HUDIBRAS, in Three Parts, Written in the Time of the Late Wars: Corrected and Amended with Large Annotations, and a Preface by Zachary Grey, Ll.D., Adorn'd with a new Set of Cuts.

2 volumes; octavo, contemporary full tree calf with richly gilt spines, red morocco lettering pieces, marbled endpapers; 1 fl, xiv, xxxvi, [42], 424, [16] pp; 1 fl., 446, [24] pp. Illustrated with engraved portrait frontispiece and 9 plates in Vol. 1, 7 plates in Vol. 2. Plates (about half are folding) are designed by William Hogarth. Both volumes with old rebacking preserving original spines and endpapers, wear to corner tips, bookplate of Sir Philip Rose in both volumes, slight rippling at top of last quarter of text block of first vol., overall near very good and quite attractive. Plates are pristine The 3 parts making up Samuel Butler's "Hudibras" - a satirical mock-heroic poem in octosyllabic couplets - were originally published in 1663, 1664, and 1678. This 1744 edition with the extensive notes of Zachary Grey again weds the biting wit of Butler's text with William Hogarth's equally pointed graphical representations of the grotesque anti-hero Hudibras and his contemporaries. Hogarth's cuts were originally published in a 12mo edition in 1726. Lowndes p. 335 names this 1744 publication as the "best edition.". …