The Poems of Master Francois Villon of Paris, Now first done into English verse ... by John Payne ...

London: Printed for the Villon Society by Private Subscription, 1878. Hardcover. Good. 8vo. cvi, 158,(2) pp. xxiii,(1),185,(3)pp. Vellum blocked in gilt on the upper board and spine; top edge gilt. Frontispiece and 4 pp facsimiles of the original manuscript and an early printing.One of 157 copies, signed by the printer J. C. WIlkins. This is number 138. The gilt is significantly rubbed, there are old tape marks and offset from a clipped on the endpapers, else this is a good copy.

Some of these poems are racy; no wonder this was printed for private distribution. A later editions had many suppressions. In addition, Villon sometimes wrote in Parisian slang, which Payne translates into equivalent English.

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