"VULGAR, LICENTIOUS, AND BLASPHEMOUS" AND YET "VERY PURE AND FINE" (COLERIDGE): GOETHE'S FAUST, FIRST ENGLISH EDITION, TRANSLATED ANONYMOUSLY BY SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE, IN A HANDSOME CONTEMPORARY CALF BINDING WITH LARGE GILT CENTERPIECES DEPICTING FAUST IN HIS STUDY

(COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor, translator) GOETHE, Johann Wolfgang von. Faustus: from the German. London: Boosey and Sons, and Rodwell & Martin, 1821. Quarto, contemporary full tan polished calf, elaborately gilt-decorated spine, covers stamped in depicting Faust in his study, red morocco spine label, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. $14,500.

First edition in English of Goethe's Faust, translated by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in a very handsome contemporary polished calf binding by London bookbinder Charles Murton, with the covers stamped in gilt with a large vignette depicting Faust in his study, in the style of the 27 lovely engravings within by Henry Moses after original etchings by Moritz Retzsch for the German edition.

When Faust, Part I first appeared in a finished form (1808), Coleridge expressed concern for the apparent immorality. Despite this, he briefly entertained a proposal in 1814 to translate the work, a task which he returned to and completed in 1820-21. Coleridge denied that he ever "put pen to paper as translator of Faust," questioning "whether it became my moral character to render into English—and so far, certainly, lend my countenance to language—much of which I thought vulgar, licentious, and blasphemous," although he also confessed that poetically the work was "very pure and fine" (cited in Burwick, 75-76). Despite his denial, the translation is now generally accepted as his, with letters from Goethe extant which name Coleridge as the translator. Coleridge only translated about a quarter of the play into verse, with the rest summarized in prose passages. He never attempted to translate Faust Part II, published in 1832 following Goethe's death.

The covers on this lovely copy are stamped in gilt with a large block depicting Faust in his study, presumably made or commissioned by London bookbinder Charles Murton (his ticket on the front free endpaper), in a style similar to the illustrations within engraved by Henry Moses after the originals for the German edition by Moritz Retzsch. As such a block would have been expensive to make, Murton may have produced a number of these bindings, though we have not seen any other example. (Ramsden describes Murton as "a fine binder, specializing in blind stamping.") The volume is more often found in the publisher's fragile reddish-brown paper boards. Bound without half title. Some copies are found with a frontispiece portrait of Goethe; others, as the present copy, with an additional illustration by Moses not called for in the list of 26 plates at the rear, titled "Frontispiece," for a total of 27 illustrations. Lowndes, 906. Frederick Burwick, Coleridge's Critique of Goethe's Faust, in Lorna Fitzsimmons, Goethe's Faust and Cultural Memory (2012). Charles Ramsden, London Bookbinders, 1780-1840, 109. Engraved armorial bookplate, with the coronet of a French comte.

Some foxing and faint offsetting to a few leaves of text and several plates. Minor expert restoration to front joint and board extremities, gilt bright. A very handsome copy.