One of the Counterfeit Editions of Hayward's Henry IV
First Part of the Life and raigne of King Henrie the IIII. Extending to the end of the first yeare of his raigne.
London: John Wolfe, 1599.
Full Description:
[HAYWARD, John]. The First Part of the Life and raigne of King Henrie the IIII. Extending to the end of the first yeare of his raigne. Written by I.H. London: John Wolfe, 1599 [i.e.1638].
A counterfeit printing. "The imprint is false; printed by M. Parsons, 1638?" (ESTC). One of four editions, of different dates, bearing the same imprint. This issue with square of fluerons on title-page and 'Teucer' on leaf A2r without the inverted 'e' so therefore probably 1638. Small quarto (6 3/4 x 5 1/4 inches; 174 x 130 mm). [8], 149, [1, colophon] pp. With woodcut head and tail pieces. Woodcut inititals.
Early full calf. All edges speckled in red. Some minor scuffing to boards. Newer endpapers. Some light dampstaining throughout. Still a very good copy.
This present copy is the same as the copy at the University of Iowa Library. "Here at Iowa we have a copy of Hayward's book with an imprint that says it was published 'by Iohn Wolfe' in 1599. This edition, however, was one of a number of editions published after 1599 which nevertheless retained the 1599 imprint. Title-pages can be extraordinarily conservative in subsequent editions (retaining a claim to be 'newly corrected,' say, long after the initial corrected edition appears), but the false imprint here would seem to be an effective way to avoid any further trouble with the authorities. That is, the book could be reprinted and circulated as nothing more than a stray survivor of the initial suppression in 1599. There are a few key differences in these '1599' editions which allow scholars to distinguish among them, mostly the differences in the printer's ornaments on the title-page ,and the existence of a misprint in the dedicatory epistle. At first glance our edition looks a lot like a '1599' edition that the STC dates to c.1629. However, this c.1629 edition has a crucial misprint on the next page, an inverted "e" in the word "Teucer". Our copy has the same arrangement of type ornaments on the title-page, but here the error is corrected, and the "e" is not inverted. According to the STC, this combination means that our edition is c.1638 (STC 12997a)." ("Faking 1599" Adam G. Hooks).
"Sir John Hayward's The First Part of The Life and raigne of king Henrie the IIII, first published by John Wolfe in 1599, included a Latin dedication to none other than the ambitious earl of Essex. Due to the perceived parallels between the reigns of Richard II and Queen Elizabeth, Hayward's book was immediately suppressed. The dedication to Essex was removed, but a second edition in 1599 was seized and burned. Hayward was interrogated by Francis Bacon, who refused to find any treasonous intent in the book, beyond the fact that Hayward seemed to have plagiarized from Tacitus (a knowledgeable, and much more important recognition, since this book plays a key role in the turn toward Tacitean history writing in the seventeenth century). Two years later, Essex would act on the ambition often attributed to him in his infamous (and infamously ineffective) rebellion -- which was immediately preceded by a command performance of Shakespeare's Richard II by his theatre company. Once the ill-fated rebellion took place, Hayward was put into the Tower where he spent the rest of Elizabeth's reign, until her death in 1603." ("Faking 1599" Adam G. Hooks).
ESTC S103911. Pforzheimer 457.
HBS 69572.
$1,500.
Price: $1,500.00
Item #69572