Beaumont (Francis) and Fletcher (John)—continued.

Originall Copies

Gentlemen

Si quid habent veri Vatum praesagia, vivam.
London

Printed for Humphrey Robinson, at the three Pidgeons, and for
Humphrey Moseley at the Princes Armes in St. Pauls
Church Yard 1647.

THE FIRST EDITION, with the beautiful portrait engraved by
Marshall.

Folio, old calf.

London, 1647.

£75

99

***Edited by the poet Shirley. It is dedicated to Philip Earl of Pembroke, and the publishers remind Lord Pembroke that the works of the then expired Sweet Swan

of Avon Shakespeare" were also dedicated to him. There are probably no two books so frequently quoted from the various Shakespeare commentators as the folio Beaumont and Fletcher and the folio Ben Jonson. (No. 954 of this Catalogue.)

Shakespeare is eulogised in the commendatory verses by Denham, Howell, Buck, Cartwright, and Birkenhead.

"The dramas of Beaumont and Fletcher stand higher than those even of Ben Jonson, and, of all the dramatic writings of that day, come nearest to the magic circle which encloses Shakespeare. Their wonderful knowledge of stage effect doubtless helped their popularity. At the same time, they abound in striking beauties, both of thought and language, and the general tone of their works is of an elevating character."

FIRST ILLUSTRATED EDITION.

The Works of Mr. Francis Beaumont and Mr. John Fletcher; in Seven Volumes.

Revis'd and Corrected: With some Account of the Life and Writings of the Authors, and adorned with Cuts.

A LARGE PAPER COPY OF THE FIRST SVO (AND FIRST ILLUSTRATED) EDITION, adorned with portraits of Beaumont and Fletcher, and a plate to each Play.

7 vols., royal 8vo, original calf.

London, Printed for Jacob Tonson, 1711.

£14 14s

Beaumont (Francis) and Fletcher (John)-continued.

100

Works. In Ten Volumes. Collated with all the former Editions, and Corrected.

With Notes Critical and Explanatory by the late Mr. Theobald, Mr. Seward of Eyam in Derbyshire, and Mr. Sympson of Gainsborough. 2 portraits.

10 vols., 8vo. Fine Copy in original calf.

London, Printed for J. and R. Tonson and S. Draper in the Strand, 1750. £5 5s 101 BECKFORD (Wm.). Recollections of an Excursion to the Monasteries of Alcobaca and Batalha: by the Author of Vathek.'

FIRST EDITION. Portrait. 8vo, calf gilt. London, 1835. 8s 6d

102 BEHN (Mrs. Aphra). A Pindarick Poem on the Happy Coronation of his most Sacred Majesty James II. and his illustrious Consort Queen Mary. FIRST EDITION. Folio, new boards. London, 1685. £2 10s

(One or two bottom lines touched by the binder.)

BY THE FIRST PRINTER AT NORWICH, ENGLAND. 103 BELIJDENISSE ende eenvoudige wtlegginge des waerachtigen gheloofs in Switzerlant.

Small 8vo, vellum.

Anno 1568. Gheprint tot Nordwitz by Antonium Solemne. (Norwich, 1568.)

£34

*** This is one of, if not the first book printed at Norwich. It is "A CONFESSION OF FAITH BY THE MINISTERS OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST IN SWITZERLAND AND IN FRANCE," and ours is the only copy of the book that we can trace. It formerly belonged to Lord Amherst, of Hackney, who in 1877 exhibited it in the Caxton Exhibitions.

The copy lacks two leaves (37 and 38), but is otherwise in excellent condition. Accompanying the volume is a letter of Quaritch's to Lord Amherst, dated 1876, in which he writes:

"IT SEEMS TO BE A UNIQUE COPY.

I HAVE NOT TRACED A COPY

ANYWHERE, THE VOLUME IS IN EXCELLENT CONDITION, IN THE ORI-
GINAL VELLUM WRAPPER."

Two other works (Psalms and New Testament) were printed in 1568 by this printer
at Norwich; there is no record as to which of the three actually appeared first.
"During the persecutions in the Netherlands, under the Duke of Alva, there was a
considerable influx of the inhabitants of those countries into the south-eastern parts
of England, and a great number of them found a welcome home in the city of
Norwich.

