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Prior, Matthew; Humphreys, Samuel; Jacob, Hildebrand, et al.,
Poems on Several Occasions.
Publisher: Printed for J. and R. Tonson and S. Draper, and H. Lintot; printed for C. Hitch at the Red Lyon in Pater-Noster-Row, and J. Hodges at the Looking-Glass over against St. Magnus-Church London-Bridge, London;
Date of Publication: 1754
Stock Code: 15015
Two imprints in two volumes, comprising a complete set of the fourth edition, which includes works not by Prior, namely Hildebrand Jacob’s notorious erotic poem ‘The Curious Maid’. Duodecimos, pp., [22], 402, [6] index; lxii, 356; sig., A-S12; A12 a-b¹² B-Q¹². Engraved frontispieces to each volume plus three integral engraved plates by Van Gucht to vol. 2, numerous woodcut headpieces, tailpieces, drop capitals and ornaments to both volumes. Collated and complete. Uniformly bound in contemporary marbled calf, spines on five raised bands, ornamented in gilt to compartments, lettered in gilt to red and camel morocco spine labels, gilt rolls to edges; all edges marbled; marbled end-papers; blue silk place-markers to both volumes. Minor shelf-wear to extremities, minor loss to head of volume 1, leather cracking a little on spine but bindings strong, and very solid. Occasional toning and spotting to contents but generally clean. An excellent set. A two-volume set of poetic miscellanies, predominantly of the works of Matthew Prior (1664–1721), but with a curious, amatory section to the end of volume two. Prior was a poet, statesman, and Tory ally to Robert Harley and the Scriblerians. His biographer states that his primary interests were ‘women, collecting, friends, a country estate, and writing.’ He was ‘arguably the most important poet writing in English between the death of Dryden (1700) and the poetic majority of Pope in 1712’ (ODNB). He proved a continually popular entry in miscellanies, a form of publication which gathered together various works, sometimes on a theme. This set is a rather curious miscellany, while dominated by Prior’s works, approximately the final third of volume 2 consists of ‘Original Poems and Translations by Various Hands’ - a deliberately vague title to a truly varied selection of poetry. A reader’s interest may have been piqued by the first poem in the section, Hildebrand Jacob’s amatory verse on female auto-eroticism ‘The Curious Maid’ (often misattributed to Prior), which is accompanied by an engraved plate of a woman using a mirror to peek under her own skirts. What follows are a series of amatory, bawdy, and controversial works, many laden with innuendo (as in ‘The Silent Flute: Or the Members Speech to their Soveraign’ [sic.]), while others use the tried-and-true guise of classical translation to depict scenes of ‘heaving breasts and extended thighs’. Other poems in the collection are on less lurid but still interesting and controversial topics: Bedlam, snuff, marriage, politics, and the manners of the day. The title rather overstates the ‘original’ nature of the works: they mostly appear to be printed from earlier sources, but their gathering together here nonetheless places these poems in new contexts. Miscellanies were an important venue for erotic, amatory, and controversial works (indeed, much of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester’s poetry was first published in miscellanies by Edmund Curll). This set appears to be scarce with all the plates, and represents an interesting combination of respectable, mainstream, and clandestine verse in two well-preserved volumes. £600.00