"A DAZZLING SUCCESS": MACAULAY'S LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME, IN A HANDSOME PRIZE BINDING

MACAULAY, Thomas Babington. Lays of Ancient Rome with Ivry and the Armada. London: Longmans, Green, 1866. Octavo, contemporary full red morocco gilt, raised bands, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. $750.

Early edition of one of Macaulay's earliest works, in a handsome prize binding from Trinity College, Dublin.

"His rhetorical power is as manifest in the Lays of Ancient Rome as in his speeches, and if they are hardly poetry, they are most effective declamation" (DNB). Macaulay's "literary fame was such that everything he published was a dazzling success, beginning in 1842 with Lays of Ancient Rome… They retained their popularity in schools into the 1930s, when there were few children who had not re-fought `The Battle of Lake Regillus' or stood shoulder to shoulder with Horatius at the bridge" (Drabble, 599). First published in 1842. Prize bookplate from Trinity College, Dublin from 1867.

A beautiful volume in fine condition.