of Hippocrates 186; Hunt 129; Parkinson & Lumb 1004; Waller 3521; Wellcome I 2805; Wellisch 3.1.

N° de réf. du vendeur 9233

Three works in one volume, 4to, pp. vii, [i], 23; [iv], 28; 18; the second poem signed in ink (on p. [iv]) by the author with his initials A.K. ('the better to prevent surreptitious copies'); finely bound in full red morocco gilt by Riviere (neatly rebacked, preserving original spine), gilt edges and turn-ins, plain dark blue endpapers. First edition of Goldsmith's Deserted Village, one of the most famous poems of the century - a brilliantly evocative and socially reflective poem with lines that many who have never read it will nonetheless find familiar: 'Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and men decay' (p. 4). The last four lines, supplied by Goldsmith's close friend Samuel Johnson, are also plangent. This is the true first edition, and in fine complete condition, with the half title. Bound with this are two early imitations, much less common than the original. Anthony King (1742-97) was the son of a future Lord Mayor of Dublin, Sir Anthony King, and had been educated at Trinity College; he must have read for the English bar, but later in life practised in Dublin. This is his earliest known work, dedicated to Goldsmith '(in whose acquaintance he is personally honoured)'. He took precautions against piracy by signing copies on the back of the title page - his fears seem to have been well-founded, as an unauthorised edition 'printed by Obadiah Pirate, in Black-Boy-Alley' is also known, and perhaps had preceded this printing. Of this authorised edition, ESTC locates no copy at the BL and just four copies in England; and five copies in North America (Harvard, McMaster, Yale, Illinois and Minnesota). Later still, there were two more piracies produced in Dublin (1784 and 1797). The third book in this volume is by the American writer Thomas Coombe (1747-1822). Born in Philadelphia, Coombe was ordained into the Church of England and felt that this barred him from disloyalty to the Crown by supporting American independence: he sailed to England in 1779 and spent the rest of his life in Britain and Ireland - just before this poem was written, he had been chaplain to Lord Carlisle as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and the poem combines his experiences of Ireland and America. The poem pictures Edwin, who has been exiled from his native land, coming to America, the promised country of hope and plenty; but there he only finds war and danger: 'Brothers 'gainst brothers rise in vengeful strife, The parent's weapon drinks the children's life. Here, as I trace my melancholy way, The prowling Indian snuffs his wonted prey. Ha - should I meet him in his dusky round - Late in these woods I heard his murderous sound - Still the deep war-whoop vibrates on mine ear, And still I hear his tread, or seem to hear.' (pp. 16-17). Goldsmith: Rothschild 1032; Temple Scott p. 248; Williams, p. 147. Coombe: Adams, American Controversy, 83-27.

N° de réf. du vendeur 18291

Large folio (binding 570 x 410mm; leaves 550 x 390mm), with the original text and plates printed on india paper (232 x 195mm) and mounted on much larger leaves; printed on the recto only; consisting of half title, title and two leaves of preface and two of contents, followed by 30 leaves of text by Tom Taylor interspersed with 30 plates by Birket Foster; superbly bound in contemporary full green morocco over very heavy boards, titled in gilt on upper cover and on spine; edges gilt, marbled endpapers. First edition, and clearly a luxurious and special copy, printed on india paper and with both the plates by Foster and the text by Taylor mounted on very large sheets. The whole book is superbly presented in a contemporary morocco binding by an anonymous binder. Birket Foster's Pictures of English Landscape was a best-selling book when first published in 1863, and large numbers were printed. This present issue must have been the most de luxe version of it, printed and bound at the time of first publication, and no doubt only produced in very small numbers. It should not be confused with the 'India Proof Edition' published in 1881 in a limited edition of 1000 copies: besides being clearly dated 1881, that edition is very much smaller than this, measuring only 375 x 260mm, and is an altogether more modest book. Forrest Reid relates that Foster was originally commissioned by the Dalziels to make fifty full-page drawings, and fifty accompanying vignettes - but that his success as a watercolour artist meant that he was too busy (and disinclined) to fulfil the task, and that after four years of delay, it was reduced to thirty drawings, and no vignettes. 'In this book he is absolutely at his best; the drawings are broader, looser, bolder than his work is apt to be. Pictures of English Landscape is one of the collector's indispensable books'. And this copy is surely the most majestic copy imaginable. An outstanding book in splendid condition. See Forrest Reid, Illustrators of the Sixties (1928), pp. 24-5.

