655G Davenant, William. 1606-1668

The Works of Sir William Davenant Kt, Consisting of those which were formerly Printed, and those which he design’d for the Press: Now Published out of the Authors Originall Copies. 

London: Henry Herringman, 1673 Price $2,500

Open book featuring the title page of 'The Works of Sir William Davenant Kt' alongside an engraved portrait of Davenant wearing a laurel wreath.
The spine of an antiquarian book titled 'Davenant's Works' featuring ornate gilded decorations and raised bands, showcasing its vintage binding.

Folio, 32 x 19.5 cm. Signatures: π1 π π2 A-Z4 Aa-Zz4 Aaa-Ddd4 Eee2; Aa-Ppp4, Aaaa-Oooo4
Bound with Portrait of Davenant by Faithorne. An unusually fine, fresh, wide-margined copy, with a fine impression of the portrait. Bound in full contemporary
calf with nicely gilt spine. With the Berland bookplate. The First Collected Edition, with prefatory material by Hobbes, ‘The answer of Mr. Hobbes to Sr. William D’Avenant’s preface before Gondibert’, and poems by Waller and Cowley. Several of the plays originally
published in blank verse are here printed for the first time, converted into prose.
The volume also includes first printings of ‘The Playhouse to be Let’, ‘Law Against Lovers’, ‘News from Plymouth’, ‘The Fair Favourite’, ‘The Distresses’, and ‘The Siege’. The posthumous collection was published under the watchful eye of “Lady Mary” D’Avenant. The poems reflect the attitudes of the Cavalier poets and the received tradition of earlier poets, particularly Shakespeare, Jonson, and Donne. She no doubt also insisted on the fine portrait frontispiece restoring her husband’s missing nose, which he had lost through “illness” in 1638.

Wing D320 

Open pages of a vintage book featuring text from Aristophanes. The left page shows detailed writing, while the right page continues the text, with both pages exhibiting historical style and aged paper.

JAMESGRAY2@ME.COM