[Rarebooks] fa: THE SKYLARK - AN ELEGANT COLLECTION OF THE BEST AND NEWEST SONGS 1791 (Rare)

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, June 14. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/own7cm6

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

The Skylark. Being an Elegant Collection of the Best and Newest Songs in the English Language. London: Printed for J. Evans, Pater-Noster Row, [1791?]. FIRST EDITION; 8vo in early sheep boards rebacked with modern goatskin decorated in blind, lettered in gilt; (18 cm); [2], xii, 276 pp.; engraved title-page. ESTC N36344.

A rare collection of popular songs: ESTC locates only three copies worldwide (Huntington, University of Leeds, Universidad Complutense de Madrid). A later collection with the same title was published by Vernor & Hood in 1800. The songs are for the most part a lively, jolly bunch, having to do with drinking, loving, sailing, dancing, pretty  girls ("When drest in your boddice, you trip like a goddess"), shrewish wives, shiftless husbands, etc., though some ("To the wars I must, alas!") sound a more melancholy note. Some are in the laboring-class vernacular of the time ("Varewell, Doll, Kate, Zis, and Zue, / Vor I shall never zee you more") and many would have been performed and enjoyed at such contemporary pleasure spots as Vauxhall Gardens, Ranelagh Gardens and Sadler's Wells, as well as theatres, musical societies, etc.

Wear and rubbing to the boards; the title-page, which shows soiling, chips and tears, has been laid down and tissue-repaired, as has the last leaf; lower corner of one leaf torn away, not affecting the text; first few leaves a bit soiled and grubby; text block toned and darkened at the edges with occasional small spots and stains, touches of soiling; a few light (erasable) penciled marginalia by a 19th-century owner who seems to have been a keen student of the subject, providing titles and words for a few songs: under the song "Her mouth with a smile," he notes, "Anne Ogilvy sang this song most beautiful," and under the song "Oh what had I a-do for to marry?" he writes: "I never observed this Song 'till I turned up the Book by chance on the evening Friday 3rd Mars. 1865. J.O."