REISSUED AND EXPANDED
GRAY, [Thomas].
Poems by Mr. Gray.
Dublin, William Sleater, 1775.
12mo, pp. 185, [6], ‘180-211’, [4], ‘[192]-211’, [1 (index)]; Elegia Inglese with part-title dated 1776; with copper-engraved frontispiece (included in pagination), engraved vignette to title, 4 illustrations (of which 3 engraved and one woodcut) in text, and a pleasing variety of woodcut and typographic ornaments throughout; foxed and spotted in places, but a very good copy; in contemporary sheep, spine ruled in gilt with gilt red morocco lettering-piece, sewn two-up on 3 sunken cords (of which 2 laced in); a little rubbed and bumped, upper joint split but holding; contemporary ink ownership inscription ‘John Thells’ to title.
An attractive Dublin edition of Gray’s poems, joined by two parodies and a ‘burlesque ode’, and parallel translations of his Elegy written in a Country Churchyard into Italian and Latin.
The publisher William Sleater first printed Gray’s poems in 1768, with three variant issues; the present edition reuses the sheets of the most extensive and scarcest of the three (ESTC T59849, BL and Cornell only), with a new title, K6 reset, and the addition of 1I6 (Ode on the Pleasure arising from Vicissitude, noting that ‘Mr. Gray left the following beautiful lyric fragment unfinished at his decease. The supplementary lines, distinguished by Italic character, have been since added by the Rev. Mr. Mason’).
ESTC T59850.
