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Tag Archives: William Shakespeare

Banned! — Letters Concerning the English Nation

26 Wednesday Sep 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Uncategorized

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Alexander Pope, Amsterdam, Bastille, British, Drake Stillman, England, English, Enlightenment, France, Francis Bacon, French, French Parliament, Galileo, Isaac Newton, Italian, John Locke, John Lockman, John Milton, Jonathan Swift, letters, London, Pennsylvania, Quakers, rare books, Roman Catholic Church, tail pieces, University of Toronto, vignettes, Voltaire, William Bowyer, William Penn, William Shakespeare


“The great Freedom with which Mr. de Voltaire delivers himself in his various Observations, cannot give him any Apprehensions of their being less favourably receiv’d upon that Account, by a judicious People who abhor flattery. The English are pleas’d to have their Faults pointed out to them, because this shews at the same Time, that the Writer is able to distinguish their merit.”

Letters Concerning the English Nation…
Voltaire (1694-1778)
London: Printed for C. Davis…and A. Lyon…, 1733
First edition
PQ2086 L4 E5 1733

Voltaire (nee François-Marie Arouet) fled to England after arguing with powerful French political figures. During his exile, from 1726 to 1728, he learned English, reading the works of William Shakespeare, John Milton, Isaac Newton, and Francis Bacon; and met other British authors such as Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift. The British embraced Voltaire as a victim of France’s political discrimination.

In Letters, Voltaire, with the works of John Locke and Enlightenment authors as his basis, wrote a slur against the French government and the French Roman Catholic Church, calling for political and religious reform. Letters was translated from French into English by John Lockman from a manuscript prepared by Voltaire.

Voltaire wrote about Isaac Newton and his theories in four of the letters. He told the story of the falling apple as the impetus for Newton’s theorem of the law of gravity, the first time this anecdote was told in print.


“…as he was walking one Day in his Garden, and saw some Fruits fall from a Tree, he fell into a profound Meditation on that Gravity, the Cause of which has so long been sought, but in vain, by all the Philosophers, whilst the Vulgar think there is nothing mysterious in it. He said to himself, that from what height soever, in our Hemisphre, those Bodies might descend…Why may not this Power which causes heavy Bodies to descend, and is the same without any sensible Diminution at the remostest Distance from the Center of the Earth, or on the Summits of the highest Mountains; Why, said Sir Isaac, may not this power extend as high as the Moon?”

Voltaire also wrote about William Penn and the founding of Pennsylvania as a haven for Quakers.


About this time arose the illustrious William Pen, who establish’d the power of the Quakers in America, and would have made them appear venerable in the eyes of the Europeans, were it possible for mankind to respect virtue, when reveal’d in a ridiculous light…Pen set sail for his new dominions with two ships freighted with Quakers, who follow’d his fortune. The country was then call’d Pensilvania from William Pen, who there founded Philadelphia, now the most flourishing city in that country.”

Letters was published in French in Amsterdam in 1734. It was immediately condemned by the French Parliament. Copies that made it into France were confiscated and burned. A warrant was issued for Voltaire’s arrest. The printer was imprisoned in the Bastille. At the same time, it was a bestseller in England, going through several more editions during the eighteenth century.

It is likely that this English edition was printed by William Bowyer (1699-1777), as the ornaments (the title vignette and tail-pieces) are those used in other of his imprints.

Rare Books copy has the bookplate of Drake Stillman (1910-1993), an emeritus professor of the history of science at the University of Toronto. He published many translations of the works of Galileo and other sixteenth century Italian scientists.

Recommended reading:
Galileo at Work: His Scientific Biography
Stillman Drake
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978
QB36 G2 D69, L1

Telescopes, Tides, and Tactics: A Galilean Dialogue about The Starry Messenger and Systems of the World
Stillman Drake
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983
QB41 G178 D7 1983, L1

Galileo: Pioneer Scientist
Stillman Drake
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990
QB36 G23 D67 1990, L1

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On Jon’s Desk: The Generall Historie of the Turkes, a beautiful book linking the past and the present

29 Wednesday Mar 2017

Posted by Jonathan Bingham in On Jon's Desk

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Adam Islip, Benjamin Heywood Bright, Christian, Constantinople, European, Harold Greenhill, Jean Jacque Boissard, Jon Bingham, Laurence Johnson, London, Lord Byron, Middle East, Muslim, Ottoman Empire, Richard Knolles, Samuel Johnson, Scott Beadles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes, Vitae et Icons Sultanorum, William Shakespeare

