POPE, Alexander (1688-1744). Of the Characters of Women: An Epistle to a Lady, London, 1735, folio, later grey paper boards. FIRST EDITION. With 2 other books. (3)

POPE, Alexander (1688-1744).  Of the Characters of Women: An Epistle to a Lady. London: Printed by J. Wright, for Lawton Gulliver, 1735. Folio (329 x 210mm). Half title, woodcut ornament on title and on final page, advertisement with head- and tail-piece, initial, 16-pages (lacks advertisements at the end, half title lightly stained and torn at gutter, spot in title, some light staining throughout). Later grey paper boards, older morocco lettering-piece on spine (some wear to head and foot of spine, corners rubbed, lightly scuffed and stained). Provenance: "[?]From K, Christmas 1919" (pencil inscription on front pastedown). FIRST EDITION of this epistle which is addressed to Pope's sometime mistress, Martha Blount. The Advertisement states, "The Author being very sensible how particular a Tenderness is due to the Female Sex, and at the same time how little they generally show to each other; declares, upon his Honour, that no one Character is drawn from the Life, in this Epistle. It would otherwise be most improperly inscribed to a Lady, who, of all the Women he knows, is the last that would be entertain'd at the Expence [sic] of Another". Foxon P917; Griffith 361. With [Thomas Hallie Delamayne's] The Senators: or, A Candid Examination into the Merits of the Principal Performers of St. Stephen's Chapel (London, G. Kearsly, 1772, lacks half title, engraved vignette on title, contemporary half calf and marbled boards, upper cover detached, FIRST EDITION) and [William Combe's] The Diaboliad, a Poem Dedicated to the Worst Man in His Majesty's Dominion's (London, "MCCLXXVII" [i.e. 1777], blank names filled in by a contemporary hand, contemporary half calf and marbled boards, FIRST EDITION of this infamous anonymously published satire directed at Simon Luttrell, Lord Irnham, also known as the "King of Hell"). (3)