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Details
HERRICK, Robert (1591-1674). Hesperides: or, the Works both Humane & Divine. London: Printed for John Williams and Francis Eglesfield, 1648.
8o (170 x 109 mm). Leaves C7, M8 and O8 cancelled (stub of cancellandum O8 present). Engraved frontispiece (inserted) by William Marshall depicting a bust of the poet on a pedestal bearing eight-line Latin inscription, the small rose buds, leaves and foliage in the background touched with pale contemporary coloring, dedication to the Prince of Wales, errata leaf ("For these transgressions which thou here dost see, Condemn the Printer, Reader, and not me..."), section title for His Noble Numbers: or, His Pious Pieces. (Tiny wormhole to title and dedication leaf just catching one letter, first line of the title and a few page-numbers very slightly shaved by binder, faint traces of dampstaining to upper portion of early leaves, small strip torn from lower edges of Bb2 and Bb3, short marginal tear to Dd5.) Despite defects enumerated a relatively tall copy, entirely unwashed and unpressed. Contemporary English blind-ruled sheep, flat spine divided into five compartments by double blind rules (wear to corners and joints, spine rubbed and with section at head torn, upper joint cracked); quarter morocco folding case. Provenance: Small ink markings in the margins by an early reader, perhaps the same "Jackson Clare Court, Drury Lane," whose signature appears on front pastedown -- John Bowle (engraved bookplate) -- shoulder notes in pencil in an early hand on a number of pages -- Canon Charles Herbert Mayo (bookplate and inscription on front pastedown) -- purchased from Seven Gables Bookshop, New York, 21 March 1974. Exhibited: Grolier Club, 'This powerfull rime,' 1975, no. 18.
FIRST EDITION. AN EXCELLENT, UNPRESSED COPY OF A BOOK RARELY FOUND IN ORIGINAL BINDING. Herrick, the son of a Cheapside goldsmith, earned his B.A. and M.A. degrees at Cambridge. During a residence in London, he became one of the group of poets and playwrights in the orbit of Ben Jonson, whom he lamented in verse as "the rare arch-poet Jonson"; in another ode to Jonson he wistfully recalls "those lyrick Feasts, made at the Sun, the Dog, the triple Tunne!" To the 1640 edition of Shakespeare's Poems Herrick contributed the anonymous verses "His Mistris Shade." After taking holy orders in 1627, Herrick was granted two years later the living of Dean Prior, in Devonshire, which he found isolated and stultifying initially; most of his sizeable lyric output probably dates from this period of rural retirement. Despite the unfettered amorous and courtly nature of much of his verse ("Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a flying..."), Herrick never wed, and the last poem in Hesperides concludes with the couplet "To his book's end this last line he'd have plac'd Jocund his Muse was; but his life was chaste."
Copies of Herrick's Hesperides in contemporary binding are extremely rare: of the six copies offered at auction since 1975, only one, the Westmorland-Drinkwater-Terry-Houghton copy, was in contemporary binding (sale Christie's, 14 June 1979, lot 257 £11,000). Grolier English 29; Grolier Wither to Prior, 441; Hayward 95; Pforzheimer 468; Wing H1596, H1597.
8o (170 x 109 mm). Leaves C7, M8 and O8 cancelled (stub of cancellandum O8 present). Engraved frontispiece (inserted) by William Marshall depicting a bust of the poet on a pedestal bearing eight-line Latin inscription, the small rose buds, leaves and foliage in the background touched with pale contemporary coloring, dedication to the Prince of Wales, errata leaf ("For these transgressions which thou here dost see, Condemn the Printer, Reader, and not me..."), section title for His Noble Numbers: or, His Pious Pieces. (Tiny wormhole to title and dedication leaf just catching one letter, first line of the title and a few page-numbers very slightly shaved by binder, faint traces of dampstaining to upper portion of early leaves, small strip torn from lower edges of Bb2 and Bb3, short marginal tear to Dd5.) Despite defects enumerated a relatively tall copy, entirely unwashed and unpressed. Contemporary English blind-ruled sheep, flat spine divided into five compartments by double blind rules (wear to corners and joints, spine rubbed and with section at head torn, upper joint cracked); quarter morocco folding case. Provenance: Small ink markings in the margins by an early reader, perhaps the same "Jackson Clare Court, Drury Lane," whose signature appears on front pastedown -- John Bowle (engraved bookplate) -- shoulder notes in pencil in an early hand on a number of pages -- Canon Charles Herbert Mayo (bookplate and inscription on front pastedown) -- purchased from Seven Gables Bookshop, New York, 21 March 1974. Exhibited: Grolier Club, 'This powerfull rime,' 1975, no. 18.
FIRST EDITION. AN EXCELLENT, UNPRESSED COPY OF A BOOK RARELY FOUND IN ORIGINAL BINDING. Herrick, the son of a Cheapside goldsmith, earned his B.A. and M.A. degrees at Cambridge. During a residence in London, he became one of the group of poets and playwrights in the orbit of Ben Jonson, whom he lamented in verse as "the rare arch-poet Jonson"; in another ode to Jonson he wistfully recalls "those lyrick Feasts, made at the Sun, the Dog, the triple Tunne!" To the 1640 edition of Shakespeare's Poems Herrick contributed the anonymous verses "His Mistris Shade." After taking holy orders in 1627, Herrick was granted two years later the living of Dean Prior, in Devonshire, which he found isolated and stultifying initially; most of his sizeable lyric output probably dates from this period of rural retirement. Despite the unfettered amorous and courtly nature of much of his verse ("Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a flying..."), Herrick never wed, and the last poem in Hesperides concludes with the couplet "To his book's end this last line he'd have plac'd Jocund his Muse was; but his life was chaste."
Copies of Herrick's Hesperides in contemporary binding are extremely rare: of the six copies offered at auction since 1975, only one, the Westmorland-Drinkwater-Terry-Houghton copy, was in contemporary binding (sale Christie's, 14 June 1979, lot 257 £11,000). Grolier English 29; Grolier Wither to Prior, 441; Hayward 95; Pforzheimer 468; Wing H1596, H1597.