Tales of the Century or Sketches of the Romance of History Between the Years 1746 and 1846. - Rare Book Insider
Tales of the Century or Sketches of the Romance of History Between the Years 1746 and 1846.

Sobieski (John) and Charles Edward Stuart, otherwise John Carter Allen or John Hay Allan, and Charles Manning Allan or Charles Stewart Hay Allan.

Tales of the Century or Sketches of the Romance of History Between the Years 1746 and 1846.

Edinburgh, Martin and Company. 1851.: 1851
  • $274
Nicely bound in generous modern quarter dark red morocco, raised bands, gilt, marbled sides, all edges gilt. Lithotint frontispiece (joint between it and title-page slightly split), ppxii, 230 (Tales), 1-300 (various Notes). First Edition. A series of tales and jottings "credible because (they are) improbable" (intro) by the remarkable Sobieski Stewarts, the "de jure monarch(s) of England in place of the then reigning sovereign Queen Victoria", claiming to be, quite without justification or evidence, the Grandsons of the Pretender. Their claim drew the support of men of rank and intelligence, but was "absolute fabrication" (Walter Scott), who suggested that they were "men of warm imaginations . of much accomplishment but little probity". "Shot through with pure fantasy and bare faced forgery." Trevor-Roper. Chapters include The Prince's Long Incognito and The Arrest of Charles Edward.
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Ye Legende of Dicke Whyttington and hys Catte. 1420. Solde for Six Pennies. Ye Wrytinge of Ye Legends bye Horace Lennard. Ye Pictures bye Wallis MacKaye.

Ye Legende of Dicke Whyttington and hys Catte. 1420. Solde for Six Pennies. Ye Wrytinge of Ye Legends bye Horace Lennard. Ye Pictures bye Wallis MacKaye.

Lennard (Horace). 4to (8 3/4 x 11ins, 220 x 275mm) original deliberately aged vellum covers (now rather brittle), printed red and black, original green linen ties with red paper seal, printed with portrait of Augustus Harris, the completely untrimmed edges now rather more worn than even the the distressed original. Tipped-in notice explaining this re-imagining of the legend, pp (16), final leaf listing Harris' pantomimes at Crystal Palace, and Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Illustrated throughout in red and black to accompany the verse text. Marginal foxing. A rare survival, 2 copies recorded in the UK, 2 in US, 1 in Amsterdam. Son of a famous theatrical manager father, also Augustus Frederick Glossop Harris, following some years of successful acting, producing and management in music hall and theatre, Augustus junior leased the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, his celebrated and popular pantomimes subsidizing Opera productions such as the first production of Meistersinger, and Tristan and Isolde (first outside Germany), as well as other less popular pieces whose plots were "long and bewildering". The pantomimes cast Dan Leno, Vesta Tilley, Marie Lloyd, Little Titch, and both pantomimes and other productions were famous for their lavish scenery and parades, even involving Major Kitchener to arrange marching sequences. His innovations such as electric lighting, dark auditoriums during a performance, and courageously promoting Opera in languages other than Italian, set the standard of the day. Our Whyttington is no longer the innocent country lad, but a turbaned African youth, setting ashore at the white cliffs where John Bull has no cats. After being pulled up by Constable Bowbelles on Highgate Hill (a Victorian stop-and-search), the pestilential plague of rats is dispersed, and Dick's journey continues meeting William Booth, paying income tax to Gladstone, being entranced by his many visits to the Belles of the Drury Lane Theatre accompanying the Prince of Wales, and receiving honours from Queen Victoria. He returns home a rich man to his waiting sweetheart, founds a corporation, where he as Lord Mayor grew toothless old and fat, "And this is how ye stories run, which telle of Dyckie Whyttington".
  • $807