"Here settled one, Anthony de Solemne, or Solempne, introducing the art of printing, which, says Blomefield, in his History of Norfolk, was so well approved of by the city, that they presented him with his freedom.' This was in 1570, when Solemne had also obtained the Queen's authority to exercise his art."

The productions of this press are all remarkably scarce, and mostly printed by Solemne for the use of his countrymen in their own language.

104 BETTERTON (Thomas). Life, wherein the Action and Utterance of the Stage, Bar, and Pulpit, are consider'd, also The Amorous Widow, Comedy, by T. Betterton.

Oval portrait after Kneller.

8vo, original calf gilt. London, 1710.

£1 4s

BIBLES.

THE GREAT BIBLE.

105 The Byble in Englyshe of the largest and greatest volume, auctorysed and apoynted by the Commaundements of oure moost redoubted Prynce, and Soueraygne Lorde Kynge Henyre the VIII., etc.

With Woodcut General Title and New Testament Title, containing the Holbein Borders, with Cromwell's Arms erased, and woodcut titles to parts 2, 3 and 4, in compartments, together with woodcuts in the text. Royal folio, bound by Bedford in full levant morocco gilt, g. e. Printed by Edwarde Whitechurch, 1541.

£47 10s A fine and perfect Copy. The headlines of four or five leaves are a little cut into. The Sixth Great Bible and the fifth with Cranmer's Prologue.

The hole byble of the largyest volume" which Thomas Cromwell, as the King's viceregent, in an injunction to the Clergy, ordered to be set up in " sum convenient place wythin the said church that ye have caire of, where as your parishoners may moste comodiously resorte to the same and reade it."

In April, 1541, Anthony Marler received permission to sell copies of the Great Bible unbound for x.s. sterling, and bound, being trimmed with bullyons, for xii.s. sterling (equivalent to about £6 and £7 5s. to-day). And in the next month a royal proclamation announced the heavy penalties to which each parish was liable which failed to provide its church with a copy by the November following.

THE FIRST CRITICAL EDITION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT IN ENGLISH. 106 The Newe Testament of Our Lord Jesus Christ. with the Greke, and best approued translations.

Conferred diligently

With the arguments, as wel before the chapters, as for every Boke & Epistle, also diuersities of readings, and moste proffitable annotations of all harde places: whereunto is added a copious Table.

Printed on green paper.

Small 8vo, green morocco, gilt edges.

Geneva, Printed by Conrad Badius, 1557.

*** Some marginal notes shaved in the binding.

£15 15s

This neat octavo is the earliest English Testament printed in roman type, and with verse divisions. With its elaborate apparatus of arguments, notes, and tables, it forms the first critical edition of the New Testament in English.

This version of the New Testament is ascribed to William Whittingham, one of the band of English reformers who found an asylum at Geneva. The text is based upon Tindale's, compared with the Great Bible, and largely influenced by Beza's Latin translation.

Though this version forms the groundwork of the New Testament in the Geneva Bible of 1560, it is a distinct work, due to one translator, as the Address To the Reader seems to show. Fry asserted that the text of this Testament was not reprinted in any of the numerous Geneva Bibles or separate Testaments, from 1560 to 1644, which he had examined.

Bibles-continued.

FIRST EDITION OF THE GENEVAN BIBLE.

107 The Bible and Holy Scriptures conteyned in the Olde and Newe Testament. Translated according to the Ebrue and Greke and conferred with the best translations in divers langages.

With moste profitable annotations upon all the hard places, and other things of great importance as may appeare in the Epistle to the Reader.

Woodcut on title.

4to, straight-grain red morocco.

Geneva, Printed by Rowland Hall, 1560.

£21

*** The First Edition of the "Geneva Version," and the earliest Complete Bible printed in Roman type and with verse divisions. Translated by W. Whittingham, Anthony Gilby, Thomas Sampson, and, perhaps, others, at Geneva.

A VERY TALL COPY. The first title and following leaf margined and facsimiled, and lacking two of the preliminary leaves; also some other leaves margined and repaired. It contains, however, the five Maps on separate leaves, which are usually missing.

