Lycidas [in] Justa Edouardo King naufrago, ab Amicis moerentibus, amoris &..., 2 parts in one, 1st edition, Cambridge: Thomas Buck & Roger Daniel, 1638, [viii]+36+[ii]+25+[1] (blank), typographic head-pieces, woodcut initial letters and tail-pieces, title-page dust-soiled and with two closed marginal tears (one at gutter and one to fore-margin), tip of upper outer corner renewed, first part with intermittent water-staining (most prominent to fore-margin of first few leaves), second part with separate title-page and pagination (collation continuous), final two leaves with very short tears at blank gutter (emanating from stab holes), final leaf a little creased, bookplate of Richard Adams, free endpapers neatly replaced using laid paper, contemporary panelled calf, rebacked and one corner repaired, 4to (leaf size 18 x 13.5cm/7 x 5.25ins), housed in a green velvet-lined brown quarter morocco bookform solander box, lightly rubbed in one or two places, blind rule decorated raised bands, gilt lettered morocco label in second compartment, date lettered direct at foot Hayward 70. Pforzheimer 712. STC 14964. Provenance: Sotheby's 12th December, 1991. Notably rare first appearance in print of Milton's great pastoral elegy. Just thirty-three copies are thought to be in existence, with only a handful remaining in private hands. We have traced just five copies sold at auction in the last fifty years, including this copy. 'Lycidas' is John Milton's second published work, his first being a commendatory poem on Shakespeare published in the 1632 'Second Folio'. It is the final poetical work in this collection of elegies published in commemoration of Edward King, a fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge, who drowned when his ship sank off the coast of Anglesey on 10th August 1637. King had been a younger contemporary of Milton, who was evidently invited to make a contribution to the publication. In The Plague Dogs, by Richard Adams, the character of the Assistant Secretary, a partial portrait of the author, silently quotes Milton's Lycidas to himself, 'as often in moments of difficulty or depression' (The Plague Dogs, Knopf, 1978, page 205). (1)
Lycidas [in] Justa Edouardo King naufrago, ab Amicis moerentibus, amoris &..., 2 parts in one, 1st edition, Cambridge: Thomas Buck & Roger Daniel, 1638, [viii]+36+[ii]+25+[1] (blank), typographic head-pieces, woodcut initial letters and tail-pieces, title-page dust-soiled and with two closed marginal tears (one at gutter and one to fore-margin), tip of upper outer corner renewed, first part with intermittent water-staining (most prominent to fore-margin of first few leaves), second part with separate title-page and pagination (collation continuous), final two leaves with very short tears at blank gutter (emanating from stab holes), final leaf a little creased, bookplate of Richard Adams, free endpapers neatly replaced using laid paper, contemporary panelled calf, rebacked and one corner repaired, 4to (leaf size 18 x 13.5cm/7 x 5.25ins), housed in a green velvet-lined brown quarter morocco bookform solander box, lightly rubbed in one or two places, blind rule decorated raised bands, gilt lettered morocco label in second compartment, date lettered direct at foot Hayward 70. Pforzheimer 712. STC 14964. Provenance: Sotheby's 12th December, 1991. Notably rare first appearance in print of Milton's great pastoral elegy. Just thirty-three copies are thought to be in existence, with only a handful remaining in private hands. We have traced just five copies sold at auction in the last fifty years, including this copy. 'Lycidas' is John Milton's second published work, his first being a commendatory poem on Shakespeare published in the 1632 'Second Folio'. It is the final poetical work in this collection of elegies published in commemoration of Edward King, a fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge, who drowned when his ship sank off the coast of Anglesey on 10th August 1637. King had been a younger contemporary of Milton, who was evidently invited to make a contribution to the publication. In The Plague Dogs, by Richard Adams, the character of the Assistant Secretary, a partial portrait of the author, silently quotes Milton's Lycidas to himself, 'as often in moments of difficulty or depression' (The Plague Dogs, Knopf, 1978, page 205). (1)
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
