PROSE ROMANCES: REYNARD THE FOX, FRIAR BACON, ROBERT THE DEVIL, GUY OF WARWICK, VIRGILIUS, HISTORY OF HAMLET, FRIAR RUSH. London, Glasgow, Manchester, and New York: George Routledge and Sons, 1889. Octavo, pp. [i-iii] iv [v-xi] 12-30 [31] 32-446 [447-448: ads], original pictorial olive-green cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold, publisher's monogram stamped in blind on rear panel. First edition. The fourth book in "The Carisbrooke Library" series. Includes "The History of Reynard the Fox," a early beast fable, and "The History of Friar Rush," a Devil story. According to Joseph Jacobs, next to Aesop, Reynard the Fox was the "best known of the tales in which animals play the chief part ... [and] shares with Aesop the distinction of being a piece of folklore raised into literature ..." - introduction, The Most Delectable History of Reynard the Fox (London 1895), pp. viii-ix. Free endpapers darkened, a fine copy. (#136351).
Price: $85.00
First printing with "THE FIFTH VOLUME / OF THIS LIBRARY, / THE ENGLISH PROSE WORKS / OF / JOHN MILTON / Will be Published on the 25th of September 1889" on page [ii] and "V. (In September) THE ENGLISH PROSE WORKS OF JOHN MILTON" last line, page iv.