The Works: As they have lately been Compar'd with the best Manuscripts; and several things added, never before in Print. To which is Adjoyn'd The Story of the Siege of Thebes, By John Lidgate, Monk of Bury. Together with The Life of Chaucer, shewing His Countrey, Parentage, Education, Marriage, Children, Revenue, Service, Reward, Friends, Books, Death. Also a Table, wherein the Old and Obscure Words in Chaucer are explained, and such Words (which are many) that either are, by Nature or Derivation, Arabick, Greek, Latine, Italian, French, Dutch, or Saxon, mark'd with particular Notes for the better understanding their Original.

CHAUCER, Geoffrey.

Published by London, 1687

About this Item

Final Speght edition, the last to be printed in black letter, and the eighth collected edition overall. This is a reprint of Thomas Speght's 1602 edition, with the addition on the verso of the last leaf of the first printings of the conclusions to the Cook's and the Squire's Tales, then recently discovered. Thomas Speght (d. 1621) developed a passion for Chaucer while studying at Cambridge, and maintained this interest well after graduating. He worked on several editions of the complete works, the first published in 1598; his notes were more elaborate than in any other previous edition, and he was the first to provide a glossary. The present 1687 edition "remained in use even after the publication of John Urry's much reviled Chaucer edition of 1721. Thomas Tyrwhitt, editing the Canterbury Tales in the 1770s, used the 1602 and 1687 editions of Speght, taking the latter as his base text. With a period of influence stretching from the late sixteenth century to the late eighteenth, then, Speght's Chaucer has been the most durable of any Chaucer edition" (ODNB). In this edition, the list of "Old and Obscure Words in Chaucer explained" is marked with derivations, and a gloss has been added translating the Latin and French "not Englished" by Chaucer. Speght's influential biography of Chaucer, also included, shaped all future descriptions of the poet's life up until the 1840s, and notably established the common belief that he was once fined for beating a Franciscan friar in Fleet Street. The imprint here has no mention of printers, as the copyright belonged to the Stationers' Company. Pforzheimer 179; Wing C3736. Folio, bound in fours (320 x 201 mm). Engraved frontispiece portrait of Chaucer and his progeny (laid down), woodcut arms on a2v, part title with large woodcut arms; text printed in double columns, black Gothic letter. Contemporary calf, rebacked with red morocco label and tooling style, spine with blind ruled raised bands, red morocco label, edges red. Early 19th-century armorial bookplate of one John Gordon, engraved by W. Deeble, artist and engraver active in Cork, Ireland; the owner was likely Sir John Gordon (d. 1871), surgeon and apothecary, appointed Mayor of Cork in 1855. Extremities rubbed, some surface crackling and light scuffs to leather, spine and corners judiciously refurbished, endpapers and inner hinges repaired, contents mildly toned with occasional small marks, couple of tiny ink burns not affecting text, otherwise generally clean. A very good copy.

Seller Inventory # 160165

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Works: As they have lately been Compar'd with the best Manuscripts; and several things added, never before in Print. To which is Adjoyn'd The Story of the Siege of Thebes, By John Lidgate, Monk of Bury. Together with The Life of Chaucer, shewing His Countrey, Parentage, Education, Marriage, Children, Revenue, Service, Reward, Friends, Books, Death. Also a Table, wherein the Old and Obscure Words in Chaucer are explained, and such Words (which are many) that either are, by Nature or ...
• Publisher: London, 1687
• Edition: 1st Edition