£400
Folio, pp. [xlii], 41, [1], 80, [4], 58, 61-70, 154, 23, [1], 148 + frontispiece portrait. Contemporary mottled calf. Lightly toned, a bit of soiling and spotting. Rubbed, rebacked to style with gilt decoration and red label, hinges relined, no rear flyleaf. Ink inscription of ‘Mary Ever’ to flyleaf.
The second edition - following two issues the previous year - of the influential and popular collected works of Abraham Cowley (1618-1667). It 'reprints the contents of Poems (1656), together with the two prose tracts of 1661, and the 1663 Verses with some additional poems, published and unpublished; the most significant new material is Several discourses by way of essays in verse and prose, a collection of prose essays interspersed and accompanied by poems, dealing with such topics as 'Of Liberty', 'Of Agriculture', 'The Garden' (addressed to Evelyn), and 'Of Myself'' (ODNB).