N° de réf. du vendeur 22927

Two volumes, 8vo, pp. xiv, [xii], 320; [xxvi], 320; with a mezzotint frontispiece portrait in each volume; contemporary calf (not quite matching; volume I with upper joint beginning to crack), gilt labels. First edition of both volumes. Two interesting collections of Irish verse, with many amusing and clever poems; included are occasional poems, odes, epigrams, epitaphs, fables, hymns, pastorals, paraphrases of Psalms, and imitations of such classical poets as Horace, Juvenal, and Catullus. Not a lot is known about John Winstanley (1677?-1750); the frontispiece portrait in Vol. II gives his age in 1741 as sixty-four, and this is confirmed by one of the poems in which he describes himself as sixty-seven in 1745. The initials on the title-pages indicate that he was for a time a student at Trinity College, Dublin, and his student life there is sketched in some detail in 'An Inventory of the Furniture of a Collegian's Chamber'. The other initials are facetious, and stand for 'Apollo's and the Muses Licens'd Doctor'. Much of Winstanley's life appears to have been spent in Cabra and Glasnevin, then villages on the northern outskirts of Dublin. He was clearly familiar with members of Swift's circle, though particulars are sparse. An 11-page list of subscribers in the first volume includes Swift himself, Mary Barber, Patrick Delany, William Dunkin, Thomas Sheridan, Matthew Concanen, and the printer and bookseller George Faulkner; among the London names are Alexander Pope, Colley Cibber, and Thomas Tickell. The mention of 'several ingenious hands' as contributors to these volumes has led to some uncertainty about which poems are by Winstanley himself. On the whole, though, it appears that the ones he did not write are clearly indicated. Included in the first volume are poems by Matthew Concanen, Chetwood Eustace, 'H.C.', 'J. S.', a 'noble peer', and 'an invalid'. Rather surprisingly, three poems are by Mather Byles, the Boston clergyman who corresponded with Pope and Swift, and became one of the first significant American poets of the 18th century. One is on the death of Queen Caroline (published in Boston as a pamphlet in 1738), one is addressed to Governor Belcher (also printed separately in 1736), and the third is called 'A child's answer to an invitation'. This volume, then, marks the first appearance of an American in a European poetical miscellany, and the first printing of American verse in Ireland. Vol. II contains verse by 'a 14-year-old nobleman', 'a young nobleman', 'a gentleman', a young lady', and 'Miss D----t of Liverpool'. Winstanley's portrait appears at the front of each volume, in a mezzotint by Brook; these plates are not always present, e.g. in Swift's copy of the first volume, in the Rothschild collection. The bindings in this set are similar but not uniform, and there is some slight variation in size, but this is hardly surprising, given the gap of nine years between the two. The list of subscribers in Vol. II contains about 600 names, including, once more, Cibber, Dunkin, and Sheridan. The first volume is not an uncommon book, but Vol. II is rare: ESTC lists 11 copies, of which only one is in North America (BL, Cambridge, five in Dublin, Bodleian and Castle Ward; and Clark and Otago. Foxon, p. 902; Case 437; Rothschild 2587. Provenance. Early bookplate in volume I with the arms of the Tisdall family, of Charlesfort, co. Meath; Mrs. Mary Tisdall was a subscriber. More recently this set belonged to John Brett-Smith, and were in his sale at Sotheby's London, 27 May 2004, lot 619.

N° de réf. du vendeur 24348

Seven volumes, 8vo, portrait frontispiece in volume I by Duchange after Arlaud (frontispiece a little shaved at foredge), and pp. [xiv], lxviii, [v], [xiii] subscribers, 487; [iv], 536; [iv], 541, [1]; [iv], 511, [1]; [iv], 472; [iv], 464; [iv], 494, [9] table of editions; somewhat browned and foxed in many places, but complete, and bound in uniform contemporary calf, soundly rebacked; with new endpapers. First Theobald edition. Lewis Theobald's was the first truly critical edition of Shakespeare's works, and in many respects the greatest edition of the eighteenth century, certainly greater than any before Johnson. His edition has often been preferred to that of any other editors of Shakespeare, but his true primacy was obscured by the bitterness of his conflict with Alexander Pope, who denounced and satirised him in the Dunciad for daring to challenge the readings and method of Pope's own edition of Shakespeare. A modern study by Peter Seary, Lewis Theobald and the editing of Shakespeare (OUP, 1990), shows in detail the true measure of Theobald's achievement, concluding that he was 'the first to edit Shakespeare systematically, and from his work flowed all successive editions of Shakespeare, such studies of the language as Johnson's Dictionary, as well as studies of Elizabethan thought, manners and society. The hero of The Dunciad is, in short, also the founder of modern scholarship devoted to Renaissance English literature' (p. vii). Ford, Shakespeare 1700-1740, pp. 26-8; Jaggard p. 499; Lowndes p. 2259; Franklin, Shakespeare Domesticated, p. 15.

