Butler, Samuel. The Genuine Remains in Verse and Prose of Mr. Samuel Butler, Author of Hudibras (2 volume set); Published from the Original Manuscripts, formerly in the Possession of W. Longueville, Esq; With Notes by R. Thyer, Keeper of the Public Library at Manchester. London: J. and R. Tonson, 1759. First Edition. [8330]
Two volumes in late 19th-century half calf with yellow marbled paper boards. 5 x 8 inches, red & black leather spine title/volume labels; bindings show some scuffing and wear yet are tight and attractive. Each volume with several former owner's signatures. Vol. I. contains a List of Subscribers; (xi), 429 pp; Vol. II. lacks a title page and after ffep begins with the table of contents: (v), 512 pp.; generally clean with a dampstain in the table of contents; insect damage in the bottom margin of the last 20 leaves affecting parts of 7 words in total. Good.
Several signature in the volumes, the first by William E. Hayne (1798) and P. T. Hayne (1876). We think that the bindings were likely had made by the Hayne of 1876.
Samuel Butler (1612-1680), English poet and satirist, "famous as the author of Hudibras, the most memorable burlesque poem in the English language and the first English satire to make a notable and successful attack on ideas rather than on personalities. It is directed against the fanaticism, pretentiousness, pedantry, and hypocrisy that Butler saw in militant Puritanism, extremes which he attacked whenever he saw them...Genuine Remains in Verse and Prose of Mr. Samuel Butler, in two volumes (1759), was edited by Robert Thyer from Butler's papers and includes more than 100 brilliant prose 'Characters' in the manner of Theophrastus, as well as a satiric analysis of the duke of Buckingham, 'Duke of Bucks,' that bears comparison with the 'Zimri' characterization in Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel." - Encyclopedia Britannica online.