FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE PORTUGUESE WAR FUND

The Vision of Don Roderick; a Poem ... Edinburgh: Printed by James Ballantyne and Co. for John Ballantyne ...

Edinburgh, and Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, London, 1811

4to, pp. [12], 128, [2, advertisements]; short marginal tear to H1, slight discolouration, but a fine copy, untrimmed, in the original grey-green boards, hand lettered, crack to front inner hinge (no weakness), slight wear to spine.

£450

Approximately:
US $568€526

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First trade edition, third impression (correcting the pagination), preceded by a private edition described as ‘Author’s Copy’ on the title-page.

Written in celebration of Wellington’s successes in the Peninsular War and sold for the benefit of the Portuguese war sufferers, the poem is based on an episode in Ginés Pérez de Hita’s Guerras civiles de Granada in which Don Roderick, the last Gothic King of Spain, descends into an enchanted cave to learn the outcome of the Moorish invasion. Scott carries on the story through the restoration of Christian rule and the conquest of the New World down to the invasion of Napoleon and Wellington’s victories.

Scott wrote to William Hayley on 2 July 1811 (the day of publication) that it was a mere ‘Drum and Trumpet performance’, but it was well received, earning one hundred guineas for the Portuguese war fund.

Ruff 113; Todd and Bowden 59Ae.

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