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97 MARLOWE, Christopher. The Works. London: William Pickering; Talboys and Wheeler, Oxford; T. Combe and Son, Leicester, 1826 marlowe’s reputation resurrected First collected edition of Marlowe’s plays, and the first publication to disclaim Marlowe’s authorship of Lust’s Dominion on the basis of new evidence uncovered by John Payne Collier. As with other Pickering publications, great care was taken with the typography and design, and it is an attractive production. After two centuries during which Marlowe had been practically forgotten and mostly out of print, the early 19th century saw a flood of editions of Marlowe’s works, building on the renewed interest engendered by the publication of Charles Lamb’s Specimens of English Dramatic Poets in 1808, in which he had commended Marlowe. In 1818, William Oxberry began editing and publishing all the plays individually, with Pickering’s being the first collected publication. The anonymous editorship has been attributed to George Robinson. It was followed by a single-volume edition of the plays the following year, and Marlowe has never again been out of print for any substantial period of time. 3 volumes, octavo (180 × 112 mm). Contemporary tan calf, spines with gilt ruled raised bands, black calf labels, covers, board edges and turn-ins bordered with a single gilt fillet, yellow endpapers, edges gilt. Late 19th-century ownership inscription to title page of vol I. of Temple Bodley, quite possibly the Kentucky lawyer and historian (1852–1940);
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Already famous as an artist for his bold and melodramatic paintings, John Martin (1789–1854) was commissioned by Septimus Prowett to turn his talents to Milton. Unlike other artists in the period commissioned for book illustrations, who generally produced paintings that were then replicated as engravings, Martin produced his illustrations directly as mezzotints. The possibilities of mezzotints, which allow far greater detail and experimentation with lighting than steel engravings, were fully exploited by Martin, and in turn Paradise Lost “was ideal material for Martin, who echoed Milton’s solemnity while opening out his cadences in the imagery of groves and chases bathed in silvery light and an underworld where fires tongue the darkness and bridges span nothingness and Satan’s armies infest the gloom. In mezzotint Martin’s vision thrived” ( ODNB ). Martin engraved each illustration twice, on a larger and a smaller plate size, as here. The work was issued in eight different formats, four with the larger plates, and four with the smaller. There is no priority between the larger or smaller plate issues, or the eight formats. Prior to their publication in the
partly erased pencil annotations to pastedowns of vol. III. Leather to spines cracked, superficial splits to joints and inner hinges, all skilfully refurbished, some marks and scuffs to covers, the bindings remaining firm, soiling and light foxing to endpapers, short closed tears to half-title of vol. I at gutter, and to upper margin of one leaf in vol. III, both without loss of text, occasional marks to contents, otherwise generally clean. A very good, well margined set. ¶ Keynes, Pickering Checklist , p. 77. £2,250 [158125] 98 MARTIN, John (illus.); MILTON, John. The Paradise Lost of Milton. London: Septimus Prowett, 1827 finely bound copy of perhaps the finest illustrated edition of paradise lost First edition in book form, large octavo issue, presented here in a very handsome and strictly contemporary binding. Martin’s Paradise Lost maintains a strong claim to be the finest illustrated edition of the poem ever produced.
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