Hudibras, In Three Parts, Written in the Time of The Late Wars: Corrected and Amended. With Large Annotations, and a Preface, by Zachary Grey, L.L.D. Adorn’d with a new Set of Cuts.

BUTLER, Samuel.

$375.00

Item Number: 130125

Cambridge: Printed by J. Bentham, Printer to the University, for W. Innys, A. Ward, Mess. J. and P. Knapton, D. Browne, S. Birt, et al, 1744.

18th century large annotated edition of Butler’s acclaimed mock romance, the “best edition” according to Lowndes. Octavo, two volumes bound in full calf with red morocco spine labels lettered in gilt, gilt turn-ins illustrated with 16 engraved plates by J. Mynde after William Hogarth including frontispiece portrait of Butler to Vol. I., errata, index, and list of subscribers. In very good condition. Rebacked. Bookplates and ownership inscriptions. Exceptionally clean internally.

Published in the aftermath of the English Civil War, Samuel Butler's Hudibras is a scathing satire of Puritanism and the Parliamentarian cause from a Royalist perspective. “The poem is of considerable length, extending to more than 10,000 verses, yet Hazlitt hardly exaggerates when he says that ‘half the lines are got by heart’; indeed a diligent student of later English literature has read great part of Hudibras though he may never have opened its pages” (Britannica). Voltaire, who translated a condensed version of the poem into French, noted that “there is one English Poem, the title whereof is Hudibras; it is Don Quixote; it is our Satyre Menippee blended together: I never met with so much wit in one single book as this.” Hogarth's engravings first appeared in the 1726 edition, but this is called by Lowndes the "Best edition. Copies in fine condition are in considerable request. The cuts are beautifully engraved by Hogarth" (Lowndes p. 335).