"I NEVER MET SO MUCH WIT IN ONE SINGLE BOOK" (VOLTAIRE)

(HOGARTH, William) BUTLER, Samuel. Hudibras, in Three Parts, Written in the Time of the Late Wars. Embellished with Engravings by T. Rowlandson [after Hogarth]. London: Thomas Tegg, 1810. Two volumes. 12mo, early 20th-century three-quarter brown crushed morocco, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, raised bands, marbled boards and endpapers, top edges gilt, uncut. $475.

Later Tegg edition, with five re-engraved Hogarth plates by Thomas Rowlandson, handsomely bound by Henderson & Bisset.

Voltaire wrote of this work that "there is one English Poem, the title whereof is Hudibras; it is Don Quixote; it is our Satyre Menippee blended together: I never met with so much wit in one single book as this." A mock romance, Hudibras humorously deals with scholastic pedantry, Aristotelian logic, theological controversy, witchcraft, alchemy, astrology and other topics. Samuel Johnson used the 1726 edition of Hudibras for quotations in his dictionary. This edition includes the critical notes of Zachary Grey, commended as "a performance replete with curious, interesting, and accurate historical and bibliographical intelligence" (Allibone, I:315). Hogarth's engravings first appeared in the 1726 edition. In 1809, Thomas Rowlandson was apparently commissioned by Tegg to re-work the Hogarth plates. Original front wrappers bound in at rear. Lowndes, 335.

Occasional expert paper repairs, light offsetting of plates to text. A lovely copy.