PBA Galleries

12 pp. (8vo) 21.3 x 16.2 cm (8½x6¾"), modern straight-grain green morocco rebacked, maroon leather label, gilt rules and lettering, marbled endpapers.  A later separate edition, often incorrectly thought to be the first separate edition.  

A famous poem by John Dryden on Oliver Cromwell, first published with poems by Edmund Waller and Thomas Sprat in 1659. It was reprinted several times without Dryden's permission, including a few times under the title "An Elegy on the Usurper" by those seeking to damage Dryden's reputation. According to Pforzheimer "This edition . . . was intended for inclusion in Tonson's four-volume collection of Dryden's works, 1693. That collection now rarely occurs intact for it has almost always been broken-up for the sake of the separate pieces, particularly for the present which from the imprint was long thought to be the first separate printing of the poem."  Bookplate of G. Walter Steeves on front pastedown.