The Cup and The Falcon.

TENNYSON, Lord Alfred.

$5,500.00

Item Number: 100620

London: Macmillan and Co, 1884.

First edition of this collection of two Tennyson plays. Octavo, original cloth with gilt titles to the spine. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title page, “Frederick & Jane Locker from Tennyson.” Tennyson has also inscribed seven lines of verse from the original manuscript of The Cup on pages 80 and 81, inserted in the concluding speech of Synorix, “Nay, rather than to clip the flowery robe of Hymen we should add some golden fringe of gorgeousness beyond old use to make the day memorial, when Synorix, first King, Comma, first Queen o’ the snow here the richest lot from fate, to live and to die together.” In fine condition. Bookplates to the pastedown. Housed in a custom morocco and chemise case. Rare and desirable.

Regarded as the chief representative of the Victorian age of poetry, English poet and dramatist, Alfred Lord Tennyson succeeded William Wordsworth as Poet Laureate in 1850. In addition to his major works of poetry, Tennyson wrote several plays, among them his dramas Queen Mary, Harold, The Cup, and The Falcon. Heavily influenced by the strictly metered and often melancholic style of the English Romantic poets, Tennyson’s verse illustrated a mastery of rhythm and descriptive imagery drawing on both the poetic structure and content of classical myths and medieval legends.