[Rarebooks] fa: THOMAS MAY: HISTORY OF THE PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND - 1647 (English Civil War)

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, along with several other 17th-century titles, auctions  
ending Monday, Nov. 29. 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 again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

Thomas May: The History of the Parliament of England: Which began  
November the third, M.DC.XL [1640]. With a short and necessary view of  
some precedent yeares. Written by Thomas May Esquire, Secretary for  
the Parliament. London: Imprinted at London by Moses Bell, for George  
Thomason, at the signe of the Rose and Crown in St. Pauls Church Yard,  
1647. FIRST EDITION. Folio (30.5 cm) in full period calf; [14], 119,  
[1], 128, 115, [1] pp.; three parts in one volume; engraved title-page  
vignette, woodcut decorations and initials. Wing M1410; ESTC R8147.

Uncommon contemporary history of the Long Parliament and the English  
Civil War. Thomas May (1595-1650) was a poet, playwright, translator  
and historian known for his questionable morals and literary  
integrity. He gained an early success with a comedy entitled The Heir  
(1620) and a translation of Lucan that garnered praise from no less  
than Ben Jonson. A favorite of Charles I, at whose behest he composed  
poems on Henry II and Edward III, he later turned against the king  
(some say out of pique at being denied a pension and the laureateship)  
and joined the republican cause, becoming its chief literary exponent.  
He lived in Parliament's quarters during the Civil War and was  
appointed Secretary to the Parliament, as which he wrote The History  
of the Parliament of England, his most important work, "a remarkably  
honest and objective history, although he never concealed his own bias  
in favor of radical republicanism" (Kunitz & Haycraft). Loathed by  
Royalists as an apostate, he was regarded by many in his own faction  
as an atheistical debuachee and it was said that he died either of  
drunkenness or from tying his nightcap strings too tightly "under his  
fat chin and cheeks." Marvell wrote of his passing: "As one put drunk  
into the packet-boat, / Tom May was hurried hence and did not know't."  
Despite this undignified end, May was interred with full honors in  
Westminster Cathedral — though with the Restoration he was dug up and  
reburied, along with other anti-Royalists, in an unmarked pit.

Binding dried, worn and scuffed, both boards neatly detached;  
imprimatur leaf (A1v) not present, moderate browning to the title-page  
which is starting to come loose at the foot of the spine but is still  
secure, mild toning to the leaves with scattered generally light  
foxing, a number of pencilled (easily erasable) tick marks in the  
margins; otherwise clean and sound, text block firmly bound. Front  
paste-down with the armorial bookplate of Hugh Lord Viscount  
Cholmondeley (1662-1725), later made 1st Earl of Cholmondeley.  
Interestingly, Hugh's great uncle Robert Cholmondeley, 1st Earl of  
Leinster, was a stalwart Royalist and supporter of Charles I during  
the Civil War.