 

photograph by Scott Beadles

photograph by Scott Beadles

“What small assurance there is in mens affaires, and how subject unto change even those things are wherein we for the most part repose our greatest felicitie and blisse, (beside that the whole course of mans fraile life, by many notable examples well declareth) nothing doth more plainely manifest the same, than the heavie events and wofull destructions of the greatest kingdomes and empires: which founded upon great fortunes, increased with perpetuall successe, exalted by exceeding power, established with most puissant armies, wholesome lawes, and deepe counsel; have yet grown old, and in time come to naught.”

– Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes

Title: The Generall Historie of the Turkes, from The first beginning of that Nation to the rising of the Ottoman Familie: with all the notable expeditions of the Christian Princes against them

Author: Richard Knolles

Printed: London, by Adam Islip, 1603

First Edition

Call Number: DR439 K74 1603

Title page of The Generall Historie of the Turkes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are so many books in the world. They come in all shapes and sizes. Some people like bright, new books. Others like old, worn books. As much as I would like to say that I love all books I have to confess that books with a little experience draw me in more. They feel tried and tested to me. The best books in my book are those with at least a couple of centuries behind them. With that in mind you will understand the enchantment I have found myself under recently with a most wonderfully old book. It is a marvelous specimen from the early 17th century.

Printed in London by Adam Islip (d. 1639), this book was bound in brown calf leather, which must have been rich and sensual to the touch earlier in its life. The book now wears this leather like armor that has seen some tough days on the battlefield. Somehow, despite the cracks where the boards meet the spine, it is still elegant. Although the slightly decaying leather may leave a minor brown smudge on an unsuspecting viewer’s shirt, the outer accoutrements remain steadfast in their dual missions of beauty and protection. The front and rear covers offer to the viewer a framed pattern blind-stamped into the leather.

photograph by Scott Beadles

Along the spine large raised bands fit perfectly in the hand, but more importantly, these bands are the anchors for a hand-sewn binding that has lasted for centuries. Lifting the front cover, the board is heavy; not just a little heavy, but seriously heavy. Lifting the front board is like lifting a draw bridge. It is a reminder that this cover protects something worth protecting and warns the reader not to pass lightly.

The book itself is also heavy. Consisting of 1,152 pages, this book was not meant for fanciful entertainment while traveling. At approximately twenty-three centimeters wide, thirty-two tall, and eight deep, its size confirms that this book is profound and consequential. The reader opens to the title page and finds there an elaborate copper-plate engraving, drawing him in. We have Laurence Johnson (“Sculpsit,” Latin for “he engraved, carved, or sculpted it”) to thank for this image, wherein we see noblemen, one on each side of the page. On the left stands a European and on the right an Ottoman Turk. The beauty of this page makes the reader want to linger, but it is quickly observed that the font on the subsequent pages is delightful and there are many more engravings to examine throughout the book.

Dedication page of The Generall Historie of the Turkes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As the reader opens this book the smell of it cascades gently over him or her. It is not an unpleasant smell, despite the book’s age. Rather, it is a wonderful smell. It is the smell of leather and paper that have soaked in their surroundings for four hundred years. This book has a clean mustiness that tells the story of owners who have lovingly cared for it through the long years since its printing.

The University of Utah’s copy was part of the Benjamin Heywood Bright library, which was auctioned by Sotheby’s in 1845. Bright, who became a well-known antiquarian and authority on Shakespeare, began collecting around 1809. Sometime in the 19th century, the copy became the property of Harold Greenhill, as evidenced by his bookplate.

Book plate present in The Generall Historie of the Turkes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just as the physical features of this book indicate, the subject matter is a weighty one. Written by Richard Knolles in the last decade of the 16th century, The Generall Historie of the Turkes is recognized as a major historical treatise. Written in English rather than the more scholarly and academically accepted Latin, the treatise consists of a compendium of accounts by historians in the 14th through 16th centuries. Like most European historians of the day, Knolles relied on earlier European works for his information and much of his viewpoint. He relied most heavily on Jean Jacques Boissard’s Vitae et icons sultanorum (1596), from which were copied twenty-eight engraved portraits of Turkish sultans, their wives, and European kings.

