Congreve (William)-continued. 404 A Pindarique Ode, humbly offered to the Queen on the Victorious 407 London, Jacob Tonson, 1706. Works, with Life of the Author. £2 15s £1 5s Illustrated with 11 plates of eminent actors and actresses in character, and portrait of Congreve after Kneller. 2 vols., small 8vo, full original calf. London, 1788. 16s 6d Memoirs of the Life, Writings and Amours of William Congreve, Esq., interspersed with Miscellaneous Essays, Letters, and Characters written by him, also some very curious Memoirs of Mr. Dryden and his Family, with a Character of him and his Writings by Mr. Congreve. Compiled from their respective originals by Charles Wilson. Portrait of Congreve. 8vo, original calf. London, 1730. 12s 6d 408 CONJURING. The High German Fortune-Teller. 409 Laying Down True 24 pp., 12mo, newly bound in half calf, uncut, t. e. g. £1 15s The Whole Art of Legerdemain: or Hocus Pocus in Perfection. By which any person of the meanest Capacity may perform the whole Art without a Teacher, as performed by the best Artist in the World. To which are added, Several Tricks of Cups and Balls, &c. As performed by the little Man without Hands or Feet. The Wonderful Art of Fire Eating. 1750. 24 pp., 12mo, newly bound in half calf, uncut, t. e. g. Printed and Sold at the Printing-Office in Bow-Church Yard. C. £1 15s EMBROIDERED BINDING. 410 CONTENTMENT. An Infallible Way to Contentment, In the mid'st of Publick or Personal Calamities. To which is added Encouragement against The Fear of Fire and Poverty, Evil Tidings, and Death itself. Small 8vo. A very fine example of English embroidered binding of the second half of the seventeenth century. On the upper cover is a fulllength figure of Hope, and on lower cover full-length figure of Faith, worked in coloured silks, and within arched panels of embroidered silver thread. London, 1688. £52 10s PRINTED BY PYNSON AND MIDDLETON. 411 CHRONICLES. Froissart (Sir John). Cronicles of Englande, Fraunce, Spayne, Portyngale, Scotlaude (sic), Bretayne, Flaunders, and other Black Letter, double columns, title within woodcut borders, with the Tudor Arms on reverse. 2 vols., folio. A Magnificent Copy from the Library of the Countess of Pomfret, bound in full russia, the sides completely covered with gold tooling of rows of ermine and dots, in the angles two crowned dolphins, and in centre a large monogram of the letters H. L. F. P. surmounted by a coronet (Henrietta Louisa Fermor, Countess of Pomfret), and her Book-plate in each volume. 1525. (Vol. I.) Wyllyam Myddylton, n.d. (Vol. II.) Rycharde Pynson, £85 *** A very interesting copy of this famous Chronicle. In Volume I. many of the headlines, important names, and the large capitals have been heightened with gold and colours. The Countess of Pomfret, whose copy this was, died in 1761; she was one of the Ladies of the Bedchamber to Queen Caroline, and was a friend of Horace Walpole; she was also one of the famous literary ladies of her day. FROM THE LIBRARY OF KING JAMES I. 413a COPE (Sir Anthony). A Godly Meditacion upon XX select and chosen Psalmes. Woodcut border to title, Gothic Letter. English binding by the Royal Bookbinders John and Abraham Bateman, made for King James Ï. Small 4to, brown calf, having in gold in the centre of each cover the Royal Arms surrounded by the Garter, large ornamental corner pieces and the intervening spaces thickly studded with the Tudor Rose. London, 1547 (SEE ILLUSTRATION, PLATE No. II.). £75 This handsome binding from the Library of King James I. was later in the collection of Horace Walpole and carries his bookplate. SHAKESPEARIAN JEST BOOK. 413b COPLEY (Anthony). Wits, Fits, and Fancies; or, a Generall and Serious Collection of the Sententious Speeches, Answers, Jests, and Behaviours of all Sortes of Estates from the Throane to the Cottage; newly corrected and amended with many late true and wittie accidents. Small 4to. A fine clean and tall copy, but has had a slight repair to the title, and the leaf" To the Curteous Reader" in facsimile; full red levant morocco extra, gilt leaves. London, Printed by Edw. Allde, 1614. £72 10s *** In Corser's "Collectanea Anglo-Poetica" this book is described as remarkable for its rarity, and for its being what may be styled in general terms a Shakespearian Jest Book, as two or three of its stories serve to illustrate some passages in his plays. It consists of a series of jests, stories, anecdotes, and sayings, chiefly collected from a Spanish work, La Floresta Spagnola, of which there is a French translation printed at Lyons in 1600. These stories and sayings, which, like Joe Miller's jests, are generally considered as common property, are often met with in other works, and are handed down as novelties even to our own days. One or two of these anecdotes will therefore suffice as specimens: An Italian used to say that wine hath these two discommodities with it if you put water into it, you marre it; and if you put none in, you marre your selfe. The Dutchman useth to say, that eating is not any whit necessarie, other then in as much as it procureth a man to drinke and talke. A gentleman using to dine often with the Maior of London, on a time brought his friend with him, saying, "My Lord, heer I am come, a bold guest of yours againe, and have brought my shadow with me." The Maior welcomed him and his shadow. Within a while after he came againe to dinner to him, and brought two companions with him to whom the Maior said: "Sir, you be hartily welcome: but I pray you tel me, Do you not think it is a monstrous thing, for one body to have two shadowes?" : That Shakespeare was acquainted with this curious book, and made use of it occasionally, has been shewn by Malone and Douce. The latter, noticing the direction in Hamlet," Enter the players with recorders," which were supposed to be flutes (Continued over) Copley (Anthony)-continued. or small pipes, quotes the following story from Copley's work, shewing that the pipe and recorder were different: - A merie recorder of London (supposed to be Fleetwood) mistaking the name of one Pepper, call'd him Piper: whereunto the partie excepting, and saying, Sir, you mistake, my name is Pepper, not Piper; hee answered: Why, what difference is there (I pray thee) between Piper in Latin, and Pepper in English: is it not all one? No, Sir (reply'd the other), there is even as much difference betweene them, as is betweene a Pipe and a Recorder. Mr. Collier_also has noticed some instances from the second part of Henry IV., 'Love's Labour Lost," "Twelfth Night,' etc. 414 CORBET (John). The Epistle Congratulatory of Lysimachus Nicanor of the Society of Jesu to the Covenanters in Scotland. Hastily gobled up in Five Moneths travells in France, Savoy, Italy, Rhetia commonly called the Grison's Country, Helvetia, alias Switzerland, some parts of high Germany and the Netherlands, newly digested in the hungry aire of Ŏdcombe in the County of Somerset and now dispersed to the nourishment of the travelling Members of this Kingdome. Engraved title, in compartments, by W. Hole (together with the Printed Title), and other illustrations. FIRST EDITION. Small 4to. A very fine copy bound by Bedford in full levant morocco gilt, g. e. London, 1611. £87 10s "The Book seems to have had a large sale. In fact it was the first, and for long remained the only, handbook for continental travel, and though the grotesque collection of Commendatory verses went far to get for the work a character which it did not deserve, of being only a piece of buffoonery from beginning to end, it is quite plain that there were those who soon got to see its value."-D.N.B. 417 COTGRAVE (Randle). A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues. Elaborate woodcut border to title. FIRST EDITION. Folio. Fine copy in full calf antique. £8 10s Of Shakesperian interest. Cited by Douce, who described it as the best repertory of old French extant, in his "Illustrations" of Measure for Measure, Love's Labour Lost, and King Henry IV., Parts I. and II. |