GASCOIGNE, George (c. 1542-1577). The Steele Glas, A Satyre. Together with The Complainte of Phylomene. An Elegie. [London]: [Henry Binneman] for Richard Smith [1576]. 4° (183 x 135 mm). Title with publisher's device and typographic border, portrait of Gascoigne on title verso. 67 leaves (of 68 without the terminal blank), \Kc\k 2 [errata, blank] bound after title. (Upper margins and small area of lower fore-corners restored, with occasional facsimile to a very few headlines.) Late 19th-century gilt panelled brown morocco, edges gilt (lightly rubbed). Provenance : Bernard Quaritch July 23/67 (pencilled note, rear free endpaper) -- Thomas Edward Watson (bookplate; by descent to the present owners). FIRST EDITION OF ONE OF THE EARLIEST ENGLISH SATIRES, 'the first original non-dramatic poem in blank verse in English' (DNB), and which includes a commendatory poem by Sir Walter Ralegh, believed to be his earliest published verse. Tom Nash his contemporary and successor declared that Gascoigne: "first beate the path to that perfection which our best Poets have aspired to since his departure" (R. B. McKerrow, Works of Thos. Nashe vol. III, p. 319). Gascoigne, the first of the Elizabethan court poets, was a versatile literary pioneer: "in many departments of literature Gascoigne wrote the first work of its kind that has come down to us - the first prose tale of modern life, the first prose comedy, the first tragedy translated from the Italian, the first maske, the first regular satire, the first treatise on poetry in English." (Camb. Hist. vol III, X., 4). The woodcut portrait shows one of the only known representations of Gascoigne, which Pforzheimer qualifies as having a 'strength and sureness not often found in English work of this period'. The illustration, and its motto 'As Much for Mars as for Mercury', clearly communicate Gascoigne's double profession, and desire for employment, as man of arms and letters. The last complete copy of The Steele Glas was sold at auction exactly 100 years ago in 1905. Watermarks confirm collation of the first 6 leaves as A 4\Kc\k 2 as in Pforzheimer. ESTCS 102876, Grolier, Langland to Wither 108, Hayward 18, Hazlitt p. 222, Pforzheimer 402.
GASCOIGNE, George (c. 1542-1577). The Steele Glas, A Satyre. Together with The Complainte of Phylomene. An Elegie. [London]: [Henry Binneman] for Richard Smith [1576]. 4° (183 x 135 mm). Title with publisher's device and typographic border, portrait of Gascoigne on title verso. 67 leaves (of 68 without the terminal blank), \Kc\k 2 [errata, blank] bound after title. (Upper margins and small area of lower fore-corners restored, with occasional facsimile to a very few headlines.) Late 19th-century gilt panelled brown morocco, edges gilt (lightly rubbed). Provenance : Bernard Quaritch July 23/67 (pencilled note, rear free endpaper) -- Thomas Edward Watson (bookplate; by descent to the present owners). FIRST EDITION OF ONE OF THE EARLIEST ENGLISH SATIRES, 'the first original non-dramatic poem in blank verse in English' (DNB), and which includes a commendatory poem by Sir Walter Ralegh, believed to be his earliest published verse. Tom Nash his contemporary and successor declared that Gascoigne: "first beate the path to that perfection which our best Poets have aspired to since his departure" (R. B. McKerrow, Works of Thos. Nashe vol. III, p. 319). Gascoigne, the first of the Elizabethan court poets, was a versatile literary pioneer: "in many departments of literature Gascoigne wrote the first work of its kind that has come down to us - the first prose tale of modern life, the first prose comedy, the first tragedy translated from the Italian, the first maske, the first regular satire, the first treatise on poetry in English." (Camb. Hist. vol III, X., 4). The woodcut portrait shows one of the only known representations of Gascoigne, which Pforzheimer qualifies as having a 'strength and sureness not often found in English work of this period'. The illustration, and its motto 'As Much for Mars as for Mercury', clearly communicate Gascoigne's double profession, and desire for employment, as man of arms and letters. The last complete copy of The Steele Glas was sold at auction exactly 100 years ago in 1905. Watermarks confirm collation of the first 6 leaves as A 4\Kc\k 2 as in Pforzheimer. ESTCS 102876, Grolier, Langland to Wither 108, Hayward 18, Hazlitt p. 222, Pforzheimer 402.
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
