Oct 24 at 10:30 AM - Sale 2683 -
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Sale 2683 - Lot 4

Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
Chaucer, Geoffrey (c. 1343-1400)
The Workes, a Substantial Fragment.

London: [Printer unidentified, 1550?]

Fourth collected edition, unidentified variant; lacking all before B1 and all after Nnn6 [28 leaves], Nnn6 mounted, covering all text on Nnn6 verso; damage to first extant leaf and following 20 or so leaves to a diminishing degree; text begins with The Knight's Tale, with woodcut and ends in The Lamentation of Mary Magdalene, the last legible page is folio 338 recto; text in double columns in black letter throughout; with separate title page for The Romau[n]t of the Rose; some curious scattered contemporary marginalia; bound in modern half calf with marbled boards; 11 3/4 x 7 1/2 in.

A contemporary reader has added the following poem in manuscript at the beginning of the first book of Troilus and Cressida, on Gg3 recto [folio clvii] in the Romance of the Rose. "I never reade of lovers lyfe, yt was untrue / but harte wt yre, in me dothe boye, as yt woulde bruste / I never read of man yt love & Cupide knewe yt them to serve did, all hys cure is loney iuste / But hym I love & beare goodwyll, for such deserte / And thynckes to be, as true as he yet for hys harte." We have yet to track down the source of this verse.

Rasmussen-Hines Collection of Shakespeare & Renaissance Literature.
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