[Rarebooks] fa: ESSAY ON A METHODICAL ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR SWEDES - 1748

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, Nov. 21. Details and images can be  
found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://shop.ebay.com/arch_in_la/m.html

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

Ivar Kraak: An Essay on a Methodical English Grammar for the Swedes.  
Gotheborg: Johan Georg Lange, Senior, 1748. FIRST EDITION. Text in  
English, Swedish and Latin. Small 8vo (17.5 cm) in modern wraps with  
printed labels; [16] + 372 + [4] pp.; woodcut decorations; with errata  
and 3 pp. of publisher's adverts. Alston, ii, 569; ESTC T220598.

More than a mere grammar book, a fascinating social portrait of the  
period, with much if not most of the text in English, providing a  
detailed, colorful, occasionally amusing look at everyday life in the  
18th century. Includes a series of lively "Dialogues" providing handy  
phrases for (almost) any occasion, samples of letters and poetry,  
modes of address, syntax, a list of useful interjections (sirrah!; ho  
there!; Dewce take it!; well a day!; etc.), and a lengthy section (in  
English) on the sites and curiosities of a host of European countries  
and distant and exotic lands, including Tartary, China, India, Persia,  
Arabia, Palestine, Ceylon, Maldive Islands, the land of the Negros,  
Guinea, Sahara, Ethiopia, Florida ("Here grows a certain Tree, about  
the Bigness of an ordinary apple-tree, the juice of whose Fruit the  
Natives use to...anoint their arrows, being a rank sort of Poison"),  
New England, New Jersey, Terra Firma, Peru, Land of the Amazons,  
Brazil, Chili, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and the Bermudas.

Exceedingly scarce, perhaps downright rare: OCLC locates only 2 copies  
in the U.S. (NYPL, UCLA Clark) and 2 in the UK (NL of Scotland, King's  
College), and the only copy we can find in commerce is an imperfect  
example of a later (1777) reprint. Browning and chipping to the edges  
of the title-page (repaired/backed with tissue paper), similar  
browning to the last leaf; bound a bit tight, obscuring some letters  
at the gutter; leaves tanned throughout, one with edge repair;  
otherwise very clean and crisp, simply and cleanly rebound in modern  
paper wraps.

Perusing the purportedly useful phrases in the various categories of  
the "Dialogues" is like wandering through an eccentric, Tristram  
Shandy-ish picaresque novel in which the main character is a demanding  
and rather testy traveler: On dressing one's self ("These stockings  
have holes in them"; "Dress my wig (perewig)... and plait (gather) my  
neckcloth"); With a Laundress ("What! Is this my linnen?; "Yes, sir,  
it is in deed"; "It looks so yellow, that I hardly know it again"); On  
Coming into an inn ("Where is the house of office, the little house,  
the chamber-pot?"); To inquire after the way ("Is it not dangerous to  
travel hereabouts?"; "Look here, sir, in this very place, hard by that  
tree, they robb'd the other day a rich merchant..."; "Let us make  
haste to get from hence for fear they should do the same to us"; "No  
sir, there's no fear of that, for those that did it have been caught  
and hanged since" [thus demonstrating to our traveler the swift  
efficiency of English justice]; Between a Gentleman and a seaman  
("Honest seaman, what is that white appears yonder?" "The rocks of  
Engeland [sic] ... We shall be at gravesand [sic] within a short  
time"); Betwixt a sick Person, a Physician and a Surgeon ("I've a pain  
in my head; my heart akes, and I've a pain in my stomack too";... "You  
must be let blood"; "I was let blood last week"; "Sir, give me your  
right arm"; "You bind my arm too hard (tight). Have you a good  
Lancet?"; "You will not feel it. Make a great orifice. The blood comes  
as it should"; ..."How do you find your self today?"; "I'm very ill.  
I'm a dying"). Other Dialogues include: Between a Gentleman and his  
man; Between a stranger and a coachman; Of eating and drinking in a  
cooks-shop (an ordinary); At Dinner; To the Post-master; etc., etc. A  
lot of it seems of doubtful use to the 18th-century tourist, but a  
rare and delightful read today.