first edition [xvi], 95, [1] pp, with ad leaf bound after title. 12mo
1701 · London
by Steele, Sir Richard
London: Jacob Tonson, 1701. First edition. [xvi], 95, [1] pp, with ad leaf bound after title. 12mo. Contemporary blind-stamped sheep. Joints starting. First edition. [xvi], 95, [1] pp, with ad leaf bound after title. 12mo. First edition of Steele's first prose work, preceded only by his poem The Procession (1695), known in just a handful of copies. "Nine editions and a French translation appeared in [Steele's] lifetime, twenty-two between 1701 and 1820" (Rothschild). This copy with the leaf of Tonson ads (A1), which is often blank or removed, but here bound-in following the title (A2). Steele's work "decries neostoicism with its emphasis on pagan virtues and celebrates, as the title indicates, the Christian hero, especially as exemplified by the soldier king William" (ODNB). Ashley V, p. 199; ESTC T120081; Rothschild 1947
(Inventory #: 308148)