Copper plate engraving illustration of Turkish Sultan and Sultaness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Knolles strongly edited the accounts, however, which resulted in the reader fully experiencing a propagandist diatribe throughout. The fact that Knolles chose to publish the work in English rather than Latin is noteworthy. It suggests the intent to reach a large audience and to sway public opinion. Due to the work’s role as a propaganda device it was important for common people to be able to understand it. The treatise was indeed influential. Later writers, such as Samuel Johnson and Lord Byron, read and commented on Knolles’ work. It is also widely accepted that The Generall Historie of the Turkes influenced Shakespeare’s writing.

Knolles’ Generall Historie was certainly a success, running through new editions seven times between 1603 and 1701, most with varying additions and abridgements. The first edition probably consisted of between 1250 and 1500 copies, the maximum number of copies allowed by a 1587 regulation.

The text itself, twelve years in the writing, demonstrates British animosity towards Islam. For example, author Richard Knolles refers to Muslims as “slothing and effeminate.” Knolles wrote this work to acquaint English Christians with an enemy. His demonization of the Turks made this hostility a religious struggle as much as a struggle for world position and power. During the 16th century, more works regarding the Ottoman Turks were written than on the “New World.”

Image of opening lines of The Generall Historie of the Turkes.

 

 

 

 

History repeats itself. However, each generation, I would hazard to generalize, feels as if it is forging ahead into uncharted territory. If a person (a pesky historian or even a curator of rare books) were to point out a historical example which perhaps might support an argument regarding the nature of history and its cycles, others may be quick to point to all the ways in which current events differ from those contained in the historical example. The Generall Historie of the Turkes is a marvelous portal which allows us to view how many of the modern western world’s most difficult issues were being treated at the turn of the 17th century.

In 1453 Constantinople, the capital city and last hold-out of the Eastern Roman Empire, fell to the Ottoman Empire. To put it mildly, this did not please the western Europeans. To turn this into an almost unforgivably simple tale, the Westerners (predominantly Christian) traveled to the Near East (what we now often refer to as the Middle East) and began to carve out little kingdoms for themselves. Religion played an important role in the impetus for these actions. Some may claim that today the impetus is oil, but religion or oil makes not a lot of difference in the grand scheme of things. The bottom line is, westerners (Europeans) showed up in the Near East and started telling the local people how things would run. Naturally, this (then as it is now) was hard for the local people to accept, so they pushed back. In the 15th century they pushed back right into Europe. In the 21st century it is no different. These two cultures have clashed repeatedly over centuries, and so it is that a four hundred year old book acts as a portal that looks suspiciously like a mirror.

I love that the physical attributes and the subject matter of this book are so at odds. This finely crafted, beautiful book is the physical medium of an aggressive topic. History is anything but pretty, yet the books (at least in this case) containing it can be. Perhaps that is not without intention. It just goes to show, you can’t judge a book by its cover.

~ Contributed by Jon Bingham, Rare Books Curator

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Now is the night one blue dew.

26 Sunday Mar 2017

Posted by rarebooks in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

American History Printing Association, antiquarian, booksellers, Carol Sandberg, Carolee Campbell, cousins, Essex House Press, Fairfax, floriated initials, Gaylord Schanilec, Jack Stauffacher, James Agee, Jerry Kelly, John Keats, Joni Kay Miller, Kathleen Thompson, London, Los Angeles, Luise Putcamp jr, Melrose, Michael R. Thompson Rare Books, Michael Thompson, Mississippi, music, poems, poetry, poets, Robin Price, Rover Art Books, Third, Universal Books, vellum, Walter de la Mare, William Shakespeare, Zeitlin & Van Brugge

PS3501-G35-H3-1964-cover

“…do not grieve;
She cannot fade, though thou has not thy bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!”
— John Keats from Ode on a Grecian Urn

In Memoriam — Kathleen Thompson

Kathleen Thompson of Michael R. Thompson Rare Books worked for several Los Angeles antiquarian booksellers, including Universal Books, Royer Art Books, and Zeitlin & Ver Brugge, before entering into a partnership with her husband, Michael Thompson, and Carol Sandberg in 1985. Hers was often the first face one encountered when visiting their shops on Melrose, Fairfax, and Third. We remember Kathleen for her warmth, sense of humor, thoughtfulness, and intelligence.

