SIR ELDRED OF THE BOWER, AND THE BLEEDING ROCK: two legendary tales. By Miss Hannah More. The second edition, corrected. London: printed for T. Cadell, in the Strand. 1778. [with:] PERCY, TRAGEDY. As it is acted at the Theatre-Royal in Covent-Garden. The fourth edition. London: printed for T. Cadell, in the Strand. 1788. [with:] THE SEARCH AFTER HAPPINESS: A PASTORAL DRAMA. The ninth edition, with additions. London: printed for T. Cadell, in the Strand. 1787. [with:] THE FATAL FALSEHOOD: A TRAGEDY. As it is acted at the Theatre-Royal, in Covent-Garden. By the author of Percy. Second edition.

[JOHNSON.] MORE, Hannah.

Published by London: printed for T. Cadell in the Strand, 1778

About this Item

Four works in one volume, Sir Eldred bound last; all 8vo in fours, pp. [vi], 49, [1] advertisements; [viii], 87, [1] advertisements; viii, [ii], 57, [1] advertisements; vii, [i], 83, [1] advertisements; contemporary tree calf, nicely gilt spine, with morocco label (spine somewhat worn at head). The uncommon second edition of Hannah More's Sir Eldred of the Bower, to which Johnson contributed several revisions when he visited her early in January 1776. More recorded that he invited himself to drink tea with her, and that when they finished at about nine, they 'fell upon Sir Eldred: he read both poems through, suggested some little alterations in the first, and did me the honour to write one whole stanza'. He did not leave until midnight. H.W. Liebert, in his essay 'We Fell upon Sir Eldred' (New Light on Johnson, ed. F.W. Hilles, pp. 233-45), has suggested in detail the revisions that were due to Johnson: four stanzas are substantially rewritten, and eleven others are changed in part. They are reprinted in the Poems, ed. Nichol Smith and McAdam (Oxford, 1974), pp. 439-41. Decisive proof that at least some of those changes were his work surfaced only relatively recently, when a cutting of a stanza from the first edition, with his autograph alterations, was sold at Sotheby's London (lot 173, 19 July 1993): it is now in the Hyde Collection at Harvard. Fleeman 78ME/1 (pp. 1347-9). This revised edition is quite uncommon: ESTC online lists 25 copies, whereas there are almost three times as many of the first edition of 1776. Collections of these four works were presumably available in Cadell's shop in the late 1780s, because an almost identical volume (but with Fatal Falsehood in the third edition) passed through my hands some twenty years ago. Provenance. Inscription of J.C. Symonds, February 1808, on title page.

Seller Inventory # 27263

Bibliographic Details

• Title: SIR ELDRED OF THE BOWER, AND THE BLEEDING ROCK: two legendary tales. By Miss Hannah More. The second edition, corrected. London: printed for T. Cadell, in the Strand. 1778. [with:] PERCY, TRAGEDY. As it is acted at the Theatre-Royal in Covent-Garden. The fourth edition. London: printed for T. Cadell, in the Strand. 1788. [with:] THE SEARCH AFTER HAPPINESS: A PASTORAL DRAMA. The ninth edition, with additions. London: printed for T. Cadell, in the Strand. 1787. [with:] THE FATAL FALSEHOOD: A ...
• Publisher: London: printed for T. Cadell in the Strand
• Publication Date: 1778
• Binding: Soft cover
• Seller catalogs:
  • Poetry