Beschreibung:

HORACE -- PARKE, John (1754-1789), translator. The Lyric Works of Horace, translated into English Verse: to which are added, a number of Original Poems. By a Native of America . Philadelphia: Eleazer Oswald, 1786.
HORACE -- PARKE, John (1754-1789), translator. The Lyric Works of Horace, translated into English Verse: to which are added, a number of Original Poems. By a Native of America . Philadelphia: Eleazer Oswald, 1786. 8 o (222 x 134 mm). Etched allegorical frontispiece by James Peller Malcolm after a design by Peter Markoe. Original wrappers, uncut (some wear to spine ends and joints), manuscript title on spine. FIRST EDITION of the earliest American translation of Horace, includes a six page addenda at end not noted by Evans or Sabin. Complete with 4 title-pages & 16 pp. list of subscribers. The "translations" from Horace are actually paraphrases adapted to the circumstances of American history, substituting George Washington for the Emperor Augustus. This work by Parke, a Delaware officer, is one of the most eccentric books of Revolutionary War poetry, including some verse that he composed while at Valley Forge. According to Wegelin, the play at the end entitled Virginia is the "earliest known attempt to celebrate Washington's Birthday." "Henry Stevens calls this 'the rarest and oddest of all American books of poetry.' The translations are rhymed in verse and paraphrased by the substitutions of American public characters for the Roman worthies to whom Horace addressed his Odes, and by allusions to local and contemporary conditions. Four pages are given to the Dedication to Washington, and the scene of the pastoral drama [The 4th title] is located at Mt. Vernon" (Evans). Evans 19717; Sabin 33005; Wegelin, Early American Poetry 303. A FINE COPY IN ORIGINAL WRAPPERS.