The Poetic Remains of Some of the Scottish Kings, Now First Collected
London: John Murray, 1824. First edition. Hardcover. Very good. Item #20280 .
8vo. vii,(1),208pp. Original drab boards, cloth spine. Engraved frontispiece of James I and a large folding engraving of a charter by him in his own hand.
Boards worn at edges, but text block totally uncut (as expected), though there is some light foxing to the first few pages. The cloth spine, if not original, is very early. Someone has printed the title on the spine in black ink.
Contains the poetry of James V, Mary, Queen of Scots, Charles Darnley, Charles I and James VI, but the bulk of the text is devoted to James I's 'Quair'. An admirer of Chaucer and Gower, James composed the 'Quair' in the strain used by those poets. In old English, a 'quair' is a book. The poem is an allegory in which heathen deities and canonized saints are conjoined to celebrate the Lady Jane Beaufort, later the poets Queen.
Scarce in first edition and not easily obtainable in boards.
Price: $500.00