THIRTY-SEVEN

SENECA, Lucius Annaeus, (circa 4 BCE-65 CE); FARNABY, Thomas (1575?-1647) (editor); WRIGHT, John (annotator). L. & M. Annæi Senecæ tragoediæ: post omnes omnium editiones recensionesque editæ denuò & notis Tho. Farnabii illustratæ.

Londini: Excudebat Thom. Snodham, 1624. Second edition. Pagination pp. [8], 366, [10]. Signatures: [superscript pi]A⁴ A-Z⁸

2A⁴. The last leaf is blank. Collated and complete. [STC (2nd ed.), 22219]. Contemporary English sprinkled calf, neatly rebacked with original spine laid down. Paper flaws to a few leaves with loss of two or three words to T2, lacking endpapers. (ESTC S117123).

¶ This second edition of Seneca’s tragedies, edited and with Latin commentary by Thomas Farnaby (“the chief classical scholar as well as schoolmaster of his time” (ODNB) whose editions were popular textbooks in the 17th century), has been annotated by its young owner, who has inscribed the title verso “John Wright his book” and dated the title page “1677” (his name can also be made out faintly on the front cover). Seneca was considered an apt author for study in Restoration grammar schools, since his “rhetorical bombast and dramatic violence” contrasted with his stoicism to provide “pleasingly contradictory tools to think with” (Fleming & Grant, p.10).

Wright has made annotations to some 90 pages, often attempting translation of a phrase he has marked in the text; for example, he renders the vengeful Medea’s “paria narrentur tua repudia thalamis” as the rather awkward “let thy divorce sound as great as thy marriage” (p.3)). Some annotations share with this example an epigrammatic quality that suggests he is collecting pithy or striking sayings with which to impress his peers (“nothing pleases for she [Phaedra] is so unconstant” (p.47); “let ye stars be driven out of yr courses” (p.55)). Occasionally, he even ‘corrects’ the venerable Roman’s text: on p.84, for instance, he has crossed out the printed text “Quod varda fatum lingua” and replaced it with “qu varda fatu est lingua” – either at the urging of a master or out of his own sense of precocity. Among the pen trials and miscellaneous notes at the rear (which include the vertically written and decidedly Senecan phrase “riches are good but learning better”) is an inscription, reversed, on the final leaf: “H. S. E. Johannes filius Guliel: Berkenhead. d: Henstridge in Cont Somerset: hajus Collegii Chorista qui animam Deo Efflavae 12o Feb: Anno {Salutii 84 Ælatii 18”. This solitary reference to a young man of presumably similar age to Wright was probably copied from a tomb and suggests they were perhaps friends or acquaintances, but we have found no further evidence of a connection.

This carefully kept volume, with its original binding, survives as an artefact from a Restoration classroom that not only confirms elements of the school’s curriculum (Seneca, along with Greek and Hebrew, judging by some of Wright’s pen trials), but shows its young annotator seemingly coming to terms with the death of a friend –something for which reading the Stoics would have been ideal preparation.

£750 Ref: 8033

THIRTY-EIGHT

[SPENSLEN (SPENSLEY?), John] A four-part love letter and five-part ‘Puzzle Purse’ entitled “The True Lovers Knot”.

[Circa 1837]. Nine folded sheets (each measuring approximately 130 x 130 mm unfolded). Comprising two folded love letters decorated with pen and watercolour hearts and motifs. One corner torn with loss, some closed tears long folds.

¶ Valentine Puzzle Purses – intricately folded, illustrated love letters that revealed their multi-paneled verse messages with each stage of their opening – became popular during the 18th century and have endured ever since. This example bears the date “1837” beneath the inscription “John Spenslen” (or “Spensley”). Some of the verses written here are found in other valentine ‘tokens’ of the period, from the relatively upbeat “When Loyal hearts are Crossed by none / True love will join them both in one / For I can find where hearts agree / There can no strife nor Malice be” to the gloomier “Cupid with his fatal Dart / Has Deeply wounded my Poor heart / And has between us set a Cross / Which makes me to Lament my Loss”. The fragile condition of these sheets contributes to the bittersweet qualities of the sentiments within.

£400 Ref: 8163