Combe William as Dr Syntax (1 results)
More imagesPublished by C. Whittingham for W.T. Gilling, London, 1821
- Hardcover
- First Edition
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Hardcover. Condition: Very good. Second. Second edition. London: C. Whittingham for W.T. Gilling, 1821. Quarto (12" x 9 7/16", 305mm x 240mm). [Full collation available.] With 6 hand-colored aquatint-engraved plates by J.C. Stadler and W. Heath. Bound in later (early XXc?) half plum morocco over marbled boards, with gilt rolls a…t the edges. On the spine, two raised bands. Title gilt along the second panel, with by two gilt helmets in the first and third panels. All edges of the text-block gilt. Rubbed, with some scuffs and skinning. The marbled paper (later?) lifting in places. End-papers renewed. The plates tanned with some pigment bleed and offsetting. Otherwise quite clean. With "Thomas Newcome's" (i.e., William Makepeace Thackeray's) Arthur's first wound (a funeral poem for the Duke of Wellington published in The Times 11 February 1858) laid in. William Combe (1742-1823) with Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827) created the character of Dr. Syntax from 1809, mocking William Gilpin, creator of the category of the Picturesque. Dr. Syntax became a literary personage of the late Regency Era, a way to satirize but also to celebrate the quintessential Englishman. While Tooley and others call the present work an imitation of Syntax (perhaps on the basis of its publication by Gilling rather than Ackerman, and Rowlandson's absence), there is no superior candidate for its authorship. The subject, certainly, fits well: the considerable martial achievements of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, celebrating for routing Napoleon at Waterloo. Wellington would go on to be Prime Minister, Leader of the House of Lords and Commander-in-Chief of the British Army, but in 1821 (the first edition 1819, with thirty plates) he was simply a military hero. In the pleasantly overblown style of Byron, the fifteen cantos of the poem are underpinned by extensive footnotes (in prose!) providing context and sources. This second edition, with six plates per the title, Tooley describes as "reissued," suggesting that the plates (published by Tegg in 1818) and perhaps even the text-sheets were drawn from remnants of the first. Abbey, Life 358 (with 6 different plates); Tooley, English books with coloured plates 154.