I had the pleasure of many conversations with Kathleen over the phone and by email. I will miss her soft Mississippi meter, which, thank goodness, she never did lose, even though she swore she had. We wrote to each other about cousins, music, poets and poems. Here are a few of her favorites.

PR2841-A2-E55-pg153
THE POEMS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
London: Essex House Press, 1899
PR2841 A2 E55

Printed in black and red. Illustrated with floriated initials and one full-page drawing. Bound in vellum with ties. Edition of four hundred and fifty copies. Rare Books copy is no. 274.


Z250-V47-2006-3panel
VERSE INTO TYPE THE APHA POETRY PORTFOLIO
American Printing History Association
S. l.: American Printing History Association, 2006
Z250 V47 2006

Seventeen gatherings contributed by fifteen different presses in a variety of typefaces, colors, formats, papers, all letterpress printed, some illustrated. Contributors include Carolee Campbell, Jerry Kelly, Robin Price, Gaylord Schanilec, Jack Stauffacher, and others. Issued in blue cloth clamshell box with paper label. Edition of two hundred copies.


And this from Walter de la Mare:

All That’s Past

Very old are the woods;
And the buds that break
Out of the brier’s boughs,
When March winds wake,
So old with their beauty are–
Oh, no man knows
Through what wild centuries
Roves back the rose.
Very old are the brooks;
And the rills that rise
Where snow sleeps cold beneath
The azure skies
Sing such a history
Of come and gone,
Their every drop is as wise
As Solomon.

Very old are we men;
Our dreams are tales
Told in dim Eden
By Eve’s nightingales;
We wake and whisper awhile,
But, the day gone by,
Silence and sleep like fields
Of amaranth lie.

PR1309-C485-N85-1925-CoverPattern


And this from James Agee:

Knoxville: Summer of 1915

(We are talking now of summer evenings in Knoxville Tennessee in that time that I lived there so successfully disguised to myself as a child.)

…It has become that time of evening when people sit on their porches, rocking gently and talking gently and watching the street and the standing up into their sphere of possession of the trees, of birds’ hung havens, hangars. People go by; things go by. A horse, drawing a buggy, breaking his hollow iron music on the asphalt; a loud auto; a quiet auto; people in pairs, not in a hurry, scuffling, switching their weight of aestival body, talking casually, the taste hovering over them of vanilla, strawberry, pasteboard and starched milk, the image upon them of lovers and horsemen, squared with clowns in hueless amber.

A streetcar raising its iron moan; stopping, belling and starting; stertorous; rousing and raising again its iron increasing moan and swimming its gold windows and straw seats on past and past and past, the bleak spark crackling and cursing above it like a small malignant spirit set to dog its tracks; the iron whine rises on rising speed; still risen, faints; halts; the faint stinging bell; rises again, still fainter, fainting, lifting, lifts, faints foregone: forgotten. Now is the night one blue dew.

PS3501-G35-H3-1964-cover


And this from the aunt of Kathleen’s “dearest old friend,” Joni Kay Miller (1945-2017):

It is peculiar mercy none can find
In this lost time where only losers dwell
Who lose the most, the ones who left behind
Wisdom and love and never knew them well
Or those who know too well and as they stay
Inherit silence and the vacant day.
— Luise Putcamp jr.


And I had the honor of being called by Kathleen “a kindred spirit, too.”
— Luise Poulton


Memory eternal!

PS3501-G35-H3-1964-cover(feature)

26 March 2017

Friends Gather for Kathleen, 26 March 2017

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Book of the Week — Duet

17 Monday Oct 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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"Your Cheatin' Heart", Acuff Rose Music, California, Daisy Dern, Fairfax, Hank Williams, Jungle Garden Press, Marie Dern, Mariken Panbloom, sonnet, William Shakespeare

n7433-4-d45-d84-1993-cover

n7433-4-d45-d84-1993-title

Past cure I am, now Reason is past care,
And frantic-mad with evermore unrest;
My thoughts and my discourse as madmen’s are,
At random from the truth vainly expressed;
For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright,
Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.
— William Shakespeare

Duet
Marie C. Dern
Fairfax, CA: Jungle Garden Press, 1993
N7433.4 D45 D84 1993

A book made for the artist’s daughter, Daisy, a country singer, who grew up on Hank Williams’ songs. Text is “Your Cheatin’ Heart” by Hank Williams and sonnet CXLVII by William Shakespeare. Music is hand drawn by Mariken Panbloom. Edition of three copies, as per agreement with Acuff Rose Music, holder of the copyright of the song. Rare Books copy is no. 2.

n7433-4-d45-d84-1993-cheatinheart

n7433-4-d45-d84-1993-franticmad

Shakespeare is here! The First Folio is at the City Library!

