[Rarebooks] fa: POEMS ON AFFAIRS OF STATE 1702-07 - 5 vols. in 4 (Shakespeare, Dryden, Marvell, Rochester, &c.)

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, along with other 17th, 18th & 19th-Century English titles,  
auctions ending Sunday, September 25. More details and images can be  
found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/arch_in_la/m.html?_trksid=p4340.l2562

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

Poems on Affairs of State... Written by the greatest Wits of the Age.  
Viz. Duke of Buckingham, Earl of Rochester, Andrew Marvell, Mr.  
Milton, Mr. Dryden, Mr. Sprat, Mr. Waller, Mr. Prior, Mr. Shakespear,  
Mr. Tate, Mr. Hughes, Mr. Arwaker, &c... Most of which were never  
before publish'd. Vols. [I]-IV. [London:] Printed in the Year[s]  
1702-07. Five volumes bound in four (vol. I is bound with State-Poems;  
Continued..., 1702), in similar period paneled and sprinkled calf,  
8vos (ca. 19.5 cm). Vol. I is a fourth edition ("corrected and much  
enlarged"), all others are FIRST EDITIONS. ESTC T108847; T108846;  
T121816; T144915; T144916.

A lively, provocative, profane and important collection of late 17th-  
and early 18th-century poetry, mostly satiric and political in nature.  
With subjects ranging from the lofty (Waller's "Panegyrick on Oliver  
Cromwell and his Victories") to the lewd ("Signior Dildoe" by the Earl  
Rochester, printed here for the first time), the poems present a  
comprehensive and vivid portrait of the social and political life of  
the age. Included are first or early appearances of works by or  
attributed to Rochester, Edmund Waller, Andrew Marvell, John Milton,  
John Dryden, Matthew Prior, Daniel Defoe, and many others.  
Additionally, vol. IV includes the first 18th-century printings and  
the first joint appearance of Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis and The  
Rape of Lucrece. Vol. IV also contains seven satirical engravings,  
primarily dealing with Louis XIV (somewhat foxed, with wear and loss  
to the fore-edges).
Not a uniform set, but the period bindings are fairly close in style.

Mild wear to the boards and bumping to the extremities, rubbing and  
darkening to the spines, hinges and spines are tender though  
professionally restored; contents of vol. II somewhat browned,  
scattered browning and spotting to two others, vol. I quite clean and  
fresh. Three volumes with engraved bookplates of Walter W. Hallam,  
Lowestoft, with his penciled signature on the title-pages; signature  
clipped from one front-flyleaf; early ink signatures of L.D. Dawson on  
two paste-downs.