[Rarebooks] fa: ABRAHAM COWLEY - WORKS & SECOND PART OF WORKS - Two Vols. in One 1684

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auctions ending Sunday, November 18. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/bclw24r

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.


Abraham Cowley:: The Works of Mr Abraham Cowley. Consisting of Those which were formerly Printed: And Those which he Design’d for the Press, Now published out of the Authors Original Copies. The Eighth Edition. London: Printed by J.M. for Henry Herringman, at the Sign of the Blue Anchor, in the Lower Walk of the New-Exchange, 1684. [BOUND WITH:] The Second Part of the Works of Mr. Abraham Cowley. Being what was Written and Published by himself in his Younger Years. And now Reprinted together. The Fifth Edition. London: Printed by Mary Clark, for Charles Harper, at the  Flower-de-luce in Fleet-street, and Abel Swalle, at the Unicorn in St. Pauls Church-yard, MDCLXXXIV. [1684]. Two volumes in one. Folio (31 x 20.5 cm; 12 x 8 in) in early/period mottled calf, rebacked; engraved frontispieces and title-page vignettes, woodcut vignettes, decorations and initials. VOL. I: [2], xl, 41, [1], 80, [4], 58, 61-70, 154, 23, [1], 148 p.; VOL. II: [6], 161, [1] p. Wing C6656A, C6664A; ESTC R229798, R227057.

Scattered browning and spotting, occasional bumping and light wear to the edges; last leaf with a closed 2" tear to the bottom margin, not touching the text; a few other leaves with short tears or chips to the edges; otherwise sound, firmly bound. Front paste-down with the armorial bookplate of Wyndham Edward Buckley Lloyd. An early owner has neatly inscribed part of Cowley's poem "Davideis" in ink on the rear paste-down.

Two separate and early collections of Cowley's works bound together in one volume. In the first volume, "The Mistress", "Pindarique Odes", and "Davideis, a Sacred Poem", each have separate dated title pages and pagination. In the second volume, "The Tragical History of Piramus and Thisbe", "Sylva", "Loves Riddle" and "Naufragium Joculare" each have separate dated title page, while the pagination is continuous. Abraham Cowley (1618-1667), one of the leading poets of his time, was also a dramatist, a Royalist spy, and one of the first members of the Royal Society. Though his poems were once almost required reading, he is perhaps better appreciated today for his prose pieces, such as his "vigorous and biting" diatribe against Oliver Cromwell (included here). One critic has said of his series of poems on plants: "as poetry they are not particularly distinguished, but they are very good botany" (Kunitz and Haycraft).