Happy Birthday, Marie!

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ذکری شکسپير

27 Wednesday Apr 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Events

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Aḥmad Zakī Abū Shādī (1892-1955), Annie Bamford, Arab, Arabic, Arabic literature, beekeeping, Cathy Rockwell, Egypt, Egyptian, England, Khalil Mutran (1872-1949), London, Marriott Library, National Poetry Month, physician, poet, Poetry Society, quatrain, Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, sonnet, Special Collections, United States, William Shakespeare

PJ7808-S5-D55-1926-portrait

“o Prince of Poetry”

Dhikrá Shaksipīr
Aḥmad Zakī Abū Shādī (1892-1955)
Egypt: al-Maṭbaʻah al-Salafīyah, 1926
First edition
PJ7808.S5 D55 1926

The Egyptian poet Aḥmad Zakī Abū Shādī was a man of many talents. Not only was he renowned as a poet and man of letters, he was also trained as a scientist and physician, and he was fascinated by beekeeping, founding professional beekeeping associations and publishing numerous works on the subject. Besides his native Egypt, he had connections to both England and the United States. He lived in England, where he earned his medical degree, from 1912-1922. In 1920, he married an Englishwoman, Annie Bamford, returning with her to Egypt 1922. Following her death in 1946 he emigrated to the United States, where he continued to be active in the fields of Arabic literature and beekeeping until his untimely death of a stroke in 1955. His private papers and many of his books are now housed in the Marriott Library Special Collections (Ahmed Zaki Abu Shadi papers, 1892-1955).

Among such books is “Dhikrá Shaksipīr,” whose title translates as “Remembrance of Shakespeare.” In his introduction, Abu Shadi explains that it is a collection of three poems that he composed at the invitation of the Poetry Society in London to celebrate the eventual reopening of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre that had burned down in 1926. He says that the Society had invited poets from around the world to participate in this. Based on the Society’s guidelines, the three poems are: A sonnet ; a quatrain suitable for posting on the wall of the Theatre ; and an unrestricted poem. This last one is a long ode in traditional Arabic poetic style in praise of Shakespeare.

In his introduction, Abu Shadi concludes with the statement that he is having this work privately published [in Egypt] to make it more accessible to the Arab reader. He laments that Arabic speakers who do not know English are missing out on Shakespearian literature, and he urges that they search out and read Arabic translations of Shakespeare’s works, and recommends in particular those done by the Egytian poet Khalil Mutran (1872-1949).

PJ7808-S5-D55-1926-title
PJ7808-S5-D55-1926-quatrain
“Diverse minds that tell of your guiding light humbly approached you, o Prince of Poetry
For the Theatre, despite its burning, due to your unique spirit remains a marvelous achievement for all eternity
Look, then, at the thousands gathered, whether in body or in spirit
They listen to great wisdome, sanctify8ing in you your genius; thus finding the good fortune of those who adore.”

Contribution and translation by Cathy Rockwell, Special Collections Middle East Cataloger

Shakespeare is coming! The First Folio will arrive at the City Library in October.

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You are invited! — Sixth Annual Book Collector’s Evening

09 Wednesday Mar 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Events

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Alta Club, Book Collectors' Evening, Essex House Press, First Folio, J. Willard Marriott Library, Judy Jarrow, Oregon, Paul Collins, poems, Portland, Portland State University, rare books, Salt Lake City, Sixth Annual Book Collector's Evening, University of Utah, Utah, William Shakespeare

"S" copy

image from “The Poems of William Shakespeare, According to the Text of the Original Copies, Including the Lyrics, Songs, and Snatches Found in His Dramas,” Essex House Press, 1899 PR2841 A2 E55, Rare Books

You are invited to join the University of Utah’s Friends of the Library for its Sixth Annual Book Collector’s Evening. Keynote speaker this year is Paul Collins, author of Book of William: How Shakespeare’s First Folio Conquered the World.”

