The Very Fine Nonesuch Printing – In English – Illustrated
Thomas North's Celebrated Translation of Plutarch – 1579
A Veritable Gold Mine of Plots for William Shakespeare
Chæronea. THE LIVES OF THE NOBLE GRECIANS AND ROMANES, Compared Together by that Grave and Learned Philosopher & Historiographer, Plutarke of Chæronea: Translated out of Greeke into French by James Amyot: and out of French into Englishe by Thomas North: the Illustrations by T.L. Poulton: With the Fifteen Supplemental Lives of 1603 (London: The Nonesuch Press, 1929) 5 volumes, on Arches paper printed and made in France. One of 1550 sets only, printed from the first edition of 1579 and with the 15 lives additional, first published in 1603. Decorations and fine full-page illustrations to precede each life, by T.L. Poulton. Folio, publisher's original fine polished buckram, the edges beveled, the spines with labels printed in black, a second set of labels provided within the volumes. xxix, 431, (1); (viii), 442, (2); (viii), 454, (2); (viii), 482, (2); (viii), 410, (2) pp. + plates. An exceptionally fine set, pristine and mint, never used, crisp and tight as at issue. A wonderfully preserved, beautiful set of this luxurious edition.
SCARCE AND IMPORTANT. A BEAUTIFUL PRINTING, RICHLY ILUSTRATED, OF THOMAS NORTH'S CELEBRATED TRANSLATION OF PLUTARCH, WITH A HOST OF ADDED MATERIAL.
In this monumental historical work, Plutarch relates the lives of the historically important Greeks and Romans of ancient times. His studies are revered as among the most important and beautiful of all classical writings . The author's object is to bring out the moral character in each case, rather than to relate the political events of the time; in essence, at times he will distort the truth in order to exemplify virtue or vice. Nonetheless, he is as reliable as the sources he uses, and very valuable as a historical resource.
Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's LIVES is one of the most famous. His prose considered by many to be "incomparable... [his] achievement in narrative prose is only less signal than Shakespeare's in dramatic verse. I doubt if there are many pages which may rank with the last of North's "Antonius" in the prose of any language...Of good English prose there is much, but of the world's greatest books in great English prose there are not many. Here is one, worthy to stand with Malory's Morte D'Arthur on either side of the English Bible" (George Wyndham, Essays in Romantic Literature). "There are few who, were the choice given them, would not rather read Plutarch in the noble English of North, than in the restrained and sometimes inexpressive Greek of Plutarch" (Charles Whibley, Cambridge History of English Lit).
North's Plutarch is also well-known as a primary source for the plots of Shakespeare's classical plays and for numerous passages in the non-Roman ones, and he relied almost exclusively on it for the historical background of ancient Rome. It is likely that he used more than one edition of North's translation--most probably the first, second, and third. A copy of the fourth is said to have been among his possessions at his death, but all of the plays in question were written before that edition was published in 1612.
Each edition of North's work until this point bears more and more life histories; in 1603 fifteen new lives were added of such figures as Hannibal, Philip of Macedon, Octavius Caesar, and Plutarch himself.
This Nonesuch Press printing is beautifully executed on fine Arches paper, and illustrated in luxurious fashion with full-page plates by Poulton. |
