First edition (not to be confused with a different work of 1649 by the same name). 8vo. Contemporary full black morocco with double ruled gilt borders to the boards and spine and fleurons in each of the corners. All edges gilt. Engraved frontispiece portrait of Lovelace by Hollar after Frances Lovelace dated 1660 (Pennington's second state); engraved portrait of Lucasta by W. Faithorne after P. Lely; separate title-page to Elegies, additional engraved allegorical title-page to Elegies by Faithorne after Lilly, woodcut initial at beginning; also loosely inserted is a copy of the Lucasta portrait plate from the 1649 Lucasta. A fine copy with a little wear to the joint at the base of the spine, but the binding entirely unrepaired. Frontispiece neatly remargined, the upper corner restored in early pen. Internally exceptionally fresh, with just occasional minor marginal loss or repair, with the corner of the rear blank torn away, and some marginal annotation. A superb copy.

Richard Lovelace was one of the most gifted and notable of the Cavalier poets, a political persuasion which saw him imprisoned twice during his lifetime. His later work however, is darker and somewhat more introspective in the manner of the metaphysical school, meaning he had the unusual distinction of being associated with both of the main schools of seventeenth century poetry.
This collection of poems, as with his 1649 collection, is titled in homage to his mistress and muse, Lady Lucy Scheverell, who married another suitor when Lovelace was incorrectly reported to have been killed in battle in France. However this volume is entirely different from the earlier collection, with completely different poems by Lovelace, and includes elegies by Charles Cotton, James Howell, Eldred Revett, Symon Ognell, Thomas Lovelace, and Dudley Posthumos-Lovelace.
It has been questioned whether the plate of Lucasta seated originally formed part of this book on the basis that it is a tipped in plate rather than forming integral part of the sections as the other two engravings do. However, the copy in Hayward's English Poetry (1950) contained the plate "seldom found in this very rare book" and so did the copies belonging to Robert Hoe (sold 1911) and James Bindley (sold 1818, later in the collection of George Smith, sold 1920), which suggests at least a reasonable likelihood that it was issued with the plate.
In any state, this book is rare, much more so than the 1649 Lucasta, and copies with the Hollar frontispiece are excessively rare with no other complete copy being offered at auction since the H.T.Butler copy in 1934.

PROVENANCE: James Perry (purchase note on flyleaf: "Sold at Mr. Perry's sale March 1822 £7/5/- with scarce print"); "Jenner" (signature on flyleaf); James Marshall (signature on flyleaf dated 1839); Edward Marshall Hecher (signature on flyleaf); Maggs Bros. Ltd., English Literature prior to 1800, Part 5, Catalogue 786 (1949), item 1799, sold for £150; H. Bradley Martin (his sale, Sotheby's New York, 1 May 1990, lot 3015).

Hayward 98; Grolier Wither to Prior 589

Stock ID: 45450