Beschreibung:

CRASHAW, Richard (1612-1649). Steps to the Temple, Sacred Poems. With The Delights of the Muses...The second Edition wherein are added divers pieces not before extant. London: Humphrey Moseley, 1648. 12 o (149 x 87 mm). Engraved allegorical title by Thomas Cross printed title with border of typographic ornaments, section title for The Delightes . (Small paper flaw or marginal tear to A2 affecting two letters, A5-6 Table bound at end, as is often the case.) Contemporary sheep, edges sprinkled blue (rebacked, light wear to edges.) Provenance : Richard Jackson (early signature on title) -- unidentified armorial bookplate on verso of printed title (partly removed) -- small purchase inscription in ink, several ink notes in a bold seventeenth-century hand -- purchased from Seven Gables Bookshop, New York, 11 February 1969. Exhibited : Grolier Club, ' This powerfull rime ,' 1975, no. 19. Second edition, significantly enlarged by the addition of 43 new verses (24 devotional, 19 secular) and the amplification of others present in the 1646 first printing. The poetry of Crashaw, who converted to Catholicism and fled to the Continent in 1646, constitutes one of the most important collections of metaphysical verse in English, and had an influence on the romantics, particularly Coleridge, whose "Christabel" was inspired by Crashaw's "Hymn to St. Theresa." A tall copy, preserving some deckle edges in several gatherings; possibly a thick-paper issue, the sheets bulking 12mm. Allison 7; Grolier Wither to Prior 233; Hayward 83; Wing C6837.