Scarronnides: or, Virgile travestie. : A mock-poem. In imitation of the fourth book of Virgils Aeneis in English, burlesque. Imprimatur, Roger L'estrange.
1665
Items
Details
Title
Scarronnides: or, Virgile travestie. : A mock-poem. In imitation of the fourth book of Virgils Aeneis in English, burlesque. Imprimatur, Roger L'estrange.
Created/published
London : Printed by E. Cotes for Henry Brome at the Gun in Ivy-lane, 1665.
Description
[6], 149, 151-156, [3] p. : ill. ; (8vo)
Associated name
Cotton, Charles, 1630-1687, author.
Virgil. Aeneis. Liber 4.
Virgil. Aeneis. Liber 4.
Note
Anonymous. By Charles Cotton.
In verse.
The last leaf bears a rebus of Henry Brome on recto.
In verse.
The last leaf bears a rebus of Henry Brome on recto.
Source of acquisition
hldg 506141
Cited/described in
Wing, D.G. Short-title catalogue of books printed in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and British America, and of English books printed in other countries, 1641-1700 (2nd ed.), C6392
English short title catalogue (ESTC), R2518
English short title catalogue (ESTC), R2518
Genre/form
Privileges (permissions)
Place of creation/publication
Great Britain -- England -- London.
Item Details
Call number
C6392 Bd.w. C6391
Folger-specific note
8.1.46. -2 p.l. Provenance: front flyleaf stamped: "Sheppard 12"
Call number
FAST ACC 271709 (quarto)
Folger-specific note
Bound with Bib 357920 Purchase made possible by The Elizabeth L. Cabot Acquisitions Fund. From dealer's description: "Two parts in one volume, small 8vo, pp. [iv], 67, [1]; [ii], 156, [1] advertisements, [1] bookseller’s device; short tear in inner margin of first title page (not affecting text or image); without the two leaves immediately after the title page in the second part (containing commendatory verses), possibly cancelled (see below); bound in eighteenth century half sheep over marbled boards, red morocco label, a little rubbed but very sound." From dealer's description: "Exceptionally rare early edition of the first part of Cotton’s Scarronnides. The first part, an imitation (or travesty) of Aeneid book I, was first published in 1664: it takes its title from the French writer Paul Scarron (1610-60), author of Virgile Travesti (also a burlesque of the Aeneid), published in 1648-53. Cotton’s work was a success, with three editions in the first year: Hartle designates these 1664A, 1664B and 1664C. The second and third are completely reset, so they are each new editions, not issues. Cotton’s imitation of book IV followed in 1665, and it seems clear that the following year Henry Brome decided that an edition of both parts would sell well, if he combined a reprint of book I with the unsold sheets of the first edition of book IV. This volume is the result: a general title page advertising both parts, dated 1666, followed by the text of book I, and then the original edition of the second part. This new edition of part I is set unleaded, so that the text which occupied 112 pages in the 1664 editions only occupies a little more than half that in this cheaper-looking edition. Part II is, of course, the same book as appeared in 1665, but there is one difference: two additional unsigned leaves came immediately after the title page, carrying prefatory verses by ‘W.B.’ beginning ‘Tell us how he by her command’, are no longer present. It seems quite possible they were cancelled deliberately in this reissue, as they do not reappear in subsequent editions – although it would seem that they do survive in the only other located copy of this combined edition, at the New York Public Library. Not in Wing or ESTC, whose first combined edition is dated 1667: that edition is of a different setting, with part I ending on p. 62 (not p. 67, as here). Wing and ESTC both record a supposed edition of part II printed by Cotes for Brome in 1666 (Wing C6392A), but only in two copies, at the Bodleian and Illinois, and neither of those copies can be located: the record is probably a ghost. The only other copy of this combined edition I have been able to find is at the New York Public Library, a copy which belonged to the Duke of Bedford, and then to Philip Bliss and the angling bibliographer Thomas Westwood. The present copy is described in some detail by Paul Hartle (who then owned it) in his edition of Cotton’s poetry (Oxford, 2017, I pp. lxxxiv-lxxxv). Hartle is in error in identifying this edition with the entry for Wing C6392A: that edition, although dated 1666, is clearly meant to be a new edition of part II (i.e. Aeneid IV), not a combined edition like this one." Copy 2 Ordered from Christopher Edwards D9340, 2019-08-26, email quote.