The Geneva Bible showed a distinct advance on its predecessors, and, appearing as it did in compact form, with Roman type and verse divisions, obtained speedy and permanent popularity. Its arguments and numerous explanatory notes (often distinctly Calvinistic in tone), which amount to a running commentary, endeared it especially to the Puritans, and for three generations it maintained its supremacy as the Bible of the people. Its phrases find an echo in Scripture quotations from Shakespeare to Bunyan. Between 1560 and 1644 at least 140 editions appeared of the Geneva Bible or Testament. Examination of King James' Bible of 1611 shows that its translators in correcting the Bishops' Bible were influenced more by the Geneva than by any other English version.

This is also the First Issue of the "Breeches Bible," having the rendering breeches for aprons, in Gen. iii. 7.

In Ecclus. xv. 13 occurs the following error: "The Lord hateth all abomination of errour and they that feare God wil love it."

THE FIRST ISSUE OF THE BISHOPS' BIBLE, 1568.

"THE TREACLE BIBLE." 108 The Holie Bible, conteyning the Olde Testament and the Newe. Printed in Black Letter.

Portrait of Queen Elizabeth on first title, one of the Earl of Leicester on title of Part II., and one of Lord Burleigh at the beginning of the Psalms, numerous fine woodcuts within borders, some by Virgil Solis, and numerous figured and ornamental initials, including Leda and the Swan, and other classical subjects.

Thick large folio, old calf. London, R. Jugge, 1568.

£63

*** The first issue of the Bishops' Bible, which is hardly ever found perfect. This is a perfect copy; the first title has blank margins renewed, and there are a few slight repairs to the blank margins of last four leaves.

In typography and illustration this is perhaps the most sumptuous in the long series of folio English Bibles. This version was undertaken by Matthew Parker, Arch

Bibles continued.

bishop of Canterbury, with the assistance of many bishops and well-known Biblical scholars. This was the second attempt made by the heads of the English Church to translate the Bible for the use of all English-speaking people. The first, in Henry VIII.'s time, failed, from their being unable to decide how many Latin words should be retained. But that the Bishops at both periods should be equal to such a task, one requiring Biblical research and accurate critical scholarship, is a proof that in those days the sees were filled by the Bishop of Rome, and afterwards by the Crown, not from favouritism and political motives only, as has often been represented, but by men of the highest attainments. Although initials were affixed by most of the translators to their work, it was the desire of Parker that the translation should be regarded as the work of the Church, and not of private men. As each translator finished the parcel (as it was called) assigned to him he returned it to the Primate, who supervised it.

When complete it was properly and formally sanctioned by Convocation, and a copy was presented to Queen Elizabeth on Oct. 5, 1568.

66

The following curious reference to Christopher Columbus occurs at Psalm XLV., verse 9: Ophir is thought to be the Ilande in the west coast, of late founde by Christopher Columbo: fro whence at this day is brought most fine golde.'" This is also called the "Treacle" Bible on account of the reference in Jeremiah VIII., verse 22:"Is there no treacle in Gilead?'

THE EARLIEST COMPLETE LATIN BIBLE PRINTED IN ENGLAND. 109 Testamenti Veteris Biblia Sacra Sive Libri Canonici, Priscae Iudaeorum Ecclesiae a deo Traditi. Latini recens ex Hebraeo facti, brevibusque Scholiis illustrata ab Immanuele Tremellio & Francisco Iunio. Accesserunt libri qui vulgo dicuntur Apocryphi. Latine redditi & notis quibusdam aucti a Francisco Junio. Multo omnes quam ante emendatius editi.

Small thick 4to. Fine Copy in the original binding of oak boards covered with stamped leather, introducing the Tudor Rose, Crowned portcullis, etc. London, 1580.

£7 10s

THE EDITIO PRINCEPS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC VERSION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT IN ENGLISH.

110 The New Testament of Jesus Christ, translated faithfully into English out of the authentical Latin. In the English College of Rhemes. FIRST EDITION. Fine tall copy, and has inserted to face title-page a curious engraving, entitled, "Time's Lecture to Man," with verses,

within engraved border.

Small 4to, full calf gilt, gilt border on sides.

Printed at Rhemes by John Fogny, 1582.

£10 10s

*** This was translated from the Vulgate by Gregory Martin, under the supervision of William Allen (afterwards Cardinal Allen), and of Richard Bristow. This Rheims New Testament exerted a very considerable influence on the version of 1611, transmitting to it not only an extensive vocabulary, but also numerous distinctive phrases and turns of expression.

Allen was the first President, and Bristow was Moderator (or Prefect of studies) of