Workes by Jonson Benjamin (8 results)

PAP. Condition: New. New Book. Shipped from UK. Established seller since 2000.

PAP. Condition: New. New Book. Shipped from UK. Established seller since 2000.

HRD. Condition: New. New Book. Shipped from UK. Established seller since 2000.

HRD. Condition: New. New Book. Shipped from UK. Established seller since 2000.

Paperback. Condition: New. Print on Demand. This book explores the many evolving facades of urban life against the backdrop of London's vibrant 17th-century trading hub, Bartholomew Fair. The author demonstrates a keen eye for the sights, sounds, and debauchery that characterized this thriving marketplace. Within bustling crowds of shoppers, entertainers, and rogues, he weaves together a captivating tale that deftly handles themes of transformation and acceptance. Through its vibrant portrayal of daily life, this book is a must-read for those interested in understanding the rich tapestry of urban experiences during this remarkable era. This book is a reproduction of an important historical work, digitally reconstructed using state-of-the-art technology to preserve the original format. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in the book. print-on-demand item.

Hardcover. Condition: Fair. Three volumes bound in two. Quarto. 26.5 cm and 29 cm. Housed in modern clamshell cases. Rebound in modern brown leather. Red leather spine labels with minimal rubbing to gilt of the second volume. 5 raised bands. Collated: Vol. I: [12], 1015 pp; Vol. 2: [12], 88, 75, [3], 93-170; Vol. 3: 292, 132, 122, 133-155, Title page and frontis provided from 1640 edition of Jonson's works. New end pages. Later states of title pages in Vol. 1; without woodcut borders (except Poetaster title page, which is first state with woodcut border). Scattered spotting and staining, pages trimmed. John Wilson Croker's copy, with bookplates of Frederick William Cosens and Samuel Cabot pasted inside the front board. Vol. II title page mounted, title page and Bartholomew Faree well soiled, loss to upper corner. Jonson's 1616 publication of the Workes of Benjamin Jonson in folio marked not only a key moment in the career of the writer, but also a watershed in the history of print culture. Up until Jonson published his plays in folio, the format had been reserved for the collected works of deceased authors, who had been acknowledged by posterity, not by themselves, as "great." The Grolier English 100 imparts "Jonson is said to have prepared the play for the press, himself, and one or two matters of editing, which seem unusually careful when compared with other folio collections, certainly appear to show the author's hand." Pforzheimer furthers, "Jonson began the preparation of this definitive edition in 1612. He used the quarto texts wherever available but scrupulously and systematically revised them, cutting out many marginal notes, altering the spelling, typography, and punctuation in accordance with a consistent if somewhat pedantic plan and introducing considerable editorial matter. The result is that this folio edition may be regarded as authoritative." These two exceptional folio Workes, rarely found together, affirm Dryden's conclusion that if "Shakespeare was the Homer or father of dramatic poets, Jonson was the Virgil." (Allibone I:998). Ref. Greg pp. 1070-82; Pforzheimer 559. STC 14751; STC 14754a.

hardcover. Condition: very good(+). First. LACKING the engraved general title page and other preliminary pages including the portrait; otherwise complete with separate titles and all text pages. [1], 1015, [1]pp. Pages 6, 7, 34 and 713 are mis-numbered as 4, 5, 43 and 317. Thick folio, handsomely bound by Macdonald in 19th century eggplant morocco; simple gilt lettering and compartments on spine with raised bands; thick inner dentelles with marbled endpapers (a bit bumped and rubbed; front hinge repaired; pages toned). London: Printed by William Stansby, 1616. First collected edition, possibly comprised of mixed printing states. "The bibliographical variations of this book are bewildering and all attempts to simplify them into catagories have not materially reduced the confusion" -Pforzheimer 559-60. Every Man in His Humour; Every Man Out of His Humour; Cynthias Revels, or The Fountayne of Selfe-Love; Poetaster, or His Arraignement; Seianus, His Fall; Volpone, or the Foxe; Epicoene, or the Silent Woman; The Alchemist; Catiline, His Conspiracy; Epigrammes - The Forrest; Part of the Kings Entertainment in Passing to His Coronation; A Panegyre, on the Happie Entrance of James, Our Soveraigne; A Particular Entertainment of the Queen and Pince; Masques at Court. The second volume of Jonson's Works was not published until 1640. STC 14751; Greg III, 1070-71. A very good copy.