Paul Collins

“From the Bottom of the Sea to the Great Salt Lake: The Many Lives and Deaths of Shakespeare’s First Folio”
Shakespeare’s First Folio of 1623 is a unique work: the sole edition edited by those who actually knew and worked with the playwright. Yet for its first century, it was simply another used book in bookseller stalls. The stories of individual copies are the story of books themselves: of volumes lost through shipwreck and fire, of copies scribbled on by children and stored in bank vaults, and of a cultural heritage read and gazed upon by millions. This is the story of these volumes — where they live, how they sometimes die, and their unlikely route to literary immortality.

Collins300dpi

Paul Collins is a writer specializing in history, memoir, and unusual antiquarian literature. His nine books have been translated into eleven languages, and include The Book of William: How Shakespeare’s First Folio Conquered the World (2009) and Edgar Allan Poe: The Fever Called Living (2014). Collins’s recent work includes pieces for the New Yorker, Lapham’s Quarterly, and New Scientist. In addition to appearances on NPR’s Weekend Edition as its “literary detective,” he is also the editor of the Collins Library imprint of McSweeney’s Books.
Collins lives in Portland, Oregon, where he is Professor and Chair of English at Portland State University.

A selection of pieces from the Marriott Library’s rare book collections highlights the story. Dinner, a silent auction of wonderful books for your own library, and an opportunity to share your book collecting adventures with fellow bibliophiles await you.

Its really fun!

March 22, 2016 / 6:00PM
Alta Club
100 East South Temple
Salt Lake City, UT

For reservations contact:
Judy Jarrow by March 16, 2016 at 801-581-3421 or judy.jarrow@utah.edu
$50 per person

f

alluNeedSingleLine

Shakespeare is coming! The First Folio will arrive at the City Library in October.

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Curiosity Killed the Cat

16 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by rarebooks in Uncategorized

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Ben Jonson, Cambridge, Christmas, Church of England, E. Brewster, Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, England, English, Every Man in His Humour, G. Conyers, George Wither, H. Herringman, Henry Altemus, Horace, Innominate Press, James I, Kentucky, London, Louisville, M. Wotton, Much Ado About Nothing, Philadelphia, R. Chiswell, Robert Allot, T. Bassett, The New Inn, Thomas Cotes, Thomas Hodgkin, Trinity Hall, William Shakespeare


“Helter skelter, hang sorrow, care’ll kill a Cat, up-tails all, and a Louse for the Hangman.”

THE WORKS OF BEN JONSON WHICH WERE FORMERLY PRINTED IN TWO VOLUMES…
Ben Jonson (1573?-1637)
London: Printed by Thomas Hodgkin for H. Herringman, E. Brewster, T. Bassett, R. Chiswell, M. Wotton, G. Conyers, MDCXCII
Third folio

The Works of Ben Jonson was first published in 1616 in folio. It was reprinted in 1640. Both of these editions appeared in two volumes. This, the third folio, is the first Works to appear in one volume. The 1692 edition includes a comedy, “The New Inn,” appearing in the Works for the first time. Ben Jonson was a friend of William Shakespeare. In 1616, James I granted Jonson a pension, giving him a stature close to what might be termed the first Poet Laureate of England. That same year, the publication of his collected works, in folio format, helped elevate the acceptance of drama as literature. The 1692 folio contains Jonson’s plays and poetry, translations of Horace, and a collection of leges convivales, or rules of the house, used in the tavern where Jonson spent much time, this last also added to the Works for the first time. In the third folio, the “care’ll kill a Cat” line is in Act I, scene 4 of “Every Man in His Humour,” written in 1598. William Shakespeare acted in its first performance. The line in its earliest printed iteration uses the word “pox,” not “Louse.”


PR2751-A2-1632-pg-122

“What, courage man! what though care killed a cat, thou hast mettle enough in thee to kill care.”

[MR. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S COMEDIES, HISTORIES, AND TRAGEDIES: PUBLISHED…]
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
London: Printed by Tho. Cotes for Robert Allot, 1632
“The second impression”

About one year after Jonson wrote and produced “Every Man in His Humour,” William Shakespeare used a similar quote in his play, “Much Ado About Nothing.”



“Care killed the Cat. It is said that ‘a cat has nine lives,’ yet care would wear them all out.”

