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Two volumes bound in one, 8vo, pp. [ii], xiv (list of subscribers), [v]-lxvi, 113; [iii]-viii, 192, [1] errata; with an engraved vignette on each title; half titles cancelled; bound in contemporary diced russia, spine lettered in gilt, by Barratt of Oxford, with his ticket. (Slightly rubbed at head and tail of spine, and on upper joint.) First edition: this is a significant contribution to the study of early modern English poetry. Henry Headley (1765-88) came from Norfolk and was an early pupil of Samuel Parr; he then went up to Trinity College Oxford, where he met William Lisle Bowles and William Benwell, and was influenced by the poetical scholar Thomas Warton, author of the History of English Poetry, a fellow of the college who was also (from 1785) Poet Laureate. Headley published two original works in 1785-6 and then this collection: his comments and researches into English poetry were admired and plagiarised by later writers. He was married at twenty, and dead from consumption at 23; because of his early death and his poetical achievement, he was sometimes referred to as the 'Norfolk Chatterton'. There is a long subscription list to this book, including of course Warton, Bowles and Benwell - but also William Mason, Samuel Parr, Richard Valpy (headmaster of Reading School, where Benwell had been educated), and the politician William Windham, to whom the book is dedicated. Benwell was clearly of considerable help to the editor, because Windham was a friend of his family rather than of Headley's, and other subscribers, such as the Loveday family of Caversham, were very likely also brought in by him. In particular, Headley's preface ends (p. xii) with a note of gratitude to his friend: 'For assistance received I am solely indebted to my very dear Friend Mr. William Benwell, of Trin. Coll. Oxon, whose ingenuity and kindness furnished me with many hints'. Benwell was later to be Headley's executor, and wrote his epitaph for the church at North Walsham where he is buried. This copy seems to have belonged to William Benwell himself: his signature has been pasted onto the head of an upper endpaper, clearly by the binder at the time of binding - it's significant, I think, that the binder was from Oxford, where Benwell was a fellow of Trinity from 1790 until his death. Thomas Barratt, whose ticket is on the upper free endpaper, was appointed bookbinder to Oxford University in 1798 and is described in Maggs catalogue 1075 (item 259) as 'capable of producing bindings well up to West End standards'. The present binding seems to date from a while after publication - but probably not long after, because Benwell himself died in 1796. Benwell has made a number of small marginal marks, in pencil, in the prefatory matter, and a few suggested textual alterations (e.g. on pp. xi, xii and xxviii). Otherwise the book is in fine original condition, untouched. Seller Inventory # 24765
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