Roswall and Lillian -- [running title appearing centered on the first leaf] "A pleasant history of Roswall and Lillian. : Declaring the occasional of Roswall his removing from his native kingdom." [long title appears on the fourth page, surrounded by a type-ornament frame]

Anonymous ; David Laing (editor)

Editore: (W & D Laing) (1822), [Edinburgh], 1822

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(34) pages; Contemporary tan calf diced with thin, shallow diagonal lines, flat spine lettered in gilt; "ROSWALL AND LILLIAN." Half binding over marbled paper-covered boards, marbled endpapers in vivid yellow, with pattern in blue and red, all edges gilt. Small engraved armorial bookplate: "Ditton Park." A later bookplate on the first (blank) free endpaper of Walter I. Dawkins. This is a splendid copy in collectors' condition of the last of the Scottish metrical romances. Sir Walter Scott is on record stating that in his youth he had encountered individuals who still retained memories of hearing "Roswall and Lillian" chanted on the streets of Edinburgh. There appears not to be a surviving manuscript. The earliest printed edition appeared in Edinburgh in 1663. Our 1822 edition is a line-for-line reprint from the apparently unique surviving copy of that early edition, "Printed by L.H., Edinburgh, anno, 1663." Line numbers have been added in tiny numerals in the fore-edge margins for the 846-line poem. The title page is repeated within a frame constructed with type ornaments in our 1822 reprint; this older title constitutes an unusually detailed summary of the plot: "A pleasant history of Roswall and Lillian : Declaring the occasional of Roswall his removing from his native kingdom, to the kingdom of Bealm, and what befell him in his journey from his steward ; the entertainment he met with from an aged wife ; his education in school ; with his fortunate admission to be servant to Lillian the kings only daughter, with whom he fell deeply in love . his thankfull remembrance of his friends ; the number of his children, and their good fortune, all worthy reading." The New York Public Library has a copy of our 1822 edition which has a printed note on the first leaf bound before the leaf containing the single line running title): "This republication of Roswall and Lillian, which it was intended should have formed a part of the Volume of Ancient Popular Poetry now in the course of publication, has been withdrawn, in consequence of a mistake, which was too late discovered, in its having been printed on a different kind of paper from that used for the rest of the collection. It is, therefore, optional with the purchase to bind it up at the end of the Volume, or keep is by itself as a separate publication. / Edinburgh, March, 1822." The NYPL copy of "Roswall and Lillian" (a separate example, in pamphlet binding of plain boards), also has a catalogue slip cut from an unidentified booksellers catalogue -- the catalogue entry appears to describe a "proof copy" of the larger work --'Early Popular Poetry of Scotand.' edited by David Laing. This cataloguer asserts that there were 108 copies of the whole work. The price was stated as "2 guineas." The catalogue excerpt bears the item number "414." The note also asserts of the described example of "Select Remains of the Ancient Popular Poetry of Scotland" "at the end is added the reprint from the rare first edition of "Roswall and Lillian," of which only 75 copies were printed." The assertion as to the small size of the edition was apparently printed on the original wrappers for this separate pamphlet -- no longer present with our handsomely bound copy. This fact, specifying that there were 75 copies of Laing's 1822 edition of 'Ruswall and Lillian" is repeated in the two OCLC numbers for this publication we found in WorldCat, [See OCLC number 82495979 -- citing the Huntington Library; National Library of Scotland; and Edinburgh University as locations. OCLC number 927158343 adds copies at University of Birmingham, UK; and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Universitätsbibliothek, Jacob-und-Wilhelm-Grimm-Zentrum]. There is a remarkable handwritten note about the acquisition of the apparently unique copy of the 1663 edition now in the National Library of Scotland -- in pencil holograph on verso of its front free endpaper: "Purchased at the Roxburghe sale in 1813 for £9/9/-". We need hardly note that ni.

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• Titolo: Roswall and Lillian -- [running title appearing centered on the first leaf] "A pleasant history of Roswall and Lillian. : Declaring the occasional of Roswall his removing from his native kingdom." [long title appears on the fourth page, surrounded by a type-ornament frame]
• Editore: (W & D Laing) (1822), [Edinburgh]
• Data di pubblicazione: 1822
• Rilegatura: Hardcover
• Edizione: Second Edition.
• Condizione: Very Good+
• Cataloghi dei venditori:
  • Literature
  • 19th Century
  • Poetry