N° de réf. du vendeur 25803

Small 4to (180 x 120mm), ff. [35]; bound without blank A1; title page rather browned, and with a few spots towards the foot (also seen, though less prominently, on following two leaves); the text however entire and without cropping or shaving; a good copy in modern brown quarter morocco, spine lettered in gilt. First and only edition. This seems to be the only play by Lewis Sharpe, about whom nothing else is known. We have no information, either, about his dedicatee, 'the Worthy Knight Sir Edmund Williams', or the author of the commendatory verses on A4, one Richard Woolfall. It seems perfectly plausible that both Sharpe and Woolfall should have been lawyers, but I cannot trace them in the Inns of Court records. Sharpe's play would appear to have been quite popular at least, by his own account as he says that it was 'received generally well upon the Stage'. The main part of the plot concerns the wooing of the Princess of Naples by Honorio, the 'noble stranger', who turns out to be the son of the King of Portugal; a sub-plot involves a poet, Mercurio and two young lawyers, Fled-wit and Plod, who are hoping to lure Pupillus, a wealthy gull, into declaring his love for Flavia, 'a wench'. The cross-talk between the two lawyers and their target would suggest a fair amount of familiarity with the law, although it is mostly of the type which any Londoner of the period might have picked up. As Pupillus says, exasperated as he is with his studies: 'Doe you thinke I will bee troubled with your Burgage, Sockage, and Feodum simplex; your French and Latine, more barbarous than beggers Canting: and for a Littleton, 'tis more hatefull to me than a Prayer Booke'. At which Plod comments to Fled-wit, counting on Pupillus not understanding the Latin: 'Troth Master Fled-wit I know not what to say, but bona fide, he is one non compos mentis' (D3v). Later, when the three plotters are about to introduce Pupillus to Flavia, Mercurio asks him how he feels: 'Oh that I were in a Play-house I wou'd tell the whole Audience of their pittifull, Hereticall, Criticall humours Let a man, striving to enrich his labours, make himselfe as poore as a broken Citizen, that dares not so much as shew the tips on's hornes: yet will these people crye it downe, they know not why. But when they shal come to feed on the Offalls of wit, have nothing for their money but a Drumme, a Fooles Coat, and Gunpowder; see Comedies, more ridiculous than a Morrice dance; and for their Tragedies, a bout at Cudgells were a brave Battalia to 'hem' (G3v). In the same scene, Pupillus is handed a paper with some poetry to use in his wooing, and it turns out that some of the poetry is from Donne's The Dream: Enter these Armes, and since thou thoughtst it best Not to dreame all my dreame, lets act the rest. Mercurio comments that the verses are 'to inspire you with a wanton art to winne your Mistris', and Pupillus replies: 'Tis wonderfull provocative, believe me: sure it came out of Ovids-Ars-Amandi: oh for the book of Venus and Adonis, to Court my Mistris by: I cou'd dye, I cou'd dye in the Eli-zi-um of her Armes' (G4r). This is a clear reference to Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis, which for most contemporaries remained at least the equal of his dramatic work first published in 1593, it was many times reprinted, even into the 1630s, so it would have been a familiar text to connoisseurs of love poetry nearly half a century after its composition. It is especially interesting that Sharpe also uses a more recent poet, John Donne, to introduce amatory verse into his text. The prefatory poem by Richard Woolfall also expresses familiarity with him. Of his muse, he says: 'Nor can she, had she rob'd the fluent store Of Donns wise Genius, make thy merits more' ([A]4r). And in an evocative reference to Shakespeare's own playhouse, he continues: 'No, 'tis thy owne smooth numbers must preferre Thy Stranger to the Globe-like Theatre'. STC 22377; Greg 597. See also the Shakspere Allusion-Book I 148, which points out that a song on f. H3v, 'Charme, oh charme, thou god of sleep, Her faire eyes, that waking mourne', is metrically similar to 'Take, oh take those lips away', in Measure for Measure.

N° de réf. du vendeur 26229

8vo, pp. 54, [2] blank; a minor tear in F1 (no loss); uncut and unopened in the original drab boards, spine missing but stitching still sound. First and apparently only edition, and very rare: only four copies have so far been traced. Reuben Traveller (apparently this was his real name, and not a pseudonym), was born in Marylebone in 1788, and ended his life in Bytown, Ottawa, in 1861; he is buried in a local cemetery. He went to sea as a young man and is thought to have been a cabin boy or midshipman on Nelson's flagship Victory, or at least on a ship in the Trafalgar fleet. Married in 1807, he emigrated to Philadelphia in about 1820; but he could reasonably be considered a Canadian poet, as he lived in Ottawa from 1825 until his death more than thirty years later, becoming (amongst other things) both town crier and town clerk for Bytown. He clearly exaggerated his age, because his obituary in the Richmond Daily Dispatch (21 March 1861) says that he was in his eighty-first year, when in fact he was a few days short of 73; but it seems almost certain that he did accompany Mungo Park on his last voyage, although obviously not to the tragic and obscure end, tracing the course of the Niger river, in early 1806. However, the poet can only have been in his mid-teens at the time. The present poem recounts Traveller's experiences on the sloop Eugene, under the command of Captain Webb, as the ship sails down the Atlantic coast, across the Bay of Biscay and down to Gambia. There are colourful descriptions of dolphins, monkeys and native inhabitants. At one point the captain invites a chieftain on board: A chief of Gambia's banks our captain dines: Like polish'd ebony his person shines; His retinue were hundreds (like himself, Unexercis'd in knives or English delf); When fowls are serv'd, they quarter them with fist, And joints they dislocate with strength of wrist. (p. 41) Among the interesting circumstantial details are a long prose footnote on Park's character (pp. 39-40). Not in Jackson, Annals of English verse; Copac and WorldCat locate only the copies at the BL, Aberdeen and Edinburgh universities, and the Huntington.

