London: [John Wolf] for William Ponsonbie; [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, 1590, 1596. First edition. Two vols, quarto (188 x 131 mm). Early 20th-century crushed red morocco, gilt-lettered on spine, board-edges gilt-ruled and turn-ins gilt, edges gilt, by Roger de Coverley & Sons; in two-part full morocco slipcase. Woodcut printer's device on each title [McKerrow 242 & 222], full-page woodcut on M5v of Vol. I, typographical ornaments and initials. The first part with title-page soiled and repaired at lower fore-corner; other leaves with similar discreet marginal repairs, with some catchwords restored; the supplied leaves have been sized, pressed, and repaired, with some numbers and letters restored in ink facsimile. The second part trimmed close at the top, affecting the headlines slightly on three leaves (Q5, Cc5-6); Hh2 and Ii6 have corner repairs. Occasional minor soiling or spots in both volumes.

This copy has the first part (Vol. I) with the widely spaced date line on title and the "1" of "1590" under the "r" of "for" in the imprint, printed dedication on verso of title-page, also p. 332 lines 4 and 5 without the Welsh words and spaces left for them, leaves Pp6-8 (the rejected version of the terminal complimentary sonnets) supplied from another copy; with the final signature Qq1-4 printing the final version of the sonnets. With the misnumbering of pages as noted in Pforzheimer, except that on pp. 486-7, which are correctly numbered, and with the number "3" is present at p. 403 (but printed backwards). The second part has the misnumberings noted in Pforzheimer, in addition, p. 269 is misnumbered 271.

First edition of both parts, printing the complete text of the Spenser's classic work, except for two cantos of Mutabilitie which did not appear until the folio edition of 1609. One of the longest poems in the English language, Spenser’s allegorical masterpiece was written in honor of Queen Eizabeth I. Her virtues are extolled through six books—Holiness, Temperance, Chastity, Friendship, Justice, and Courtesy—each dedicated to the adventures of a medieval knight. In artfully constructing this epic Spenser drew from Arthurian legend, Italian romance, and medieval and classical authors. He even created his own form of stanza, now called Spenserian stanza, which consists of “eight lines of 10 syllables followed by one 12 syllable line” (Britannica). John Dryden notes that “Spencer more than once insinuates, that the Soul of Chaucer was transfus’d into his Body; and that he was begotten by him Two hundred years after his Decease” (Dryden, f. A1). The project was years in the making: he began working in the 1570s, and the first part, offered here, was not published until 1590. Although no manuscript versions are extant, a letter to his friend Gabriel Harvey from 1580 (Three Proper, and wittie familiar Letters) and a citation Abraham Fraunce of a stanza from “2.book.cant.4” in his Arcadian Rhetorick (1588) reveals that Spenser had been circulating the text within his literary circle. An ambitious poetic project in support of Elizabeth’s reign, ensuring Spenser court patronage and a place in the English literary canon.

Provenance: Sir Edmund William Gosse (bookplates); William Carman (his sale, Parke-Bernet, 26 January 1965, lot 255); purchased from Seven Gables Bookshop, Inc., New York, 1975. Gosse, a passionate reader from a young age, wrote and lectured prolifically about literature. Gosse wrote a critical essay for Grosart's edition of the works of Spenser (10 vols, 1880–88), while his other most extensive treatment of Spenser appears in a chapter on Elizabethan literature in A Short History of Modern English Literature (1898), wherein he praises Spenser as the greatest English poet of the 1590s.

ESTC S117748; Grolier, Langland to Wither, 231 & 233; Hayward 22; Pforzheimer 969 & 970; STC 23081 & 23082. John Dryden, “Preface” in Fables Ancient and Modern, 1700; Edmund Spenser, Three Proper, and wittie familiar Letters, 1580. (Item #6533)