English Literature
Contact Donovan Rees
British literature and history from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, with an emphasis on poetry, fiction, and drama.
We usually have a selection of literary works from the STC and Wing period (i.e. before 1701), and a broad range of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century fiction and poetry, particularly the Romantics. We also have a selection of historical manuscripts, prints and broadsides, and works in translation.
Among important works which have passed through our hands are the editor's presentation copy of Milton's Lycidas, Swift's Modest Proposal, the autograph draft of Byron's She walks in beauty, the autograph manuscript of Jane Austen's only play Sir Charles Grandison, Dickens’s copy of Vanity Fair, Trollope's classical library, and, over the years, some fifty Shakespeare First Folios.
-
BUTLER, Samuel.
Hudibras, in three Parts, written in the Time of the Late Wars … with Annotations and an Index.
London, Thomas Maiden for Vernor & Hood [and others], 1802.
An illustrated pocket edition of Butler’s Hudibras, the most celebrated satire and one of the most influential poems of the seventeenth century, owned by a young Siegfried Sassoon.
£450
-
[BYRON, George Gordon, Lord].
Lara, a Tale. [and] Jacqueline, a Tale [by Samuel Rogers].
London, Printed for John Murray …, 1814.
First edition, Randolph’s fourth variant (with the crooked roman numeral on p. 82 and the fallen period on p. 20). By 1814 Byron was heavily pressed by debts, having previously refused payment for his poems. For Lara, the fourth of Byron’s Levantine poems, published on the back of The...
£400
-
BYRON, [George Gordon Noel], Lord, and Thomas MOORE, biographer.
The Works of Lord Byron, with his Letters...
London, [A. & R. Spottiswoode for] John Murray, 1832 [– 1833; – 1837].
A handsome set, attractively bound in Art Deco green morocco, of the collected works of Lord Byron, accompanied by Moore’s life of the poet.
£850
-
[CAMBRIDGE.]
Tract volume of nine scarce works of poetry, including two installation odes on the occasion of HRH William Frederick...
London and Cambridge, 1765-1823.
A sammelband of Cambridge poetry, including:
£1200
-
CAMPBELL, Thomas.
Gertrude of Wyoming; a Pennsylvanian Tale. And other Poems.
London, T. Bensley, for the Author ... 1809.
First edition of Campbell’s most re-printed poem, based on a massacre of American patriots by British forces and their Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) allies in 1778. Its portrayal of ‘pastoral innocence evoked only to be destroyed by the savagery of war (embodied in this case by Mohawk allies of...
£650
-
CARLI, Paolo Francesco da Montecarlo.
La Svinatura di Barbigi Mezzabarba (Paol Francesco Carli da Montecarlo) resa a miglior lezione...
Campobasso, Stab. Tip. Del Progresso, 1878.
Rare edition of a satire by poet and abbot Paolo Francesco Carli (1652–1725) ridiculing the work of his nemesis, the Tuscan priest and schoolmaster Giovan Paolo Lucardesi, who made a tremendous theological blunder in a sonnet in which he describes Christ as ‘crucified and triune’, thus undermining...
£150
-
CARO, Annibale.
Rime del commendatore Annibal Caro. Col privilegio di N.S. PP. Pio V. et dell’illustrissima signoria di...
Venice, Aldus Manutius the Younger, 1569.
First edition of the poetry of Annibale Caro, offering a scathing yet humorous critique of his greatest poetic rival, Ludovico Castelvetro.
£650
-
CARTWRIGHT, William.
Comedies, Tragi-comedies, with other Poems … the Ayres and Songs set by Mr Henry Lawes, Servant to his late...
London, Printed for Humphrey Moseley … 1651.
First edition of the witty and elegant drama and verse of a celebrated ‘son of Ben’, who said ‘My son Cartwright writes like a man’. According to Evelyn, Charles I reckoned The Royall Slave ‘the best that was ever acted’ after he saw it as the main entertainment on the royal progress...
£1750
-
[CASTILLO Y SORIANO, José del.]
Amor á la creacion. Poesia dedicada á la Sociedad Madrileña Protectora de los Animales y de...
Madrid, Sociedad de Tipógrafos, 1879.
Very rare survival: a poem in twenty-four stanzas each of five lines devoted to the celebration of animals and plants, dedicated to the Madrid Society for the protection of nature, and publicly read by the actress Carolina Civili on the occasion of the May 1879 exhibition of plants and birds....
£375
-
CHALKHILL, John.
Thealma and Clearchus. A pastoral History in smooth and easie Verse. Written long since by John Chalkhill, Esq;...
London, Printed for Benj. Tooke … 1683.
