[Vale Press] The Kingis Quair

London: Vale & Ballantyne Press For Hacon and Ricketts, 1903. Hardcover. Fine/No Jacket.

Rebound to match original Quarter linen. Blue paper boards. Original Printed label on the front cover in the Kings Fount. No Flaws or Blemishes but minimal handling; text clean and bright with only a hint of age-toning on the text block edges. The label has the slightest darkening on the top edge.

8vo; 9.25 inches tall; pp. i-iv v-liv lv-lvi; 28 leaves; 6 blank leaves of the same paper. Designed by Charles Ricketts and printed under his supervision. One of 260 copies on paper. Sold by Hacon and Ricketts, London and John Lane, New York. Composed in the Fount called The King's Fount; Printed in red and black.

Comparatively uncommon with only 5 copies listed in universities or institutions plus 2 more recorded in Watry. [oclc]. The Kingis Quair is a poem of clear Chaucerian descent, written in the same seven-line stanzas as Trailus and Criseyde, that marks the beginning of a Chaucerian movement in the literature of Scotland.

The poem exists in only one manuscript, MS Arch. Selden B. 24 of the Bodleian Library at Oxford University, where it is twice attributed to King James I of Scotland (1424-1437).

Indeed, it is due to the connection with James that the particular seven-line stanza format in which the poem is written is now known as 'rhyme royal.'

Rickett's prefaced this edition with quotations taken from Rossetti's historical ballad 'The Kings Tradgedy'.

Richett's arranged to have the Vale Press publications printed at the Ballantyne Press as private press books by a carefully chosen selection of compositors, readers, pressmen and binders freed from the everyday demands of the press. [Watry]

[Full Title]: Heirefter followis the quair maid be King Iames of Scotland the First callit The kingis quair and maid quhen His Maiestie was in Ingland

Ref: Trove; Sothebys, Cat; Livingstone, p1; Waltry, B-42; L'Art Ancien, #62