The Poetical Works

T H E

POETICAL WORKS

Of the Honourable

Sir Charles Sedley Baronet,

AND HIS

SPEECHES in PARLIAMENT

LONDON

B. Bragg

1707

DESCRIPTION

(ii) + 224pp + 175pp + (ii)

Book measures 195mm x 125mm approximately.

Bound in full brown contemporary calf. Spine with five gilt-ruled raised bands with intricate gilt decoration to gilt-boxed compartments, and red title label. Lovely blind-tooled border and cornice work and panelling to both boards.

CONDITION

Good condition overall with binding holding firm. There is a full-length crack to the spine but this has not weakened the book significantly, and some minor cracking to front hinge. Gilt decoration to spine has been dulled and some lost. Boards have a few light surface marks and the odd knock with bumping to corners but are in remarkably good condition. Internally, the pages are clean with some uniform and expected ageing. A few spot and shadow marks towards end-papers, otherwise very good. Armorial bookplate of the Earls of Hopetoun to front paste-down.

Please refer to the photo images for a clear indication of both condition and content.

INTERESTING

Sir Charles Sedley, 5th Baronet (1639 to 1701), was an English noble, dramatist and politician. He was principally remembered for his wit and profligacy. Sedley was reputed as a notorious rake and libertine, part of the "Merry Gang" of courtiers which included the Earl of Rochester and Lord Buckhurst. In 1663 an indecent frolic in Bow Street, for which he was fined 2000 marks, made Sedley notorious.

On poetry, his most famous poem / song, "Phyllis is My Only Joy", is much more widely known now than the author's name. While Sedley chiefly produced light amatory verse and pastoral dialogues in the 1670s, he turned to satirical epigrams in the 1680s and 1690s. His Epigrams: or, Court Characters are modelled on the works of Martial.

His reputation as a wit and dissolute was partially responsible for the Sedleys of William Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair.