Description
“THE GREATEST OF AN AGE”: 1561 EDITION OF CHAUCER’S WORKS, WITH THE RARE AND IMPORTANT CAXTON WOODCUTS
CHAUCER, Geoffrey. The workes of Geffrey Chaucer, newlie printed, with divers addicions, whiche were never in printe before: With the siege and destruccion of the worthy citee of Thebes, compiled by Jhon Lidgate, Monke of Berie. (London: Jhon Kyngston, for Jhon Wight, 1561). Folio, contemporary full paneled brown calf rebacked, raised bands, red morocco spine label. Housed in a custom clamshell box.
Fifth edition, first issue, of Chaucer’s Works, the rare and important 1561 first Stowe edition, with the 22 wonderful Caxton woodcuts of the Pilgrims in the Prologue. A lovely, complete copy in contemporary calf.
“Chaucer’s characters live age after age. Every age is a Canterbury Pilgrimage; we all pass on, each sustaining one of these characters; nor can a child be born who is not one of these characters of Chaucer” (William Blake). Sir Walter Raleigh wrote, “It is difficult to pass over the name of Chaucer without marking the high pitch of perfection to which he brought the art of narration in verse… He was a great narrative artist, incomparably the greatest of an age that loved story-telling and knew nothing of the drama.” By anticipating the inward turn of character generally associated with the Renaissance and the Reformation, Chaucer influenced both the shape and direction of English literature. Shakespeare drew on the Wife of Bath and the Pardoner for such characters as Falstaff and Iago, Spenser called him the “pure well of English undefiled,” and the modern critic Harold Bloom suggests that “without such characters [as Chaucer created], there would be less life in literature, and less literature in life” (The Western Canon, 105-26).
This is the rare fifth edition of the Works. “This [1561 edition] is doubtless the Chaucer that was studied by Sir Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser and at least leafed through by the young Shakespeare” (The Book of Geoffrey Chaucer, 24). With first issue preliminary leaves (14 leaves before signature B) including the Prologue with 22 woodcuts from the blocks used by Caxton in his second edition of The Canterbury Tales. Beautifully printed in two-column gothic text with woodcut on first page of the Knight’s Tale (the woodcut of the Knight is from the block used in the undated edition, circa 1550), separate woodcut titles for the “Tales” and “The Romaunt of the Rose” and woodcut initials and tailpieces throughout. In addition to The Caunterburie Tales, this edition includes The Romaunt of the Rose, Troilus and Creseide, Boecius de Consolacione, and The Testament of Love. Editor John Stowe “was a London tailor. From 1560 on he devoted himself ‘to the search of our famous antiquities,’ and was an ardent book collector and copyist. His first publication was his Chaucer” (Hammond, 121-22). Leaves fleur-de-lis ii-iv—containing the dedication, tables and “Eight goodlie questions”—bound between “The Prologues” (A4) and “The Knightes Tale” (B1) rather than after the general title page. STC 5075. Langland to Wither 42. Pforzheimer 176. Hammond, 119-22. Bookplates, one engraved armorial. Closed tears to A1 and AAA5, affecting text but not legibility. Marginal tears to corners of Kkk5 and Mmmiii. A few leaves trimmed a little close along upper edge; occasional faint dampstain. Expert restoration to corners of contemporary calf binding. A very desirable copy of this rare and important 16th-century edition.
