Collection of Comic Verses and Riddles
Muse in Good Humour. or, a Collection of the Best Poems, Comic Tales, Choice Fables, Enigmas, &c. From the most Eminent Poets. With some Originals.
London: Printed for M. Cooper, 1745.
[with]: The Muse in Good Humour: or, A Collection of Enigma's, Serious and Comic. With a Complete Key to the Whole. Part II. Vol. II. London: Printed for M. Cooper, 1745.
First Cooper edition. Volume II only. Two parts in one twelvemo volume, comprising Part II (6 1/2 x 3 5/8 inches; 164 x 94 mm). [2], ii, 174; viii, 148 pp. Bound without General title-page. Parts I and II each with separate title-page and pagination. According to ESTC, no copy of Volume I is recorded and it is believed that possibly volume I is the 1744 J. Noble volume. "Vol.1 is yet to be identified; no copies reported 12/2016. Is 'vol.1' in fact 'The Muse in good humour. Or, A collection of comic tales, &c.' first published in 1744 (ESTC T197901) by J. Noble?" (ESTC). Additionally, according to ESTC, part II of this volume "comprises the sheets of 'The muse in masquerade'. London: J. Noble, 1745 (ESTC T83724) with a different title page." Part I with frontispiece and four engraved vignettes. Part II with engraved vignette on title-page. Some of the engravings are signed by illustrator and caricaturist, George Bickham Jr.. We could find no other copy at auction and only two in U.S. libraries (both Volume II only as well).
Contemporary calf, rebacked to style. Boards ruled in gilt. Spine stamped in gilt. Red morocco spine label, lettered in gilt. Some minor scuffing to boards. Minor marginal repair to part II title-page. Engraved vignette on page 79 trimmed close, just touching image. Overall a very good copy.
"The successful two-volume Muse in Good Humour, published by Francis and James Noble and copies by Mary Cooper, contains... tales by Gay, Prior, Congreve, and Dryden, and one again, Pope's Miller of Trompington. Cooper even advertised 'The Imperfect Enjoyment,' probably by Etherege, but did not print it; many editions, indeed, were made up. Like The Poetical Tell-Tale, this collection of bawdy verse presents its items in random order for fitful reading, modeling a use for literature increasingly deplored by the literary establishment." (Making the Modern Reader: Cultural Mediation in Early Modern Literary Anthologies. By Barbara M. Benedict).
HBS 68491.
$2,500.
Price: $2,500.00
Item #68491