THE WORKS OF MR ABRAHAM COWLEY

London: J. M. for Henry Herringman, 1668. FIRST COLLECTED EDITION, second issue (see below). 324 x 197 mm. (12 3/4 x 7 3/4"). 22 p.l., 41, [1] (blank), 80, [4], 70 [i.e. 68], 154, 23, [1] (blank), 148 pp. (leaf G3 of final section mis-bound but nothing lacking).
Contemporary speckled calf, raised bands, spine gilt in compartments with floral tooling, recent red leather label on spine. Frontispiece portrait of the author, title with printer's device, headpieces to each section. Three sections with separate title pages as called for in Perkin; front pastedown with bookplate of Robert S. Pirie and a paper label with the word "Minto"; preliminary leaves with contemporary signatures, one dated 1682. Perkin B2; Wing C-6649 (conflating first and second printings). ◆Front joint split but holding firmly, spine with gilt a bit eroded and shallow chip at foot, corners somewhat worn, other minor defects, but the once quite handsome binding still appealing for being original and unrestored. Two quires rather browned, other trivial imperfections in the text, but a very appealing copy internally, clean, crisp, and generally quite pleasing.

In a contemporaneous binding, in pleasing condition, and from a distinguished collection, this is the second issue of the first collected edition of the works of Abraham Cowley, one of the most precocious poets in the annals of English literature. Cowley (1616-67) was producing poetic works of inexplicable sophistication before he had settled into puberty; he published his first volume of verse at 15; and he went on to become one of the most popular poets of his day. While still a young man, Cowley enjoyed continued success at Cambridge where in addition to creating his epic poem "Davideis," he wrote two comedies for the stage, one of which was performed for the Prince of Wales during his visit in 1642. Cowley's association with the crown did not end there; he sided with the royalists during the Civil War and Commonwealth periods, serving the exiled court of Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I, who had taken up residence in France. Despite having been arrested and imprisoned as a royalist agent at one point, Cowley escaped the Cromwell years largely unscathed and returned to Cambridge as a fellow after the Restoration, eventually retiring to the countryside in 1663. Upon his death, Cowley was given the extraordinary honor of burial in Westminster Cathedral (DNB says his was "the most lavish funeral which had ever been given to a mere man of letters in England"), and he was afforded a privileged spot next to the graves of Spenser and Chaucer. Admired both by the public and by stars like Dryden and Wilmot, Cowley had a demonstrably deep influence on contemporary poetry; his funerary monument refers to him as "the English Virgil," and Perkin asserts that "[Cowley's] fame as a poet exceeded even that of Milton" during the waning years of the Restoration. Our first collected edition of Cowley's work was compiled by his friend and literary executor Thomas Sprat and published the year following the author's death. It was an immediate success, with a second printing appearing the same year. The effort to respond to demand resulted in a great number of states in these and other early editions, resulting in the possibility that various copies may contain a combination of states and printings. This particular copy seems most closely to correspond to the second printing (containing the final errata) of the first edition, distinguished by the crossed "W" on the general title and section title of "The Mistress," though without the mis-pagination in "Miscellanies" as described by Perkin. It comes from the collection of Robert S. Pirie (1934-2015), an extremely successful lawyer and investment banker who amassed the finest library of 16th and 17th century English literature in private hands during his lifetime. In 1984, he was elected one of the 40 members of the Roxburghe Club, the world's oldest society of bibliophiles..