Sir Thomas Overbury.

Rare poetry book 1709 | The Wife, a Poem. Expressed in a Compleat Wife with an Elegy on the Untimely Death of the Author, Poyson’d in the Tower, &C. By Sir Thomas Overbury, London, the seventeenth Edition, Printed and Sold by H. Hills, the seventeenth Edition, 1709, 16 pp.

Name: Rare poetry book 1709 | The Wife, a Poem. Expressed in a Compleat Wife with an Elegy on the Untimely Death of the Author, Poyson'd in the Tower, &amp;C. By Sir Thomas Overbury, London, the seventeenth Edition, Printed and Sold by H. Hills, the seventeenth Edition, 1709, 16 pp.
SKU: BB100158
Price: 175.00 EUR
Availability: InStock

Marbled decorated paper cover, bookblock loose. Origininally published in 1614 as ‘A wife, now a widowe’. Also issued as part of ‘A collection of the best English poetry by several hands’, 1717.

Written by Sir Thomas Overbury (1581-1613). He was an English poet and essayist and victim of an infamous intrigue at the court of James I. His poem A Wife, thought by some to have played a role in precipitating his murder, became widely popular after his death and the brief portraits added to later editions established his reputation as a character writer.

The poem describes the virtues that a young man should demand of a woman. It was interpreted as an indirect attack on Lady Essex who wanted to marry Carr, Viscount Rochester. Her powerful relatives tried to maneuver Overbury out of the way by having him appointed to diplomatic missions overseas, but he refused to go and was imprisoned in the Tower of London on a charge of treason. Overbury was slowly poisened to death. Three months after Overbury died, Rochester, now Earl of Somerset, married Lady Essex. Two years passed before public suspicions were aroused over what had taken place, but then investigations were undertaken and the participants in Overbury’s murder were put on trial. Four accomplices in the murder were convicted and executed; the Earl and Countess of Somerset were also convicted but were pardoned by the king.

Overbury’s A Wife was published in 1614 and went through several editions within a year because of the publicity aroused by Overbury’s death. Its real literary value lies in the Characters, ultimately 82, that were added to the second and subsequent editions. These prose portraits of Jacobean types, drawn with wit and satire, give a vivid picture of contemporary society and are important as a step in the development of the essay. Several were by Overbury, but most were contributed by John Webster, Thomas Dekker and John Donne. This is the seventeenth edition.

SKU: BB100158

€ 190,75 (€ 175,00 ex. btw)

In stock