SIR ROGER L'ESTRANGE'S FABLES, with morals and reflections, in English verse. By Mr. E. Stacy

8vo, engraved frontispiece and pp. [xxxii], 316; title page in red and black; bound in early panelled sheep, worn, not very soundly rebacked. (Inner margin of frontispiece strengthened, with slight effect on inner margin of title page; a little discoloured at the beginning.) First edition, and very rare. This is a versification of the collection of fables assembled by Roger L'Estrange, and published in two parts in 1691 and 1699; these were presented as if by Aesop, but in fact many were taken from other sources. Of Edmund Stacy virtually nothing of known; he appears to have been the author of a number of poetical pieces of Tory propaganda printed between 1710 and 1717; one of these is credited to 'Stacey' in the Stationers' Register, and the rest are linked to the same author by statements on the title-pages, and a series of advertisements. The dedication here to Maurice Hunt reveals the audience at which these fables were aimed: 'You'll quickly perceive both by the style and method, that they are chiefly intended to divert and instruct young Gentlemen'. On the last page is 'The end of the first volume', but nothing further is known to have been published. The same sheets were reissued in 1720 ('fourth edition') and 1724 ('fifth edition'), but with the final two leaves reprinted so that the reference to 'the first volume' could be omitted: these two end the text on p. 315, and the final page has advertisements. However, whether as the original edition (as here) or as a reissue, this book is exceptionally rare: Foxon and ESTC locate just three copies, at the BL, NLS and Turnbull Library. WorldCat adds three more, at Creighton University, Brown and Aberdeen: but the Brown copy lacks the title page and appears to be a copy of one of the reissued editions, as it is catalogued as having 315 pp.; and oddly enough the Aberdeen copy is also lacking its title page (but has no information about its pagination). Of the reissues, just two of the 1720 (BL and Bodleian) and one of the 1724 (Cambridge UL) are located. Foxon p. 751. Provenance. With the familiar ownership inscription of Henry White of Lichfield, dated 4 February 1822; later signature of Charles V. Green, dated 1870. …