The Honourable Lovers

Full title: The Honourable Lovers: or, the Second and Last volume of Pylades and Corinna. Being the Remainder of Love Letters, and other Pieces, (In verse and prose,) Which passed between Richard Gwinnett, Esq; Of Great Shurdington in Gloucestershire. And Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas, Jun. Of Great Russel-Street, Bloomsburry. To which is added, A Collection of Familiar Letters, between Corinna, Mr. Norris, Capt. Hemington, Lady Chudleigh, Lady Pakington, &c. All faithfully Published from their Original Manuscripts.

Second of 2 volumes in 8vo. ff. [2] (blank), pp. [ii], v-xv, [i], 268, [4], 96, f. [1] (blank). Marbled calf. Gilt red panel on spine, gilt boards' edges. Elevated bars on spine. Includes head- and tailpieces. 

First edition of this novelistic memoir by Richard Gwinnett (1665-1717) and his long-term fiancée Elizabeth Thomas (1675-1731). Volume 2 has the title The Honourable Lovers; or, The Second and Last Volume of Pylades and Corinna; appended to that volume is The Country ’Squire; or, A Christmas Gambol, a Comedy Written by Pylades. Volume 1 includes ‘A conversation between Psalmanazaar the Formosan, and some ladies, with several curious particulars not in his book.’ The mysterious French refugee ‘George Psalmanazar,’ whose true name has never been discovered, and who claimed to be a native of the then-unfamiliar island of Formosa was the inventor of the imaginary ‘Formosan’ language and alphabet. He took the English readership by storm with his almost entirely imaginative History of Formosa (1704, revised in 1705 with the addition of lurid cannibal details: see Bib# 552132/Fr# 666 and Bib# 1855507/Fr# 667 in this collection). See F.J. Foley, The great Formosan impostor. St Louis, 1968, pp. 118 ff; ESTC, T146622.

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