Beschreibung:

FLETCHER, Phineas (1582-1650). The Purple Island, or the Isle of Man: together with piscatorie eclogs and other poeticall miscellanies . Cambridge: by the printers to the Universitie, 1633. Small 4° (191 x 143mm). Title printed in red and black, separate titles to Piscatorie eclogs and Elisa , type-ornament borders and headpieces, university printer's device on title, a larger device repeated as tailpiece throughout, factotum and ornamental initials, with 2 blanks (margins of title a tiny bit shorter). Crimson morocco by F. Bedford, triple gilt fillet border on sides, spine with raised bands, lettered and decorated in gilt, gilt edges. Provenance : Bucke (inscription on title) -- Walter Hirst (bookplate).
FLETCHER, Phineas (1582-1650). The Purple Island, or the Isle of Man: together with piscatorie eclogs and other poeticall miscellanies . Cambridge: by the printers to the Universitie, 1633. Small 4° (191 x 143mm). Title printed in red and black, separate titles to Piscatorie eclogs and Elisa , type-ornament borders and headpieces, university printer's device on title, a larger device repeated as tailpiece throughout, factotum and ornamental initials, with 2 blanks (margins of title a tiny bit shorter). Crimson morocco by F. Bedford, triple gilt fillet border on sides, spine with raised bands, lettered and decorated in gilt, gilt edges. Provenance : Bucke (inscription on title) -- Walter Hirst (bookplate). FIRST EDITION. Fletcher's extended utopian allegorical poem uses an examination of the human body to investigate the body politic and absolute power. In so doing he describes in detail physical anatomy. Fletcher was strongly influenced by Spenser. He is addressed by Quarles in the present work as 'the Spencer of this age', and in William Thompson's opinion, The Purple Island "was the best in the Allegorical Way, (next to the Fairy Queen) in the English language" (cf. Hayward). Grolier, Langland to Wither , 101; Hayward 67; Pforzheimer 376; STC 11082; Westwood and Satchell 95.