Lot 7: A collection of memorial poems for Ben Jonson, published shortly after his death

JONSON, BEN

Jonson's Virbius: or The Memorie of Ben: Johnson Revived by the Friends of the Muses. London: printed by E. P. for Henry Seile, 1638. First edition. Later three-quarters brown morocco gilt, marbled paper boards. 7 x 4 3/4 inches (18 x 12.25 cm); [4], 74 pp., title page vignette, headpieces. Rubbing and wear to spine and extremities, front hinge cracked and joint starting, the first and last few leaves soiled and worn, some minor losses and paper restorations to margins, two leaves trimmed close at tail with partial losses to signatures and catchwords, the lower third of the last leaf torn with loss to text, a few old manuscript annotations in ink, bookplate of James W. Ellsworth, Ex-Libris of Hannah D. Rabinowitz, and ink stamp reading "British Museum Sale Duplicate 1787" to verso of title.

The great English wit, poet, and playwright Samuel Jonson died on August 6th, 1637. A funeral procession from his house in Westminister to the nearby Abbey, where he is the only person buried standing-up, was held three days later and was well attended by London's nobility and gentry alike. Despite Jonson's diminished reputation in his final years, his death was also greatly mourned in the world of English letters. Soon after the funeral, preparations were begun for this collection of elegies dedicated to Jonson. Brian Duppa, the Dean of Christ Church, edited the thirty-three memorial poems included in this slender volume, including works by Francis Beaumont, Henry King, William Cartwright, Owen Feltham, and John Ford. It also contains Edmund Waller's first appearance in print. The book includes no less than six near-contemporary allusions to Shakespeare.

Pforzheimer, 562.