THE HOUSEHOLD TREASURY OF ENGLISH SONG : SPECIMENS OF THE ENGLISH POETS, CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED WITH BIOGRAPHICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES, AND NEARLY ONE THOUSAND MARGINAL QUOTATIONS
London; Edinburgh; New York: T. Nelson and Sons, 1869. Hardcover. Octavo. Brick red cloth over boards. 7 1/2 in. x 5 in. Front board features rectangular nested frames ruled in black with black fleurons to corners, gilt lettering with a gilt seal to the center with a lyre. Gilt lettering to spine, with black spiked circular design and lyre at bottom. All edges gilt. Beveled edges. Rubbing to extremities but solildly bound. Chocolate brown endpapers. Generic exlibris to verso of front free endpaper with previous owner's signature and 1979 date, in green ink. Previous owner's dedication ("Minnie H. Couch/Xmas 1871/From Frank") to half-title page.
First 32 pp.:Table of Contents, Index of First Lines, Marginal Quotations. Dropcaps and lovely engravings throughout. The title inside reads differently than that upon the boards -- "Children's Treasury of English Song.".
Part I includes Chaucer, Wyatt, Sidney, Marlow, Raleigh, Shakespeare, Davies, Herbert, Jonson, Herrick, Shirley, Lovelace, Milton.
Part II, Cowley, Marvell, Dryden; Part II Pope; Johnson; Gray; Goldsmith; Cowper; Burns; Hogg; Scott; Coleridge; Wordsworthj; Campbell and many more!
The Preface reads: "The present volume is designed to furnish youthful readers with a New Manual of English Poetry; a manual which may be of service in their systematic studies, and yet a source of recreation in their leisure hours; while, at the same time, it is intended to supply the tutor and the parent with a poetical text-book of unpretending character but comprehensive scope..."
The cataloguer comments: "If this anthology is intended for children, or even 'youth', how far we've slid down the proverbial
slope to Idiocracy!" Good Plus. Item #100301
Price: $85.00