The Faerie Queene.

London: Printed for William Ponsonbie,, 1596. For there is nothing lost, that may be found, if sought First complete edition, comprising the first edition of the second part and the second edition of the first part. Written in praise of Elizabeth I and dedicated to her, Spenser's allegorical masterpiece follows the adventures of six medieval knights, drawing on Arthurian legend, Italian romance, classical epic, and Chaucer. In its mingling of genres, the poem represented a new departure in English poetry, for which Spenser invented a new stanza, "a hybrid form adopted from the Scots poetry of James I, 'rhyme royal', and Italian 'ottava rima'" (ODNB). Spenser began composing the work in the 1570s, sharing "parcels" of it among friends. Though no rough drafts, autograph copies, or foul papers for the poem have survived, the poet himself alludes to a manuscript copy as early as 1580, when in a letter to Gabriel Harvey he asks for one to be returned to him: "I wil in hande forthwith with my Faery Queene, whyche I praye you hartily send me with al expedition: and your frendly Letters, and long expected Iudgement wythal" (Three Proper, and wittie familiar Letters). The poem, or some part of it, was almost certainly circulating in manuscript in London in 1588, when Abraham Fraunce quotes a stanza in his Arcadian Rhetorick, correctly citing its book and canto ("Spencer in his Faerie queene.2.book.cant.4"). The first part was finally printed in 1590 - possibly intended to coincide with the publication of Philip Sidney's Arcadia - and the second part followed, with a new edition of the first, in 1596. Spenser likely composed some of the second part around 1593, as the conversion of Henry IV of France to Catholicism that year provides the historical basis for the Burbon episode in Book V. The poem, now six books, was entered into the Stationers' Register on 20 January 1596, suggesting publication had been planned to fall during Elizabeth I's Grand Climacteric - her 63rd year, thought by astrologers to be critical - which had begun on 7 September 1595. In 1599, with only six of his twelve planned books completed, Spenser died; his two fragmentary Cantos of Mutabilitie, thought to be intended for Book VII, are the only additional material published with the first folio edition of 1609. Two volumes, small quarto (196 x 144 mm). Late 19th-century red morocco, spines lettered in gilt, compartments richly gilt with intricate flower and leaf tools, triple gilt rule to covers, edges and turn-ins gilt, edges gilt, marbled endpapers. Woodcut device of printer Richard Field to title pages, full-page woodcut to M5 verso. Spines slightly darkened, covers lightly marked and rubbed at extremities, upper margin closely trimmed touching a couple of headings, skilful paper repairs mostly to vol. I closing marginal tears, pinholes, and extending corners, a few characters to E8, R8, and Bb1 of vol. I supplied in facsimile, text to D1 recto skinned with a dozen characters supplied in pencil, occasional faint soiling to contents, recent pencil annotations to vol. I making comparisons with the 1590 edition, contemporary annotations to title page of vol. II. A very good copy, with wide outer margins, handsomely bound. Pforzheimer 970; ESTC S117748. Edmund Spenser, Three Proper, and wittie familiar Letters, 1580.