Details
KIPLING, Rudyard, 1865-1936. Autograph manuscript signed, of his verses "The Quest," n.p., n.d. 1 full page, 4to, 274 x 206mm., in dark blue ink on pale blue paper, titled at head "The Quest," small patch of discoloration at top margin, a few minor ink smudges, the leaf tipped into an album with an fine etched portrait by T. Johnson, bound in full olive morocco gilt, g.e., upper cover titled in gilt.
An attractive fair copy, comprising four stanzas of a total of 41 lines, neatly inscribed in Kipling's diminutive hand. The first stanza opens: "The knight came home from the quest; muddied and sore he came, Battered of shield and crest, Bannerless, bruised and lame. Fighting we take no shame; Better is man for a fall..." The refrain which concludes stanzas 1 and 4 is: "Ay, they were strong, and the fight was long But I paid as good as I got."
"The Quest" was Kipling's contribution to The Book of Beauty (Late Victorian Era), ed. F. Harcourt Williamson (London, 1897); it was reprinted in Fragmenta Condita, ed. E.W. Martindell, 1922, in the Sussex edition (1939) and the Burwash edition (1941), vol.28.
An attractive fair copy, comprising four stanzas of a total of 41 lines, neatly inscribed in Kipling's diminutive hand. The first stanza opens: "The knight came home from the quest; muddied and sore he came, Battered of shield and crest, Bannerless, bruised and lame. Fighting we take no shame; Better is man for a fall..." The refrain which concludes stanzas 1 and 4 is: "Ay, they were strong, and the fight was long But I paid as good as I got."
"The Quest" was Kipling's contribution to The Book of Beauty (Late Victorian Era), ed. F. Harcourt Williamson (London, 1897); it was reprinted in Fragmenta Condita, ed. E.W. Martindell, 1922, in the Sussex edition (1939) and the Burwash edition (1941), vol.28.