First edition of Chalkhill’s unfinished pastoral poem, with the corrected state of the title, designating the author as ‘an acquaintant and friend of Edmund [originally ‘Edward’] Spencer’.
£1850
-
CHAMBERLAYNE, William.
Pharonnida: a heroick Poem …
London, Printed for Robert Clavell … 1659.
First edition of the physician-poet William Chamberlayne’s best-known work, a 14,000-line poem in heroic couplets blending Ariosto, Tasso, and Greek romances.
£2500
-
CLAUDIANUS, Claudius.
Claudii Claudiani Alexandrini, poetae illustriss. quotquot nostra hac tempestate extant opsucula, ad series...
Paris, Simon de Colines, 1530.
First Colines edition of the major works of Claudianus Claudius, known in the English-speaking world as Claudian, a Greek-speaking Latin poet best known for the unfinished epic De Raptu Proserpinae. It is printed in the same attractive italic type Colines used for his octavo editions of...
£850
-
CLEVELAND, John.
Clievelandi Vindiciae: or, Clieveland’s Genuine Poems, Orations, Epistles, &c. purged from the many false and...
London, Printed for Robert Harford ... 1677.
First edition, the issue with Robert Harford’s imprint. This ‘vindicatory’ text was prepared by Cleveland’s former students John Lake and Samuel Drake from authentic manuscripts to restore true readings to poems that had degenerated through six editions of The Character of a London-Diurnall...
£950
-
COLERIDGE, S[amuel] T[aylor].
The Watchman. No. I [III, IV]. Tuesday, March 1 [17, 25], 1796. Published by the Author …
Bristol: and sold by the Booksellers and Newscarriers in Town and Country.
Three (of ten) issues of The Watchman, Coleridge’s first journalistic endeavour, very rare: published in March to May 1796.
£750
-
COLLECTION (A)
of Poems: viz. the Temple of Death: by the Marquis of Normanby with several Original Poems, never before printed,...
London: Printed for Daniel Brown … and Benjamin Tooke … 1701.
Fourth edition of the important ‘Temple of Death’ miscellany of Restoration poetry, retaining most of the poems from the third edition (1693) and adding much material, including all the poems on pp. 172-282 – with contributions from Stepney, Arwaker and Congreve – and the poems at the end (pp....
£500
-
[COTTLE, Joseph.]
Poems, containing John the Baptist. Sir Malcolm and Alla, a Tale, shewing to all the World what Woman’s Love...
Bristol, Printed by Bulgin and Rosser, for J. Cottle, Bookseller … and G. G. and J. Robinson … London, 1795.
First edition. The Bristol bookseller Joseph Cottle (1770-1853) had been introduced to Coleridge and Southey by Robert Lovell in 1794 when the two poets ‘were in Bristol courting the Fricker sisters and preparing for Pantisocracy (as they called their scheme to marry and set up a community on...
£6000
-
[COTTON, Charles].
Scarronnides: or. Virgile Travestie. A Mock-Poem. In Imitation of the fourth Book of Virgils Æneis in English,...
London, Printed by E. Cotes for Henry Brome … 1665.
First edition of the second part of Cotton’s famous burlesque, an imitation of Aeneid book IV.
£250
-
[DEFOE, Daniel.]
[Incipit:] Ye True-born Englishmen proceed …
[London, 1701.]
One of a number of editions (at least seven) in 1701, priority not established, of this popular poem attacking Parliament for its failure to support the Dutch against the aggressions of Louis XIV of France. The texts ‘vary considerably’ (Moore) across the printings, which all appeared without...
£1000
-
DENNIS, John.
The Grounds of Criticism in Poetry, contain’d in some new Discoveries never made before, requisite for the Writing...
London, Printed for Geo. Strahan … and Bernard Lintott … 1704.
First edition. Published as a ‘preliminary’ to a proposed, but never completed, masterwork, The Grounds of Criticism in Poetry comprises a Preface, Proposal and ‘Specimen’, the latter being an essay substantially on Milton, ‘one of the greatest and most daring Genius’s that has appear’d...
£1250
-
DIBDIN, C[harles], the younger.
Mirth and Metre: consisting of Poems, serious, humorous, and satirical; Songs, Sonnets, Ballads,...
London: Printed for Vernor, Hood, and Sharpe ... by W. Wilson. 1807
First edition of the first collection of verse by the manager of Sadler’s Wells, including a section of songs from his ‘most approved’ pantomimes and ‘scenic’ productions. The ticket of a Newark bookseller makes it likely that the stamp ‘Newstead’ refers to Byron’s ancestral home, Newstead...
£225