Scott — The Lay of the Last Minstrel — Second Edition, 1805 — Neoclassical Gilt Calf

SCOTT, Walter. The Lay of the Last Minstrel. A Poem. Second Edition. London: printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, Paternoster-Row, and A. Constable and Co., Edinburgh, by James Ballantyne, Edinburgh, 1805. 8vo.

Scott’s first major narrative poem and the work which established him as one of the most successful poets of his generation. Set amid the feuds and legends of the sixteenth-century Scottish Borders, the poem combines historical romance, antiquarian scholarship and the supernatural within the framework of a tale recited by an ageing minstrel. The first edition of 750 copies appeared in January 1805 and was rapidly exhausted; this second edition of 1,500 copies followed in October of the same year. The success was extraordinary for contemporary poetry and established the pattern for Scott’s enormously popular narrative poems which followed.

A particularly attractive copy in contemporary mottled calf, gilt extra in a strongly Neoclassical design, the covers framed by Greek-key rolls and elaborate repeating ornament incorporating lyres, urns, floral swags and classical devices, with small gilt-lettered cartouches incorporated into the decoration. Marbled endpapers.

With the small contemporary bookseller’s ticket of William Lindsell, 87 Wimpole Street, Cavendish Square, London, where Lindsell is recorded as bookseller and stationer from 1802.

Provenance

From the library of Roger Poole (1939–2003), literary theorist and scholar. With a loose manuscript bibliographical note, apparently in Poole’s hand.

Size

22 × 14 cm.

Condition

Good overall, and an attractive copy despite wear. Contemporary calf rubbed and worn at the extremities, with areas of surface abrasion and some splitting to the binding, but retaining a substantial amount of its elaborate original gilt decoration. Marbled endpapers well preserved. Contents generally clean and fresh, with occasional minor spotting and age-toning.

Two notable closed tears, without apparent loss, affect leaves P2 (pp. 243–244) and P6 (pp. 251–252); the longer tear to p. 244 extends upwards from the lower edge into the text, while that to p. 252 is shorter.

Bibliographical Note

Second edition, published later in the same year as the first. 334 pp., with half-title, dedication to Charles, Earl of Dalkeith, and prefatory matter.

Todd & Bowden 14Ad. The edition has a known pagination irregularity towards the end, with the sequence which should constitute pp. 305–332 numbered 307–334. Leaves P2 and P6 were subject to cancellation in this edition.

The present copy has an additional and unusual configuration. Pages 243–244 and 251–252 occur in their normal positions, but additional examples of both leaves are also bound into the final portion of the volume. After p. 324 the sequence is: 324, 243, 244, 328, 325, 326, 331, 332, 329, 330, 251, 252, 333, 334.

Comparison of the relevant readings:

• p. 244 (normal position): “order of sanctity” | additional leaf: “odour of sanctity”
• p. 252 (normal position): “barell” | additional leaf: “barell”

A comparable second-edition copy described under Todd & Bowden 14Ad likewise retains both normally positioned and additional versions of P2 and P6, although its reported readings differ from the present copy. The precise status of the duplicated leaves and their relationship to the cancellation process is currently being investigated with the University of Edinburgh Special Collections. This note will be updated if further information becomes available.

References

Todd, William B. & Bowden, Ann, Sir Walter Scott: A Bibliographical History, 14Ad.