[Rarebooks] fa: THOMAS MAY: HISTORY OF THE PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND - 1647 (English Civil War)
Ardwight Chamberlain
ardchamber at earthlink.net
Mon Nov 29 08:38:12 EST 2010
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.
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