N° de réf. du vendeur 20222

Small 4to, pp. [iv], 24; a fine copy, complete with the half title and with some lower edges uncut; in late 19th-century full blue morocco, gilt, spine and inner dentelles gilt. First edition. In 1702 the high church party then in power introduced a bill in Parliament to suppress the practice of 'occasional conformity', by which dissenters were able in their own minds to reach an accommodation with the established church. Defoe responded with his famous tract, The shortest-way with the Dissenters, in which he made the 'modest proposal' that the best way to deal with dissent was simply to condemn any person found at a conventicle to banishment and to hang the preacher involved. The irony was not lost on the government, and when it emerged that Defoe was responsible, a reward of £50 was offered for information leading to his apprehension, the pamphlet was burnt by the common hangman, and the printer and publisher arrested. Defoe managed to stay in hiding until May 1703, when he was betrayed, arrested, and, after a stay in prison, fined and sentenced to three days in the pillory. This poem was written during his incarceration, and copies were sold in the street during his public punishment, which took place at the end of July. There was an immediate outpouring of support: 'The people formed a guard, covered the pillory with flowers, and drank his health' (DNB). Furbank and Owens describe this poem as 'an irregular Pindaric ode, addressed to the pillory, showing by a succession of conceits, in which the pillory is made to stand for all the institutions of society the pulpit, the stage, the bar, the pageant, and corruptly-bestowed 'places' how many have as good or a better right to stand there than its present occupant'. Tell them it was because he was too bold, And told those Truths, which shou'd not ha' been told. Extoll the Justice of the Land, Who Punish what they will not understand. Tell them he stands Exalted there, For speaking what we wou'd not hear; And yet he might ha' been secure, Had he said less, or wou'd he ha' said more. Tell them that this is his Reward, And worse is yet for him prepar'd, Because his Foolish Vertue was so nice As not to sell his Friends, according to his Friends Advice; And thus he's an Example made, To make Men of their Honesty afraid. (p. 23). Copies of this poem display variants in the setting of sheet B. In this copy the signature mark 'B' is under the 'd' of 'adorn'. A couple of small marginal repairs, but a fine copy, complete with the half-title; the lower edges are untrimmed. Foxon D115; Moore 59; Furbank and Owens 43.

N° de réf. du vendeur 23271

Small 4to (mounted size 184 x 140mm; original leaves about 162 x 98mm), pp. [ii], '29' (misnumbered for 35); without the initial blank A1; small hole in f. D3 (pp. 21-2) affecting a few letters of text; each leaf window-mounted, rebound in 19th century quarter vellum, patterned paper boards. First and only separate edition, although the text was reprinted in Carew's Poems of 1640. This was an important masque, performed at Whitehall on Shrove Tuesday 1634: it had evidently been in preparation for some time beforehand. The text was by Thomas Carew (1594/5-1640), then fairly recently appointed to a post at court and ambitious to promote himself further by the use of his pen. The scenery was designed by Inigo Jones, and his drawings still survive in the collections at Chatsworth; Henry Lawes wrote the music. It seems to have been in some way a reciprocal offering by the King for a pastoral performance presented by the Queen on Twelfth Night, and also as a response to a pageant presented by the Inns of Court two weeks before, on 3 February, in the same hall and therefore surely on the same stage. As the cast list at the end shows, the masquers included the King himself, and many of the most senior male nobility - the Duke of Lenox, the Earls of Devonshire and of Holland, and ten others, plus ten 'young Lords and Noblemens Sonnes', who are all named. Two of these sprigs of nobility, Lord Brackley and Thomas Egerton, would perform in Milton's Comus later that same year. The evening was a great success, with the Master of the Revels calling it 'the noblest masque of my time to this day'; the Queen particularly admired the costumes. The text as printed here does not merely give the dialogue: it also describes the scenery, in particular right at the beginning: 'The Curtaine was watchet and a pale yellow in paines, which flying upon the sudden, discovered the Scæne, representing old Arches, old Palaces, deayed walls, parts of Temples, Theaters, Basilita's [sic] and Therme, with confused heaps of broken Columnes, Bases, Coronices and Statues, lying as underground, and altogether resembling the mines of some great City of the ancient Romans, or civiliz'd Brittaines.' (p. 2). STC 4618; Greg 496 (a). This copy has the last three pages mispaginated 30, 28 and 29 instead of 33, 34 and 35. The book seems to have been 'reset in the course of printing', as Greg says, and there is a bewildering array of variants, especially in sigs. D and E, which are analysed by Rhodes Dunlap in his Oxford edition (1949). Provenance. The present copy has each leaf window-mounted, in the manner of the plays collected by J.P. Kemble, but there is no evidence that this was ever part of Kemble's collection - and indeed the mid-19th century bookseller's label of T. Connolly, Dublin, suggests otherwise.

