Hymen's Pr¾ludia: Or, Loves's Master-Piece. Being that So-much-Admired Romance, Intituled, Cleopatra.

London:: F. Collins for Thomas Fabian,, 1687.. Folio.. Contemporary calf rubbed corners with some wear recently reback with title in gilt to spine. New endpapers. Some light soiling and foxing. Title in red and black with contemporary signature at top ÒDiana WebbÓ some soiling and reinforced. B2-3 with clean short tears touching at text little affect. p96-7 with minor ink stains. Q1 short corner tear. Overall still a very good copy. Priced to go. Scarce edition. Translation of La CalprenedeÕs Cleopatre.Parts 1-6 transalted by Robert Loveday part 7 by John Coles part 8 by James Webb and parts 9-12 by John Davies. La Claprende (1609-1663), a diplomat in the corps of Queen Anne of Austria, had his true vocation revealed for the first time with the publication of the first part of Cassandra in 1642. ÒLa Calprenede literary career is typically separated into two phases the first from 1635 to 1642 in which he prodiced dramas and the second from 1642 until his death in 1663 during which he wrote his more successful historical romances. La Calprenedes best known work are the heroic or historical romamces Cassandra which was published in 10 volumes from 1642-1645 or 1650, and Cleopatra 12 volumes from 1647-1658. Karen Taylor (author on early French) argues these romances were influential pieces in developing the genre of the historical romance and Peter France (Oxford Companion to French) describes them as Ôenormously popular for their heroic mythification of contemporary courtly idealsÓ.Ó [-Arabella Romances]. Wing L124. ESTC: R39109.