Baucis and Philemon;
a poem. On the ever lamented loss of the two yew-trees, in the parish of Chilthorne, Near the County Town of Somerset. Together with Mrs. Harris's earnest petition. By the author of the Tale of a Tub. As also An Ode upon solitude. By the Earl of Roscommon.
London: Printed and Sold by H. Hills, 1709 Stock Code: 144587
A very uncommon edition of this poem by Swift, first written the previous year. "His preeminent poem of 1708, his most ambitious to this point, was Baucis and Philemon, a poem that surprises us with its gentle portrait of an ageing farm couple and with its quiet humour" (Eugene Hammond, Jonathan Swift, p. 299). The publication also includes An Ode Upon Solitude, purporting to be by the Earl of Roscommon, but in fact by Anthony Hammond.
In his listings of the poem's various editions, Swift's bibliographer Teerink places the quarto Oxford edition of the same year first, yet this edition is still a great scarcity on the market, with only a handful of auction results over the last century. Another state has a mis-spelling "Count-town" on the title page.
Description
Octavo (179 x 108 mm), 16pp. Late 19th-century brown half morocco, spine lettered in gilt, marbled sides, marbled endpapers, additional speckled binder's leaves, gilt edges.
Condition
Bookplates of Oliver Nowell Chadwyck-Healey to front pastedown. Very minor rubbing at extremities, contents with light foxing and browning, a little closely cropped at head shaving pagination. A very good copy.
Bibliography
ESTC T75664; Foxon S801; Teerink 521.
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