N° de réf. du vendeur 22814

8vo, pp. [ii], 96; disbound. First edition: satire of a high order, with the verse supplemented by 'notes and observations' in the best Scriblerian manner. This is almost certainly the London printing referred to by Swift, writing from Dublin to Charles Ford on 14 October 1732: 'There is a most bitter Satyr against Sr Tho. Smyth, Ldy Newburg, and Capt Prat A printer brought it to me, and said a hundred of them were sent to him from Engld to give about; the Verses are very rough, but it is very malicious, and worth reading' (Correspondence, ed. Woolley, III pp. 546-7). Another 'Dublin' edition of the same year, with 88pp, was indeed printed in Ireland, and adds two further short pieces. The poem is a malicious but exceedingly well-written satire on the beautiful if predatory Frances, Countess of Newburgh, whose secret marriage to William King's uncle threatened to deprive him of his Irish inheritance. Swift thought highly of this poem; in 1736 King printed an expanded version and made Swift the dedicatee. There are two variants of this original edition, of uncertain precedence. In this one the errata are printed on the verso of the title-page; in the other, the verso is blank, and the errata are printed on a separate leaf, which comes after the title. However, both variants are very rare: of this one, Foxon locates copies at Worcester College Oxford, Cambridge UL, Illinois and Texas; and ESTC adds four more (Leeds, Berkeley, Lilly and Minnesota); and of the other Foxon locates copies at Cambridge and Royal Irish Academy; and at Berkeley and Harvard, with ESTC adding a copy at the BL, and two more in Dublin. The weight of copies found in Irish libraries would seem to suggest that it was the other variant that was sent to Dublin, and thus seen by Swift. As for copies, the total number of fifteen should probably be reduced by one, since Berkeley have only one copy, not fully described in their online catalogue and if one had to choose in accuracy between ESTC and Foxon, then the latter is generally to be preferred. Foxon K80; Hayward 156 (the other variant). This is one of the most elusive of all 18th century Hayward titles: Bradley Martin, who collected them for several decades (and with few constraints upon his purse), owned only the Dublin reprint.

N° de réf. du vendeur 23504

Folio, pp. 15; in full modern marbled calf, morocco label on spine, gilt turn-ins, gilt edges. First edition. Thomson's third publication, preceded by the first two parts of The Seasons: at the foot of the title-page is an advertisement for the fourth edition of Winter and the first edition of Summer. This poem was entered in the Stationers' Register on May 8, 1727, about six weeks after the death of Isaac Newton at the age of eighty-five. Thomson's aim here is to describe in verse the effect of Newton's discoveries on man's perception of the beauties of the universe; included are passages on gravitation, the elliptic orbits of comets, and, in particular, the colours of the spectrum. The dedication of this poem is to Robert Walpole, whom Thomson later came to dislike; Walpole responded with a gift of £50. This is a copy on fine paper, with a Strasburg bend watermark, as opposed to a circular snake in copies on ordinary paper. Foxon mentions misprints in lines 5 and 11 on page 15, but this is inaccurate. Thomson did in fact make one change in the fine-paper copies, altering line 11 from 'Asswage the Madness of a frantic World!' to 'Asswage the Madness of a jarring World!' - the original version hardly looks like a misprint. In later editions a considerable number of further changes were made in the closing lines, and the final version of this particular line was 'Exalt the spirit of a downward world!' Copies on fine paper are of the greatest rarity. Foxon reports a single copy, at Princeton; ESTC makes no mention at all of fine-paper copies. Foxon mentions that in the Princeton copy 'the margins have apparently been enlarged'; this is not apparent in the present copy. Provenance: Sir Harry Newton (1875-1951), Conservative MP and book collector, with his bookplate (his library sold at Duke's auction house, Dorchester, in 2007). Foxon T201.

N° de réf. du vendeur 23814

Folio, pp. 8; outer margin trimmed a bit close, touching a printer's ornament on p.3 (the text printed at an angle), otherwise a good copy, disbound, in a brown cloth folding case. First and only separate edition: this was Horace Walpole's second publication. It was also first English poem to appear in print, preceded only by a political satire in prose called The Lessons of the Day (1742). This piece of light verse contains references to many young ladies of Walpole's acquaintance, and he intended it to be circulated in manuscript only. As Hazen writes: 'Although the lines were addressed to the painter Eckardt, they seem to have been composed particularly for Lady Caroline Fox. HW sent the verses to her in a letter to her husband, Henry Fox, 19 July 1746. Fox and Lady Caroline welcomed them enthusiastically, and Fox wrote HW immediately that he planned to make them public. On 24 July HW replied to Fox, begging him on no account to make public such hastily composed trivia; he did not want to incur the enmity of all other ladies, he protested, and the final lines on Miss Elizabeth Evelyn were too particular. He ended the letter to Fox: 'I am, my dear Sir, and always shall be, if you will suppress my verses, your most obliged humble servant''. The text of this unauthorized edition contains errors which Walpole found annoying, but he did not disown the poem entirely, and included it in his Fugitive Pieces in 1758. Foxon W31; Hazen, Walpole, 2. Rare: ESTC lists eight copies (BL and St Andrews in the UK, and Yale, Harvard, NYPL, Library of Congress, Rice and Cincinnati only in the USA). Foxon adds three more, at the Bodleian, Winchester and Michigan although the last of these cannot be found in their online catalogue.

