Item #105709 The Triumphs Of Temper. A Poem: in six Cantos. A New Edition. William Hayley.
The Triumphs Of Temper. A Poem: in six Cantos. A New Edition.

The Triumphs Of Temper. A Poem: in six Cantos. A New Edition.

1817. Chichester: William Mason for T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1817.

Sm. 8vo, xii, 166 pp. With a color-printed frontispiece by Brown after Romney. Slightly later polished calf gilt, backstrip richly gilt, marbled edges, signature at front of H. Cotes dated 1821. Ink corrections to the text, perhaps by Cotes.

§ A beautiful copy, handsomely bound, with the frontispiece printed in five colors. Friedman, Color Printing in England, #31. The Vershbow copy, with bookplate. DNB notes: “Possibly his greatest achievement, however, was his didactic poem Triumphs of Temper (1781), which ‘was to reform the entire feminine mind of England by the advice’ (Bishop, 53). This allegorical work aspired, in rhyming couplets, to teach young women the virtues of a pleasant nature. Its advice was heeded by some: Emma Hamilton thanked Hayley ‘for the lessons she had learnt from the poem’ (P. Jaffe, Drawings by George Romney, 1978, 44) and asked Romney to inform Hayley that his poem ‘made me Lady H. … for Sir W. minds more temper than beauty’ (ibid.). Triumphs of Temper ran into fourteen editions and proved to be the most durable of all his publications.”. Item #105709

Price: $595.00

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