(2), 14, (6), 72, (2, ads); (4), 56, (2, ads); (7), 126; (4), 118, (2, ads) pp. Small 4to. Old calf, upper cover re-attached. Old ink notes on title-page.
First editions, usually found together:
-
An Answer to some Papers lately Printed. … London: Richard Chiswell, 1686.
-
A Reply to the Answer Made upon the Three Royal Papers. London: Mathew Turner, 1686.
-
A Defence of the Papers written by the late King of Blessed Memory, and Duchess of York, against the Answer made to them. London: H. Hills, 1686.
-
A Vindication of the Answer to some Late Papers Concerning the Unity and Authority of the Catholick Church, and the Reformation of the Church of England. London: Richard Chiswell, 1687.
“The third item contains Dryden’s prose contribution to the debate over King Charles II’s Catholicism that raged during the early days of James II’s reign. On his accession King James had ordered a pamphlet called Copies of Two Papers to be published; one of the papers was said to be from a manuscript by Charles II, defending Catholicism. Edward Stillingfleet, then Dean of St. Paul’s, rebutted the case for Charles’s Catholicism in a pamphlet called An Answer to some Papers, and this book is, essentially, the official reply to Stillingfleet. There are three sections, relating to the first, second and third papers; the third section is by Dryden, and he refers to it, and to Stillingfleet’s subsequent attack on it, in The Hind and the Panther” (Stuart Bennett). For part three see Wing D-2261; Macdonald, Bibliography of Dryden, 133.