N° de réf. du vendeur 23870

4to, pp. [ii], 21, [1] errata; title page a little dust-soiled; in a 19th-century half Roxburghe binding of purple boards and green morocco spine (rubbed). First edition, second issue: this is a re-issue of the 1747 printing, with the date in the imprint reset. A topographical poem, which the author claims to be the first to describe Hounslow Heath (which he claims to be 'A Word not seen in Verse!'), an area near what is now Heathrow Airport. The Schwerdt catalogue characterises the poem as 'an interesting description of hare, fox and stag hunting as it was carried on in the first half of the 18th century near London', and Aubin calls it 'A grandly robust account of social life and of the author himself, some doctor (one imagines) of tremendous paunch who is strong in the technicalities of the chase and far from averse to the creature comforts of its conclusion' (Topographical Poetry, p. 205). Wetenhall Wilkes (1705/6-1751) was not in fact a doctor, but he had a varied career which covered many other professions. He was born in Kildrumferton, Kilmore, co. Cavan, and enrolled in Trinity College, Dublin in 1721. In 1730 he published in Belfast a small volume of orthodox theology, but within five years he was reduced to working as a gauger in a whiskey distillery. Within a short time he found himself in financial difficulties, and was confined for debt in a Dublin prison known as the Black-Dog; here he wrote a poem called The Humours of the Black-Dog (1737), which is dedicated to Swift, whom he may have known. In 1741 Wilkes settled in London, where he published An essay on the pleasure and advantage of Female Literature. By 1746 he had taken Anglican orders, and at the time of his death he was the rector of South Somercote, near Louth. Foxon W462. This appealing poem is very rare. ESTC lists three copies only with the date 1747 (British Library, Guildhall and Princeton), and three of the present re-issue (British Library, Cornell and Cincinnati). There was also a revised second edition, 'carefully corrected and enlarged', published towards the end of 1748 (the preface is dated 14 November), with Wilkes named as the author; of this, ESTC lists just five copies (BL, Bodleian, Rylands, Harvard and Newberry). On a front flyleaf is an amusing presentation inscription, dated 9 March 1870, 'from Mr. Camden Hotten, who does not remember seeing this edition in Mr. Pinkerton's collection'. The notorious Victorian bookseller John Camden Hotten had in fact just reprinted the original second edition of this poem, edited with notes by William Pinkerton and limited to 100 copies, to raise funds for the restoration of Hounslow Church. Later bookplates of Schwerdt collection, and of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, two celebrated collections of the literature of the chase.

