The English Poets in Four Volumes - Fine Bindings by Edited by Thomas Humphry Ward - 1880

London: Macmillan and Co., 1880. Hardcover. Very Good/No Jacket. 7 1/2" X 5 1/4" each. 1880-1883. Selections with Critical Introductions by Various Writers and a General Introduction by Matthew Arnold. Full brown morocco bindings with triple gilt ruling and two different gilt Coat of Arms to each board, five raised bands to the spine, four of them with triple gilt boxed ruling and the other two with double gilt boxed ruling and lettering to the spine. All edges gilt, double gilt ruling to the boards' outer edges and inner edges, yellow endpapers and original silk page marker. A very smart and beautiful set, in very good condition with only some very minor dryness to some hinges and light rubbing to the a few corners, not bad at all but must mention. Foxing to free endpapers, getting milder to first and last few pages but overall very clean inside, with crisp pages. Spotting to endpapers and previous owner's bookplate 'Philip Broke' to front endpaper of the four volumes. xvi, 566pp/ xiii, 496pp/ xii, 608pp/ xiii, 664pp. Volume I - Early Poetry: Chaucer to Donne (Second Edition, 1883), Volume II - The Seventeeth Century: Ben Jonson to Dryden (Second Edition Revised, 1883), Volume III - Eighteenth Century: Addison to Blake (First Edition, 1880), Volume IV - The Nineteenth Century: Wordsworth to Rossetti (Second Edition Revised, 1883).