Lays of Ancient Rome with Ivry and the Armada.

MACAULAY, Thomas B.

$375.00

Item Number: 139726

London: Longmans, Green, and Co, 1882.

Finely bound example of Macaulay’s classic work. Octavo, bound in full polished calf for The Grammar Schools of Wallingford with a morocco spine label lettered in gilt, central gilt insignia to the front panel, marbled endpapers, all edges red, illustrated title page. In good condition.

The Lays were composed by Macaulay in his thirties, during his spare time while he was the "legal member" of the Governor-General of India's Supreme Council from 1834 to 1838. He later wrote of them: "The plan occurred to me in the jungle at the foot of the Neilgherry hills; and most of the verses were made during a dreary sojourn at Ootacamund and a disagreeable voyage in the Bay of Bengal." The Roman ballads are preceded by brief introductions, discussing the legends from a scholarly perspective. Macaulay explains that his intention was to write poems resembling those that might have been sung in ancient times. The Lays were first published by Longman in 1842. They became immensely popular, and were a regular subject of recitation, then a common pastime. The Lays were standard reading in British public schools for more than a century. Winston Churchill memorized them while at Harrow School, in order to show that he was capable of mental prodigies, notwithstanding his lackluster academic performance.