Generous Imposter (2 results)

Paper cover. Condition: Good. [First Edition]. G: in good condition without dust jacket as issued. 200mm x 130mm (8" x 5"). 109pp. Title page - A comedy as it is now performing at the Theatre-Royal, Drury Lane.

FIRST EDITION, a little browned and foxed in places, pp. [viii], 198, lacking the final advertisement leaf (vestiges of), 8vo; recent half calf preserving old boards, Masonic bookplate of E.D. Bacon inside front cover, sound. Philip Ayres' last publication is a set of interlocking prose narratives or 'novels', which set out to warn gentlemen travellers (and their guardians) of the dangers to be met with on the continent, from the 'ill women' of Italy, and especially of Spain' (ODNB). Ayres, said to have been a member of St John's College, Oxford, had spent the early part of his career attached to Sir Richard Fanshawe's embassy to Spain and Portugal, in the capacity of steward, and must have had first hand knowledge, or at least observation, of the 'Subtleties, by which [the ill women] often allure Men of Eminent Quality and Parts, as well as others, into their snares, and so ruine many Noble Families.' Though cautionary tales, they are amusingly written. This copy sometime belonging to Sir Edward Denny Bacon (1860-1938), philatelist. Purchase note in pencil inside front cover '25 Jan 1893. Not mentioned in Lowndes. (ESTC R27746).