The works of Edmund Waller Esqr. in verse and prose published by Mr. Fenton

London: printed for I. Tonson in Ye Strand, 1729. First Edition. Full Calf. Near Fine+. Large 4to: [18],450,xci,[1]pp, with engraved title page, four full-page copper-engraved plates (including frontispiece portrait of Waller engraved by Vertu after Kneller), and numerous superb head- and tailpieces and historiated initials. Contemporary cambridge-style calf, sides decorated in blind and framed with rat's tooth roll, ribbed spine richly gilt in seven compartments, red morocco lettering piece gilt (chipped), plain period end papers. Near Fine or better, with light offsetting, sporadic foxing and the odd smudge, else clean and crisp throughout; joints very skillfully repaired, spine ends renewed. Provenance: signature of the bibliophile Douglas Grant in pencil to front fly-leaf. Wither to Prior 941. Grolier English 100, 27. First Collected Edition, the "most sumptuous ever published. It contains all the poems which had hitherto appeared, to which the editor has added four new . . . Waller's letter are added for the first time and the various prefaces to the earlier editions are reprinted. Finally, the information given in the notes is so full and accurate that little has been left to the research or correction of later editions." (Wither to Prior) Waller's poems were widely read during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. "Dryden, who greatly admired Waller and consistently treated him as mentor and precursor, claimed that ‘the well-placing of words, for the sweetness of pronunciation, was not known till Mr. Waller introduced it.' . . . When neo-classical canons of correctness fell out of fashion in the nineteenth century, Waller's poetic reputation plummeted, and it has never fully recovered, [though] . . . renewed interest in court culture and in the intersection of literature and history toward the end of the twentieth century has led to a modest Waller revival." (ODNB) N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).