Pope, Alexander | The first separate edition

Property from a Florida Collector

Pope, Alexander

The Rape of the Lock. An heroi-comical poem. In five canto's. London: Bernard Lintott, 1714

8vo (190 x 115 mm). Title in red and black, engraved frontispiece and 5 plates by Claude du Bosc after Louis de Guernier, engraved headpieces, tailpiece and initial letter by Simon Gribelin; fine and unspotted. Modern gilt morocco-backed cloth. [With:] Barnivelt, Esdras. A Key to the Lock. London: for J. Roberts, 1715. 8vo. Bound to match the previous.

First separate edition of Pope's poem (with pp.29, 44 and 45 misnumbered). Having first been published as two cantos in 1712 in Miscellaneous Poems and Translations, Lintott paid Pope £15 for "additions" to the poem, which was then issued in this first separate edition and in a large paper edition. The decorative setting with engraved initials, and head- and tail-pieces was unusual for octavo poems of this period.

Published on 4 March 1714, the first separate edition of Pope's Rape of the Lock sold 3,000 copies in four days, and was rapidly reprinted, "tho' not in so fair a manner as the first impression" (Pope's letter to John Caryll, 12 March 1714).

REFERENCE

Foxon P942; Griffith 30; Halsband 1-23; Rothschild 1570