£600
3 vols., 4to, pp. [viii], lvii, [iii], 648; [vi], 583, [1]; [iv], 559, [1] + frontispiece. Contemporary calf, spine divided by raised bands, red and green morocco labels, other compartments tooled elaborately in gilt. Some scattered spotting and toning, one leaf in vol. 1 torn to margin and sometime repaired. Rebacked preserving earlier backstrips, hinges relined, a little scratched and rubbed, spines darkened and somewhat creased.
An important and luxurious edition of the full breadth of Marvell's writings, bringing together his poetry and political writings, and indeed his political poetry, as this edition reprints his poems in praise of Oliver Cromwell that were omitted from previous collections of his works as being too scandalously anti-monarchical. This new collection, with greater emphasis on Marvell's radicalism, was well-timed: subscribers, who paid 'three guineas per sett' per the list, numbered among them radical John Wilkes and signatories of the American Declaration of Independence Samuel Adams and John Hancock, as well as Edmund Burke. The editor of the set was Edward Thompson, naval captain and poet, who had worked with another subscriber, David Garrick, on some Drury Lane theatrical productions in the 1770s.
