The Familiar Epistles of Coll. Henry Martin, Found in his Misses Cabinet

Book Description

London : Printed for Jo. Hindmarsh, 1685. [viii], 55, [1]pp., 4to. Prefatory leaf “The Publisher to the Right Worshipful” with a contemporary manuscript addition “Sr. Thomas Player Chamberlaine of London.” Browned throughout from the poor paper quality, a couple of slight marginal tears well clear of text, but a large copy with some untrimmed edges. Nineteenth-century wrappers. Second edition, first published in 1662 with the agreeably false imprint “Bellositi Dubonorum” as “Coll. Henry Marten's familiar letters to his lady of delight.” Marten was notorious both for his dissipation and for his violence: throughout the Civil War he preached violence against King Charles, and later apparently plotted to assassinate Cromwell. He was one of the regicides, and was imprisoned after the Restoration. Although this pamphlet is clearly intended to titillate its audience, the letters themselves are more affectionate than lascivious, full of references to presents of candy and fruit, of enquiries after her health and that of their “brats.” They give an intimate picture of life during the 1640s. Wing M821

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