DICTIONARY OF PHRASE AND FABLE: GIVING THE DERIVATION, SOURCE, OR ORIGIN OF…
Ebenezer Cobham Brewer (1810-1897)
Philadelphia: Henry Altemus Co., 1898
New ed., rev., corrected, and enl., to which is added a concise bibliography of English literature
“Altemus edition”

Ebenezer Cobham Brewer attended Trinity Hall, Cambridge where he received his degree in law in 1835. He was ordained as a reverend in the Church of England in 1838. In 1856, he began putting together his “dictionary of phrase and fable.” Among many sources, he used correspondence with readers of his previous work, Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar (1841). Dictionary was first published in 1870, with a first revised edition in 1894. The work became so well-known that it is referred to simply as “Brewer.”

Since we are as curious as cats, here are a few more cat references from “Brewer:”

Cat I’ the Adage (The). The adage referred to is, the cat loves fish, but does not like to wet her paws.
– Letting I dare not wait upon I would,
Like the poor cat I’ the adage
Shakespeare, Macbeth [Shakespeare, again!]

Cat Proverbs.
A cat has nine lives. A cat is more tenacious of life than other animals, because it generally lights upon its feet.


And one more makes nine:


A CHRISTMAS CAROL

George Wither
Louisville, KY: Innominate Press, 1971
PR2392 .C4 1971

Shakespeare is coming! The First Folio will arrive at the City Library in October.

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Book of the Week – Scenes from the Winter’s Tale

16 Monday Dec 2013

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Ancient Spanish Ballads, chromolithographs, Henry Warren, Owen Jones, The Grammar of Ornament, William Shakespeare

Shakespeare, Scenes from the Winter’s Tale, 1866, Title
Shakespeare, Scenes from the Winter’s Tale, 1866, Act I Scene II
Shakespeare, Scenes from the Winter’s Tale, 1866, Act IV Scene IV

Scenes from the Winter’s Tale
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
London: Day and Son, 1866
PR2883 S28 1866

This is the first edition of this pictorial retelling of Shakespeare’s stylized play set in ancient Greece. Both text and illustration were designed as a single entity by Owen Jones, united by the use of one color scheme and type of ornament on each two-page spread. The decorative motifs used are derived from historical styles illustrated in Jones’ The Grammar of Ornament. This book is illustrated with forty-eight chromolithographs, illuminated by Owen Jones over figures by Henry Warren. Jones and Warren began their collaboration in 1841 with Ancient Spanish Ballads (1841). The books they worked on together provide an integration of ornament, drawn text, and illustrated figure unique in the history of printing.

Text and facing illustrations are set in broad decorative borders. Bound in publisher’s brown cloth. Front cover is blocked in gold, with elaborate borders in red and purple and central gilt illustration of a flowering plant; the same decoration is repeated in blind on the back cover. Title is gilt on spine, with added decoration. All edges gilt.

Shakespeare is coming! The First Folio will arrive at the City Library in October.

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Book of the Week – The First and Second Volumes of Chronicles

28 Monday Jan 2013

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black letter, Rafael Holinshead, type, William Shakespeare

Cover, 1587
Title Page, 1587
Introduction to the History of Ireland, 1587


The First and Second Volumes of Chronicles
Raphael Holinshead (d. 1580?)
London: 1587
Second edition
DA130 H6 1587

A monumental history of England, Ireland, and Scotland, the profusely illustrated first edition of Chronicles was published in 1577. The second, enlarged edition was published in 1587. It is in three folio volumes (usually bound as two). The type is black letter in double columns. The pages are standard folio size, and the second edition is without illustrations. The text runs to about 3.5 million words, roughly equal to the total of the Authorized Version of the Bible, the complete dramatic works of Shakespeare, Boswell’s Life of Johnson, and War and Peace combined. The Chronicles are remembered not for themselves but for one of their readers – William Shakespeare.

The Chronicles were an important source for thirteen of Shakespeare’s thirty-seven plays. It was the 1587, second edition which Shakespeare read.

Engraved title-pages. Rebound ca. 1982 in a full conservation binding of modern three-quarter levant and unbleached linen. Geometric blind stamping to leather spine and corner pieces. Title hand tooled on spine in gilt.

Shakespeare is coming! The First Folio will arrive at the City Library in October.

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