ARIOSTO: ORLANDO FURIOSO -continued. LARGE PAPER COPY. Folio. Original calf. £15 155 The translator, Sir John Harington, was godson of Queen Elizabeth. He studied law at Lincoln's Inn, but not to much purpose, for his reputation as a wit and a man of the world was soon established, and he looked to court favour rather than the exercise of a profession. About 1584 he married Mary, daughter of Sir George Rogers of Cannington in Somerset, but marriage does not seem to have sobered his exuberant spirits. His epigrams began to pass current, and he enlivened the court by his sallies, which were not always adapted to a fastidious taste. Among other things, he translated for the amusement of the ladies of the court the story of Giocondo, from the twenty-eighth book of Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso," and his translation was handed about in manuscript till it fell into the hands of the queen. She reprimanded Harington for corrupting the morals of her ladies by translating the least seemly part of Ariosto's work, and ordered him as a punishment to leave the court for his country house till he had made a translation of the whole. To this we owe the translation of the "Orlando Furioso," which was first published in folio in 1591, and reissued in 1607 and 1634. It is written in the same stanza as the original, and is easy and flowing. It is rather a paraphrase than a translation. As a preface to it Harington wrote "An Apologie of Poetrie," an essay in criticism which resembles Sir Philip Sidney's treatise of the same name. The most remarkable part of it is that concerned with his use of metre, especially his defence of two-syllabled and three-syllabled rhymes.-(D.N.B.) 74 SEVEN PLANETS GOVERNING ITALIE, or His Satyrs in seven Famous discourses, shewing the estate 1. Of the Court and Courtiers. 2. Of Libertie and the Clergy in general. 3. Of the Romane Clergic. 4. Of Marriage. 5. Of Soldiers, Musitians, and Lovers. 6. Of Schoolemasters and Schollers. 7. Of Honour, and the happiest life. In verse. Newly Corrected and Augmented, with many excellent and noteworthy Notes, together with a new Addition of three most excellent Elegies, written by the same Lodovico Ariosto, the effect whereof is contained in the Argument. 1611. Small 4to. Red morocco, g.e. London, Printed by William Stansby for Roger Jackson, £25 Erroneously ascribed by the publisher to Gervase Markham, but in reality the work of Robert Tofte, poet and translator. 75 ARISTOTLE. POLITIQUES, or Discourses of Government. Translated out of Greek into French. Translated out of French into English (by I. D.). FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH. London, Printed by Adam Islip, 1598. GRIMALDUS (Laurentius). THE COUNSELLER. Exactly pourtraited in two Bookes. Wherein the offices of Magistrates, the happie life of Subiectes, and the felicitie of Common-weales is pleasantly and pithilie discoursed. FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH. London, Imprinted by Richard Bradocke, 1598. The two works bound together. Folio. Old calf. (SEE ILLUSTRATION, PLATE NO. II.) £65 "The Counsellor is a very important work, as it is supposed to have influenced Shakespeare when re-writing portions of the second 4to of "Hamlet." Whole passages seem to have been incorporated in the play. The last copy which we can trace as being sold by auction realized 850 dollars in 1921. 76 JAMES IST COPY. Trans POLITIQUES, OR DISCOURSES OF GOVERNMENT. lated out of Greeke into French, with expositions taken out of the best Authors, specially out of Aristotle himselfe, and out of Plato, etc. By Loys la Roys, called Regius. Translated out of French into English (by I. D.). FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH. Folio. Original calf (rebacked), with the Arms of James I. in gilt, in the centre of each cover. London: Printed by Adam Islip, 1598. £12 128 Aristotle is a work which Shakespeare is known to have consulted, as he makes reference to the classic in "Troilus and Cressida," where he wrote of "young men whom Aristotle thought unfit to hear moral philosophy." BY A MEMBER OF "SHAKESPEARE'S COMPANY." 77 ARMIN (Robert). THE VALIANT WELSHMAN, or the True Chronicle History of the Life and Valiant Deeds of Caradoc the Great King of Cambria now called Wales. As it hath been sundry times acted by the Prince of Wales his Servants. Woodcut frontispiece of a soldier on horse-back (slightly cut). Small 4to. Bound by Riviere in full polished calf gilt, g.c. London, Printed for William Gilbertson, 1663. £31 10S The frontispiece appears for the first time in this the Second Edition. Robert Armin was the only other dramatist who acted in Shakespeare's Company while Shakespeare was acting. He is mentioned along with Shakespeare and others, on the royal patent to Shakespeare's Company, May 19, 1603. 77A ASCHAM (Roger). TOXOPHILUS, The Schoole, or partitions of Shooting contayned in two bookes, Written by Roger Ascham And now newly perused. Pleasaunt for all Gentlemen and Yomen of England for their pastime to read, and profitable for their use to follow both in Warre and peace. BLACK LETTER. Woodcut border to title. Small 4to. Newly bound in full calf gilt, g. e. At London, Printed by Abell Jeffes, 1589. £18 185 Cited by Douce in his "Illustrations" of King Lear, and by Wright in his editions of "As You Like It " and "King Lear." Consult, too, Drake's "Shakespeare and his Times," Vol. II, p. 181. A portion is reprinted in Capell's of Shakespeare." Capell's "Catalogue of Shakespeariana," No. 15. THE "School 78 ASTELL (Mary). AN ESSAY IN DEFENCE OF The Female Sex. In a Letter to a Lady: Written by a Lady. With engraved frontispiece of THE COMPLEAT BEAU. London, Printed for A. Roper and E. Wilkinson, 1696. On page 47 we read :— £6 6s "English Books the best helps to Conversation," and on page 48 occurs the following Shakespearean reference : — "Where is Love, Honour and Bravery more lively represented than in our Tragedies, who has given us nobler, or juster Pictures of Nature than Mr. Shakespeare?" |