[BUTLER, Samuel (1613-80)]. Hudibras, Cambridge, 1744, 2 vols., contemporary calf. With another book. (3)

[BUTLER, Samuel (1613-80)].  Hudibras, in Three Parts, Written in the Time of the Late Wars: Corrected and Amended. With Large Annotations, and a Preface, by Zachary Grey, LLD. Adorn’d with a new Set of Cuts. Cambridge: Printed by J. Bentham [J. Bettenham in vol. II] (and many others),1744. 2 volumes, 8vo 199 x 130mm). Engraved portrait of the author, 16 engraved plates by J. Mynde after William Hogarth, 5 of which folding, errata at the end of the list of subscribers and on verso of final leaf in vol. II ([?]portrait laid down, plate X lightly browned, 2 plates bound out of sequence, some light mainly marginal spotting and staining). Contemporary calf gilt (rubbed and scuffed, spines worn, joints splitting, inner hinges weak). Provenance: later pencil annotation to front free endpapers of vol. one; J. R. Beardmore (blindstamps on front free endpapers); “Circulating Library of T. Skelton, in High Street, Southampton” (label on front pastedown). The 42-page list of subscribers includes Samuel Johnson and Horatio [i.e. Horace] Walpole. Brunet I, 504: “La première édition de ce poëme satirico-burlesque a paru en 3 part., dans les années 1663, 1664 et 1674. Celle de 1744 est très bonne, et les grav. qui la décorent ont été faites d’après des dessins, sinon de la main d’Hogarth, du moins dignes d’en être”; Lowndes I, 335: “… the best edition”. With a late 18^th-century 'book' bound in calf purporting to be a volume of Condillac's Histoire Ancienne but, in fact, containing a concealed compartment. (3)