[Rarebooks] fa: HIGDEN/DRYDEN/APHRA BEHN - Modern Essay on the Tenth Satyr of Juvenal - 1687

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, along with other 17th & 18th-Century English works,  
auctions ending Sunday, March 27. More 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?_trksid=p4340.l2562

Cheers,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

Henry Higden: A Modern Essay on the Tenth Satyr of Juvenal. London:  
Printed by T.M. and are to be sold by Randal Taylor near Stationers- 
Hall, 1687. FIRST EDITION. Modern wraps; 4to (21 x 17 cm); [16] + 58 +  
[10] pp. Wing J1278; ESTC R22431.
The introductory material contains commendatory poems by John Dryden  
(2 pp.), Aphra Behn (3 pp.), and Elkanah Settle (2 pp.). Henry Higden,  
Yorkshire-born poet, playwright and member of the Middle Temple, is a  
fairly obscure figure on the late seventeenth-century literary scene,  
but the DNB describes him as "a man of wit and the companion of all  
the choice spirits of the town", which must explain the presence here  
of the laudatory verses from three such literary/dramatic  
heavyweights. Quite uncommon: we find no other examples currently on  
offer and ESTC locates only 6 copies in the UK and 7 in the U.S.

Title-page somewhat darkened and soiled with loss to bottom fore- 
corner, last leaf (comprising the author's annotations and translation  
of a short verse by Cato) browned and soiled with professional repairs  
to the edges; one leaf with small chip from bottom not affecting text,  
five leaves trimmed a bit close at the fore-edge affecting a few words  
of the printed Latin margin notes; two or three other small  
professional repairs; edges a bit dusty and bumped; otherwise  
exceptionally clean and bright, complete and firmly bound. Includes an  
early/contemporary blank front endpaper with an old ink notation:  
"Bought this Book at a Sale by Auction at the House three Doors below  
St. Lawrence's Church." The whole handsomely housed in a custom  
portfolio of cloth and marbled boards.