N° de réf. du vendeur 23891

Together five volumes in one, 8vo, early 19th-century rose straight-grained morocco, gilt, spine gilt, brown morocco label, with the binder's ticket of R. Storr of Grantham (Ramsden p. 157). The volume contains: [1] THE SCARBOROUGH MISCELLANY FOR THE YEAR 1732. Consisting of original poems, tales, songs, epigrams, &c. Particularly, A description of the beautiful situation of that town, and its diversions. Dialogue on love. By the lady ****. The triumphs of love. By a young officer. Rebus on Miss M******. Verses extempore. By a lady. Written on a lady's window. By Sir W****. On a snuff box. By Parson R*****. The battle of the sugar plumbs. The lover's watch. A song. Verses to a painter. By A. Ramsay. Miss and the butter fly. Written by a beau, for the use of the ladies. Ode on love. In answer to a lady. Song from the French. The man of pleasure. By an antiquated beau. Quid pro quo, or the biter bit. The Italian revenge, or obliged cuckold. The power of love. A song. The lady and caterpillar. Rebus on Miss W*******. Matrimony. A tale. With many other curious and entertaining pieces on great variety of subjects. London: printed for J. Wilford; and sold by the booksellers of town and country, 1734. 8vo, pp. 72. Case 379 (b). 'Second edition', but in fact a re-issue with a new title-page of the sheets of the first edition of 1732, which had the imprint of J. Roberts. All the poems in this miscellany appear to be original, except for the one by Allan Ramsay addressed to his son. Together they provide a good sketch of life in a popular spa resort in North Yorkshire. [2] THE SCARBOROUGH MISCELLANY FOR THE YEAR 1733. A collection of original poems, tales, songs, epigrams, &c. Containing, I. Scarborough, a poem in imitation of Gay's Journey to Exeter. II. To Salinda confin'd to her chamber. III. The Muses expostulation. IV. On the ladies bathing in the sea. By Mr. D. V. To Miss R---- on the point of marriage. VI. On the mix'd company at the ordinaries. VII. Scarborough reformation, a song: on seeing several stars and garters at the Quaker's meeting-house. VIII. A riddle. By Mr. P----s. IX. On the balls and assemblies at the Long Room. X. Scarborough-Spaw, a song. XI. Sapphic verses to his absent mistress. By Mr. W. XII. Verses to Mr. Pope. By Mr. Price. XIII. On the virtues of the Scarborough-Spaw-water, and the humours of Dickey. XIV. Damon and Delia. XV. Verses to a lady reading The Platonic Lovers, in the bookseller's shop. XVI. Damon: or the unhappy lover. XVII. On the races and other diversions on the sands. XVIII. Hymn to Hesperus. By Mr. Price. XIX. A view of the ocean from Scarborough Castle. London: printed for J. Wilford, 1734. 8vo, pp. [iv], 59, [1]. Case 395. First edition. A note printed on the verso of the contents leaf, dated April 25, 1734, and signed by 'Sylvanus Urban', reveals that a much shorter version the first poem in this miscellany, on Scarborough, had first appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine. The Bowyer ledgers reveal a print run of 500 copies; 13 are now recorded in the ESTC, in eight libraries. [3] THE SCARBOROUGH MISCELLANY FOR THE YEAR 1734. Being a collection of original poems, tales, songs, epigrams, lampoons, satires, and panegyrics, handed about, this season, at Scarborough. With an invitation to Her Royal Highness Princess Amelia. London: printed for J. Wilford; and sold by the booksellers in town and country, 1734. 8vo, pp. [iv], 67, [1]. Case 396. First edition. The principal event of the season was a visit by the poet laureate, Colley Cibber, who had retired from the stage to mingle with the Whig oligarchy, and to engage in his favorite pursuits of gambling and philandering. Included here are three original poems he wrote for the occasion, 'A View of the Long-Room', 'Wrote on a Window in the Long-Room at Scarborough', and 'To Miss Eger--n Singing in the Long-Room'. Among the other amusing pieces is a poem called 'To Sir Miles Stapylton, Bart., on his being chose Knight of the Shire for York'. This piece was first printed in the Gentleman's Magazine for June, 1734, but is here enlarged, 'with notes and observations by the learned Scriblerus, and Dr. B-----y'. This miscellany was printed by William Bowyer in an edition of 500 copies, of which 14 are now located by ESTC. The following is bound at the front: [4] A JOURNEY FROM LONDON TO SCARBOROUGH, in several letters from a gentleman there, to his friend in London. With a list of the nobility, quality, and gentry at Scarborough, during the Spaw season, in the year 1733. Taken from the subscription-books at the Spaw, and the Long-Room, the bookseller's shop, and the coffee-house. To which is annex'd an account of the nature and use of the Scarborough spaw-water, in a short view of the most celebrated writers on that subject, interspers'd with some observations and remarks. London: printed for Cæsar War and Richard Chandler; and sold at their shop in Scarborough, 1734. 8vo, pp. iv, 68, x; with an engraved frontispiece. First edition. The revealing list of names compiled from various 'subscriptions-books' (including Colley Cibber) has its own title-page, as does the brief medical supplement at the end. The attractive frontispiece, not present in all copies, depicts Dicky Dickinson, the first 'governor' of Scarborough, a former shoe-shine boy known for his biting wit, colorful personality, and deformed body; Dickinson attracted many visitors, and he became quite wealthy. Some copies of this entertaining book have a bookseller's catalogue at the end, but none is present here. And bound at the back is another relevant title: [4] ATKINS, John, surgeon. A COMPENDIOUS TREATISE on the contents, virtues, and uses of cold and hot mineral springs in general: particularly the celebrated waters of Scarborough. With observations on their quality, and proper directions in drinking them. The whole consisting of what is chiefly useful in the works of the most celebrated authors who have wrote on the subject; with practical observ.

