Spenser

1596 · 165717 — London: Printed for William Ponsonbie 1596. For there is nothing lost that may be found if sought First complete edition comprising the first edition of the second part and the second edition of the first part. Written in praise of Elizabeth I and dedicated to her Spenser's allegorical masterpiece follows the adventures of six medieval knights drawing on Arthurian legend Italian romance classical epic and Chaucer. John Dryden notes that "Spencer more than once insinuates that the Soul of Chaucer was transfus'd into his Body; and that he was begotten by him Two hundred years after his Decease" Dryden f. A1. In its mingling of genres the poem represented a new departure in English poetry for which Spenser invented a new stanza "a hybrid form adopted from the Scots poetry of James I 'rhyme royal' and Italian 'ottava rima'" ODNB. Spenser began composing the work in the 1570s sharing "parcels" of it among friends. Though no rough drafts autograph copies or foul papers for the poem have survived the poet alludes to a manuscript copy as early as 1580 when in a letter to Gabriel Harvey he asks for one to be returned to him: "I wil in hande forthwith with my Faery Queene whyche I praye you hartily send me with al expedition: and your frendly Letters and long expected Iudgement wythal" Three Proper and wittie familiar Letters. The poem or some part of it was almost certainly circulating in manuscript in London in 1588 when Abraham Fraunce quotes a stanza in his Arcadian Rhetorick correctly citing its book and canto "Spencer in his Faerie queene.2.book.cant.4". The first part was finally printed in 1590 - possibly intended to coincide with the publication of Philip Sidney's Arcadia - and the second part followed with a new edition of the first in 1596. Spenser likely composed some of the second part around 1593 as the conversion of Henry IV of France to Catholicism that year provides the historical basis for the Burbon episode in Book V. The poem now six books was entered into the Stationers' Register on 20 January 1596 suggesting publication had been planned to fall during Elizabeth I's Grand Climacteric - her 63rd year thought by astrologers to be critical - which had begun on 7 September 1595. In 1599 with only six of his twelve planned books completed Spenser died - his two fragmentary Cantos of Mutabilitie thought to be intended for Book VII are the only additional material published with the first folio edition of 1609. Provenance: from the library of Henry White 1822-1900 of Queen's Gate London with his armorial bookplate on the front pastedowns and sold in his 1902 Sotheby's sale lot 2028. The book was bound likely for White himself by Roger de Coverly 1831-1914 the London binder under whom T. J. Cobden-Sanderson trained. An old description mounted on the front pastedown of the first volume likely from a turn-of-the-century exhibition notes that the books were "lent by H. White Esq.". 2 vols small quarto 195 x 145 mm. Woodcut device of printer Richard Field to title pages full-page woodcut to M5 verso. Bound by Roger de Coverly in late 19th-century red crushed morocco spines with five raised bands lettered in gilt direct to second and third compartments remaining compartments richly gilt triple gilt fillet border to covers edges and turn-ins gilt marbled endpapers gilt edges. Spines slightly darkened upper margins closely trimmed touching a couple of headings outer leaves of vol. I faintly soiled a few spots to vol. II else clean and fresh within. An excellent copy handsomely bound. Pforzheimer 970; ESTC S117748. John Dryden "Preface" in Fables Ancient and Modern 1700; Edmund Spenser Three Proper and wittie familiar Letters 1580. hardcover