[CHAUCER, JEFFREY]. The Works of Our Ancient, Learned, & Excellent English Poet, Jeffrey Chaucer: As They Have Lately Been Compar'd With the Best Manuscripts; and Several Things Added, Never Before in Print. To Which is Adjoyn'd, the Story of the Siege of Thebes, by John Lidgate, Monk of Bury. Together with The Life of Chaucer, Shewing His Countrey, Parentage, Education, Marriage, Children, Revenues, Service, Reward, Friends, Books, Death. Also a Table, Wherein the Old and Obscure Words in Chaucer are Explained, and Such Words (which are many) that Either are, by Nature or Derivation, Arabick, Greek, Latine, Italian, French, Dutch, or Saxon, Mark'd With Particular Notes for the Better Understanding Their Original. London : Printed in the Year MDCLXXXVII. [1687].
Hardcover. The third Thomas Speght edition [editor]. Leather-bound. Folio, 2⁰, (320 x 200mm.), pp. [36], 660, [24]. Signatures: pi² A⁴ a-c⁴ B-4R⁴ 4S². Leaf c1 mis-signed "d". English text in black letter in double columns. Sympathetically re-backed and retaining the original calf boards. Spine with six raised bands, title-label gilt in second compartment. Original initial and terminal blanks present. With the famous engraved portrait and genealogical frontispiece after John Speed by Gower. Two engraved coat of arms at the beginning of the work. Woodcut initials throughout. Decorated by headpiece vignette. Glossary at end in triple column. Final textual leaf with adds to verso. Condition: Fair to good. Collated complete. Binding secure. Rubbing to extremities. Contents generally sound with some browning and intermittent wear in the form of crude paper repairs, mostly confined to the bottom of the pages but worse to the introductory pages; title and frontispiece laid on paper. Without inking or previous ownership markings.
Note: The last black letter edition of Chaucer and the eighth edition of his works overall. Edited by Thomas Speght and substantially reprinted from the editions of 1598 and 1602, with the addition of the rediscovered endings to the Cook's and Squire's tales given in the advertisement on the final page. The dedication to Sir Robert Cecil, Principal Secretary to Queen Elizabeth, is signed Tho. Speght and the text of a letter to Speght from Francis Beaumont and verses by Francis Thynne, an additional editor of the 1602 edition, are added. The Life of Chaucer is followed by an earlier dedication to Henry VIII. The Works include The Canterbury Tales, The Romaunt of the Rose, Troilus and Cresseide, The Legend of Good Women, The House of Fame, The Testament of Love, etc. and various miscellaneous works, to include: "The Court of Love," added to the Chaucer canon by Stow in 1561, as well as four new pieces: The Flower and the Leaf; Chaucer's Dream; Jacke Upland (spuriously attributed to Chaucer); and Chaucer's A B C. [Pforzheimer 179; Wing C3736].