First Edition. [Offeredwith:]JONSON, Benjamin. The Workes [the second Volume] London, Richard Bishop, and are to be sold by Andrew Crooke [London, Richard Meighen], 1640 [1631]. 1616: Folio in sixes, pp.[12], 1015, [1(blank)], including the engraved title by William Hole (in Pforzheimer state C, mostly associated with large paper copies) and the rare initial blank; E6 partly loose because of a paper flaw; a fine, crisp copy with generous margins, in contemporary blind-stamped calf, border and central lozenge of roll tools, neatly rebacked, ties wanting, red edges, with pastedowns of printer's waste from two sixteenth-century works; contemporary ownership inscription of John Newdigate (16001642) to front free endpaper, with scattered marginal markings in pencil and pen throughout but particularly in Catiline, where there is also one annotation; later armorial bookplates of Sir Richard Newdigate (to title verso) and Sir Roger Newdigate (to front pastedown), modern bookplate of Lillian Barbour Bennett; in folding cloth box. 164031: Two vols, folio in sixes, I: [12], 668, 228, with the engraved portrait of Jonson by Vaughan, and the engraved title-page, II: pp.[12], 88, 75, [2], 93170, 292, 155, [1] 132, with Meighen's 1640 title-page cancelling the initial blank [A1] of the three plays that had been printed in 1631 (slightly browned); The Staple of News is bound after Bartholomew Fair, as stated on the title-page but not as printed; pale marginal dampstain to first third of vol.I and towards the end of vol.II, but a good copy in contemporary panelled calf, rebacked; ownership inscription 'J.Perfect's book'; slipcases.An excellent set of the canonical Ben Jonson, the first collection of English plays in the proud format of a folio and the direct fore-runner of Shakespeare's folios, here found with both the first (1616) and the corrected second editions (1640) of Volume I, and the first edition of Volume II[-III] (163140). The copy of Workes 1616 offered here bears the large ownership inscription of the playwright John Newdigate (16001642) from his time at Trinity College, Oxford (1618-20). Newdigate is the probable author of the plays Glausamond and Fidelia (later revised as Ghismonda and Guiscardo), The Twice Chang'd Friar, The Emperor's Favourite, and The Humorous Magistrate, which appear among other manuscript plays in his library. He 'attended a steady stream of plays at various theatres during his time at Oxford and the inns of court The Newdigate account books detail purchases of printed play texts [including Jonson quartos] and the presence in library catalogues of both manuscript and printed dramatic works reveals Newdigate's encompassing interest in the theatre' (Inglis and Johnstone). 'Oxford fostered Newdigate's musical and literary interests; he played the lute, wrote verse, and gathered a collection of plays in manuscript A commonplace book containing the paradoxes of John Donne [as well as original compositions influenced by Donne], and several volumes of sermon notes in his hand reveal Newdigate to have been an earnest moderate in religion' (History of Parliament). His only published work was a poetic contribution to The Wearie Souls Wish (1650), published in tribute to Jane, Lady Burdett, in whose literary circle he had mixed alongside William Dugdale. Newdigate's plays, connections and the Arbury MSS feature largely in a special issue of Early Theatre (14:2, 'Circles and Circuits: Drama and Politics in the Midlands', 2011). Newdigate's reading of Jonson would have been particularly relevant for The Emperor's Favourite, probably written in the 1620s or 30s, which follows Jonson's Sejanus in employing classical models (in this case the rise and fall of Crispinus) to critique the Stuart court (and the career of the Duke of Buckingham). The character of Datus, a 'court actor and playwright who finds himself in trouble with Nero after performing a speech castigating the emperor's crimes appears to be partly based on another well-known contemporary, Ben Jonson' (Keenan). The plays collected in Jonson's 1616 Workes include The Alchemist, Volpone, and Every man in his Humour, which was first performed in 1598 by the Lord Chamberlain's men, its list of 'principall comdians' headed by 'Will.Shakespeare'. There are masques as well, including the masque Of Blacknesse, epigrams, and the collection of poems called 'The Forrest'. The second edition of 1640 'shows evidence of revision by someone familiar with Jonson's methods of punctuation, and may contain some posthumous corrections of his own' (Greg, III, 1074). It also adds the famous portrait of Jonson by Robert Vaughan which was first published as a separate broadside c.1625. The first part of 'the second volume' comprises the sheets of three plays printed in 1631 by John Beale for Robert Allott, Bartholemew Fair, The Staple of News, and The Devil is an Ass; these were probably intended to be sold as a supplement to the 1616 Workes (there are individual title-pages dated 1631 but no general title-page was issued at the time). Before his death in 1640 Jonson delivered manuscripts of his unpublished late plays (The Magnetick Lady, A Tale of a Tub, and The sad Shepherd), masques, The Under-woods and other poems, and a few other pieces not before printed to Kenelm Digby, who entrusted them to the publisher Thomas Walkley. These pieces form the second, third, and fourth parts of 'The second Volume', and are usually referred to collectively as 'volume III'. By now Richard Meighen owned the uncirculated stock of the three 1631 plays, and he joined them with Walkley's larger text, having prefixed a 1640 general title-page. Provenance:1. The Workes 1616 with the inscription of John Newdigate (16001642) MP, thence by descent within the family, with the bookplates of his nephew Sir Richard Newdigate (16441710) (dated 1709), and the latter's grandson Sir Roger Newdigate (17191806). 2. With a series of Arbury shelfmarks on the title-pag.