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First complete edition, comprising the first edition of the second part and the second edition of the first part. Written in praise of Elizabeth I and dedicated to her, Spenser's allegorical masterpiece follows the adventures of six medieval knights, drawing on Arthurian legend, Italian romance, classical epic, and Chaucer. John Dryden notes that "Spencer more than once insinuates, that the Soul of Chaucer was transfus'd into his Body; and that he was begotten by him Two hundred years after his Decease" (Dryden, f. A1). In its mingling of genres, the poem represented a new departure in English poetry, for which Spenserinvented a new stanza, "a hybrid form adopted from the Scots poetry ofJames I, 'rhyme royal', and Italian 'ottava rima'" (ODNB). Spenser began composing the work in the 1570s, sharing "parcels" of it among friends. Though no rough drafts, autograph copies, or foul papers for the poem have survived, the poet alludes to a manuscript copy as early as 1580, when in a letter to Gabriel Harvey he asks for one to be returned to him: "I wil in hande forthwith with my Faery Queene, whyche I praye you hartily send me with al expedition: and your frendly Letters, and long expected Iudgement wythal" (Three Proper, and wittie familiar Letters). The poem, or some part of it, was almost certainly circulating in manuscript in London in 1588, when Abraham Fraunce quotes a stanza in his Arcadian Rhetorick, correctly citing its book and canto ("Spencer in his Faerie queene.2.book.cant.4"). The first part was finally printed in 1590 - possibly intended to coincide with the publication of Philip Sidney's Arcadia - and the second part followed, with a new edition of the first, in 1596. Spenser likely composed some of the second part around 1593, as the conversion of Henry IV of France to Catholicism that year provides the historical basis for the Burbon episode in Book V. The poem, now six books, was entered into the Stationers' Registeron 20 January 1596, suggesting publication had been planned to fall during Elizabeth I's Grand Climacteric - her 63rd year, thought by astrologers to be critical - which had begunon 7 September1595. In 1599, with only six of his twelve planned books completed, Spenser died - his two fragmentary Cantos of Mutabilitie, thought to be intended for Book VII, are the only additional material published with the first folio edition of 1609. Provenance: from the library of Henry White (1822-1900) of Queen's Gate, London, with his armorial bookplate on the front pastedowns, and sold in his 1902 Sotheby's sale, lot 2,028. The book was bound, likely for White himself, by Roger de Coverly (1831-1914), the London binder under whom T. J. Cobden-Sanderson trained. An old description mounted on the front pastedown of the first volume, likely from a turn-of-the-century exhibition, notes that the books were "lent by H. White, Esq.". Pforzheimer 970; ESTC S117748. John Dryden, "Preface" in Fables Ancient and Modern, 1700; Edmund Spenser, Three Proper, and wittie familiar Letters, 1580. Two vols, small quarto (195 x 145 mm). Bound by Roger de Coverly in late 19th-century red crushed morocco, spines with five raised bands, lettered in gilt direct to second and third compartments, remaining compartments richly gilt, triple gilt fillet border to covers, edges and turn-ins gilt, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. Woodcut device of printer Richard Field to title pages, full-page woodcut to M5 verso. Spines slightly darkened, upper margins closely trimmed touching a couple of headings, outer leaves of vol. I faintly soiled, a few spots to vol. II, else clean and fresh within. An excellent copy, handsomely bound.

The Faerie Queene is a celebrated epic poem by Edmund Spenser, first published in 1590. The poem is an allegory praising Queen Elizabeth I and reflecting the values and ideologies of Elizabethan England. It is one of the longest poems in the English language and is renowned for its richly imaginative narrative and moral allegory.