[Rarebooks] fs: 1821 Satiric Lecture on Heads

[Joslin Hall Rare Books]

A LECTURE ON HEADS... with additions by Mr. Pilon, as delivered by Mr. 
Charles Lee Lewis, to which is added an Essay on Satire. With forty-seven 
heads by Nesbit, from designs by Thurston.

Stevens, Geo[rge]. Alex[ander].
London; Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown: 1821. A New Edition.

Stevens' satiric lecture on heads, fashion, and the whims and foibles of 
those who have heads was first performed in 1764, and met with such popular 
acclaim that pirated editions soon began to surface. Lewes, an actor who 
performed the lecture himself, describes these problems in his "Address to 
the Public".

The lecture owes much to Stevens' observant wit, and its popularity into 
the 19th century to the craze for physiognomy, which it parodies. Stevens 
[1710-1784] was a poet and playwright, but nothing he did ever equaled the 
popularity of this lecture. He also achieved some minor note as 
(apparently) the person who coined the term "merry-go-round" for carousels, 
in a 1729 poem.

Hardcover. 4"x6.5", 110 [ii] pages, b/w frontispiece and line illustrations 
in the text; nicely bound in dark brown quarter leather with raised bands 
and gilt medallions; marbled boards; slight wear, text a bit browned and 
with a little soil, but a nice copy. Binding signed with an embossed "JB". 
[03580] $250.00

The covers-
<http://www.joslinhall.com/images/th-03580.jpg>


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Fine books of the 16th-20th centuries
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