[Rarebooks] fa: DISCOURSES USEFUL for the VAIN MODISH LADIES and THEIR GALLANTS - Francis Boyle - 1696

[ArCh]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, October 11. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

https://tinyurl.com/y2u33wdl

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Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Francis Boyle: Discourses and Essays, Useful for the Vain Modish Ladies and their Gallants. As also upon several Subjects Moral and Divine. In Two Parts. Written by the Right Honourable Francis Lord Viscount Shannon. And humbly Dedicated to the Right Honourable Elizabeth Countess of Northumberland. The Second Edition, with New Additions. London: Printed for John Taylor, at the Ship in St. Paul's Church-Yard, 1696. Small 8vo (17.5 cm) in early/period calf; [22], 60, 199, [5], 15, 22-215, [1] pp. ESTC R40612; Wing S2963.

Issued in the same year as the first edition, with a separate dated title-page after the general title-page; and with the Essays and Discourses, Moral and Divine... having a separate title-page and pagination. Shelving number on the spine foot, ink stamp on the verso of the title-page, two or three small circular ink stamps elsewhere; no other library markings. Binding rubbed with bumping to the corners, wear to the spine and spine ends; text block with occasional modest worming to the upper gutter, lacking one leaf of the text (B3), two other leaves coming loose at the gutter but still attached, bottom of last leaf torn away, not affecting text, title-pages with a chip missing at the top; contents with occasional light toning, spotting and stains, else quite clean and sound. Uncommon: ESTC locates copies in just two libraries in the UK (BL, NL of Ireland) and five in the U.S. (LOC, Harvard, Newberry, UCLA Clark, Illinois).

Francis Boyle (1623-1699) was the fourth son of the Irish landowner Richard Boyle, the Earl of Cork, and the brother of the great chemist, physicist and inventor, Robert Boyle. A stout defender of the Stuart cause, he fought on the Royalist side during the English Civil Wars and was later made Viscount Shannon by Charles II at the Restoration. Boyle would have known something about "modish ladies," as his wife, Elizabeth Killigrew, was a former mistress of the future King Charles, by whom she had a daughter. The work's lengthy subtitle gives an idea of its contents: "I. Of some of the common ways many vertuous women take to lose their reputation, &c. II. Of meer beauty-love, &c. III. Of young mens folly in adoring young handsom ladies, &c IV. Of the power womens beauty exercises over most young men. V. Of the inconstancy of most ladies, especially such as are cry'd-up beauties, &c. VI. Of marriage, and of wives who usurp a governing power over their husbands. VII. Of the inequality of many marriages, with the sad end that usually attend such matches. VIII. Against maids marrying for meer love, &c. IX. Against widows marrying. X. Against keeping of mis[tres]ses. XI. Of the folly of such women as think to shew their wit by censuring of their neighbours. XII. Of the French fashions and dresses, &c. XIII. Of worldly praises which all ladies love to receive, but few strive to deserve. XIV. Useful advices to the vain and modish ladies, for the well regulating their beauty and lives."