N° de réf. du vendeur 24230

Together two parts, 8vo in fours, pp. [ii], 30; [iv], 28; disbound. First edition of both parts. A very unusual pair of Swiftian miscellanies, printed by William Bowyer in an edition of 500 copies each, and shared, according to his ledgers, between himself and George Faulkner in Dublin. Of the seven poems in these two pamphlets, all but the first two had been printed separately in Dublin earlier the same year. The Christmas-Box was addressed by Swift to his friend Patrick Delany, to express dismay at what Swift considered Delany's unseemly attempt to seek preferment in the church (for the original printing, see Foxon S842). Swift's poem elicited a series of 'libels' on Delany by the wits of Dublin, of which An Answer to the Christmas-Box is a typical example (Foxon A246). The attribution in that printing to Rupert Barber, the husband of Swift's friend Mary Barber, was intended as an embarrassment, and the poem is thought to have been written by Thomas Sheridan. The Letter to Delany is also by Swift, and represents his attempt to bring to a close an episode which he saw as getting out of hand. Once the whole affair had been laid to rest, Delany resumed his habit of addressing good-natured poems to Swift with The Pheasant and the Lark, in which Lard Carteret is the pheasant, and Swift the lark. The Friendly Apology, a satire on Hartley Hutchinson, is described as 'by James Black-well, operator for the feet'; an attribution to Swift has not generally been accepted. Curiously, in this copy, this final poem has been rather heavily marked up, as if for reprinting, with changes in capitalization and spelling, and letters supplied for dashes in many of the proper names; these markings appear to be in an early hand. Another odd feature of Part II is the presence of a superfluous leaf bound after p. 24, plausibly paginated 24-25, but clearly from quite another source; there is, however, nothing missing. All in all, it seems reasonable to assume that Swift himself may have had something to do with having these poems reprinted in London, though there is no direct evidence to that effect. In very good condition. Case 363 (part I only); Teerink 685 and 695. These small miscellanies are very rare: ESTC lists the pair as a set in only seven libraries (Cambridge UL and NLI in Britain and Ireland; and Harvard, Newberry, Yale, Clark and Texas in the USA).

N° de réf. du vendeur 24244

13 volumes bound in 14 (volume 11 comes in two parts), large 8vo, each volume with engraved title page with vignette designed by Edward Francesco Burney and engraved by Francis Chesham; attractively bound in contemporary half vellum, spines with blue morocco labels (some a bit faded, but all present). A fine set of Robert Anderson's British Poets, compiled in the spirit of Johnson's collection but with much greater scope: the poets included range from Chaucer, Wyatt and Surrey up to Chatterton, Johnson, Warton and Blacklock. Each poet's works are prefaced by a biography and the text is set in double-column: the complete work is a phenomenal undertaking, not only on Anderson's part, but also on the part of the printers, Mundell of Edinburgh. Robert Anderson (1750-1830) began his student years at Edinburgh intending to become a minister, then changed to medicine and for some years practised as a surgeon, before abandoning physic for literature. This collection was originally intended to cover much the same ground as Johnson's poets, but he persuaded the publishers to allow not only a much greater number of poets, but also to include a few pre-Shakespearian poets (Chaucer, Spenser, Sackville) as well. The biography of Johnson was also published separately in 1795. Through this project Anderson became acquainted with Thomas Percy, and their subsequent correspondence has been published. Printing of the series was begun in 1792, and completed by 1795. An additional volume was published in 1807, but the original series was complete in 13 volumes, as here. NCBEL II 1803.

N° de réf. du vendeur 25221

8vo (190 x 120mm), pp. vii, [i], 334; with woodcut illustrations on p. 316; slight offsetting (or just possibly the remains of an erased inscription) on title page; else a very good copy, in mottled calf gilt by Riviere & son, neatly rebacked preserving the original spine; marbled endpapers, gilt edges. First edition of Beckford's Vathek. As is well known, Beckford wrote his 'Arabian tale' first in French, in 1782, but this English version was its first actual publication. The translator was Samuel Henley, who also supplied the 120pp of notes at the end; Henley had spent the early 1770s in Williamsburg at the College of William & Mary, where he taught the future Presidents Madison and Monroe, and became friends with another, Thomas Jefferson. On his return to Britain in 1775, he taught at Harrow and established himself as an antiquarian scholar. In a letter of 9 February 1786, Beckford strictly enjoined Henley not to publish the English version before the French, but it seems that the translator feared indefinite postponement, and the English text appeared in late May or early June, followed by the French, at Lausanne, in December the same year (but dated 1787). Kenneth W. Graham's article of 1975, quoting from the correspondence between Beckford and Henley, showed conclusively that the English translation which differs in many details from the French was a collaboration between the two, not an unauthorised and unfaithful version of the original. Graham also put to rest the suggestion that the French version was a retranslation from the English text, and concluded: 'In Vathek, then, we have a literary rarity: a work published in two languages, with both versions bearing the authority of the author's own revisions'. Roger Lonsdale, who once owned this copy, edited Vathek for the Oxford English Novels series (1970), no doubt using this copy, and his own copies of the later editions, for the work. Chapman & Hodgkin 3 (A) (i); Garside, Raven and Schöwerling 1786:15; Rothschild 352. See Kenneth W. Graham, 'Vathek in English and French', in Studies in Bibliography 28 (1975), pp. 153-166. There seem to have been large paper copies: the Rothschild copy is about 225 x 145mm, but the measurements given by Chapman are so confusing as to be meaningless. This copy has p. 48 misnumbered '84'. Provenance. Modern inscription 'J. Edwards' on endpaper.

N° de réf. du vendeur 26311