Lot 21: BARON, ROBERT.

Erotopaignion Or the Cyprian Academy. W.W., 1648

8vo, engraved frontispiece portrait by Marshall, additional engraved title-page, modern full red morocco gilt by Riviere, gilt ruled borders on covers, spine gilt in compartments, gilt edges, gilt dentelles, trimmed, running-titles occasionally trimmed (cut away on p.99), occasional light soiling

Wing B890

George Thorn-Drury (his sale at Sotheby's, 14 May 1931, lot 958, £11 to Dobell)

The poet and dramatist Robert Baron (fl. c.1630-1650) is a seventeenth-century literary curiosity in that he was, at best, an inveterate imitator, at worst a professional plagiarist. Although the exact canon of his publications is unclear, at least some by him are directly derived from, or modelled on, ideas or passages in Milton, Denham (his best-known work, the tragedy Mirza, is based on The Sophy), Jonson and, perhaps, Waller.

This edition of The Cyprian Academy is noted by Wing as 'another edition' published one year after the first appearance. In the frontispiece portrait the author's age is noted as 19.