Darius’s Feast: or, the Force of Truth.

Anonymous,

Darius’s Feast: or, the Force of Truth.

London: Printed for Lawlon Gilliver, 1734.

A Morality Story from the apocryphal Book of Edras, in verse. Here in the First (and only) Edition, complete in all respects. Addressed to The Earls of Salisbury and Exeter.

$395.00

A Morality Story from the apocryphal Book of Edras, in verse. Here in the First (and only) Edition, complete in all respects. Addressed to The Earls of Salisbury and Exeter.

A Morality Story from the apocryphal Book of Edras, in verse. Here in the First (and only) Edition, complete in all respects. Addressed to The Earls of Salisbury and Exeter.

The volume(s) measure about cm. by cm. by cm.

Each leaf measures about 336 mm. by 226 mm.

The full title reads:

Darius’s Feast: or, the Force of Truth. A Poem, Addressed to The Right Honourable the Earls of Salisbury and Exeter. London: Printed for Lawlon Gilliver at Homer’s Head against St. Dunstan’s Church in Fleetstreet, 1734. [Price One Shilling]

The volume is paginated as follows: [4], 15, [1] p. First Edition. Scarce.

The volume collates as follows: (A)2 – E2

ESTC: T68438 Foxon, D47

The Volume is in Very good Condition disbound, with generally clean, well margined leaves, some mild general toning at the edges.

Please take the time necessary to review the photos On Our Website in order to gain a better understanding of the content and condition of the volume.

Of Darius’s Feast

The poem in verse tells a story from the apocryphal book of Esdras. Three young courtiers of the Persian king Darius dispute the question of what is the strongest thing in the kingdom. One opts for wine, another for King Darius; the third and most cunning, Zorobabel, a descendant of King David, wins the contest by declaring that it is women who are strongest, but that truth is even more powerful.

At the end of his preface the anonymous author celebrates poets (contemporary and near contemporary), use of Biblical Texts;

“Doctor Donne has given us the Lamentations in as good Verse, as can be expected from the times he wrote in.”,

“Mr. Waller is beholden to the Scriptures for many admirable Strokes to his canto’s in divine Love.”

“The Great author of Paradise lost and regain’d.”,

“…the Solomon of Mr. Prior, and the Messiah of Mr. Pope will live together with their other noble Performances, in spight of Envy and Detraction, while the World endures.”.

At the end is an advertisement for fifteen titles printed for Lawton Gilliver, including a number of poems by Pope.

The Right Honourable the Earls of Salisbury and Exeter.

The choice of the two Earl’s was not coincidental as both had positions of power and privilege  as part of George II’s decadent Court.

Per Wikipedia

James Cecil, 6th Earl of Salisbury (20 October 1713 – 19 September 1780) was a British nobleman, politician, and peer. He was the son of James Cecil, 5th Earl of Salisbury, and his wife, Anne Cecil, Countess of Salisbury. He was known for his irregular life as “the Wicked Earl”.

He was educated at Westminster School, was High Steward of Hertford, and a Governor of the Foundling Hospital of London. He married in 1745 Elizabeth (1721–1776), daughter of Edward Keet of Canterbury, said by a contemporary source to have been a barber and a tourist guide. However, within a few years he separated from his Countess and lived as a recluse with his mistress, one Mrs. Mary Grave of Baldock, for the remaining 30 years of his life at Quickswood, in the parish of Clothall. His relationship with her predated his marriage. C. Price wrote of the liaison in 1771 (Hatfield House archives):

“He lives upstairs … surrounded with old trunks and boxes and scattered books. Well or ill he never quits his chamber, never sees or converses with any but his old Dame, as he calls her, and his physician, who occasionally visits him. The servants are old and rusty like the dwelling”.

Brownlow Cecil, 8th Earl of Exeter (4 August 1701 – 3 November 1754), known as the Honourable Brownlow Cecil from 1701 to 1722, was a British peer and Member of Parliament.

Exeter was the second son of John Cecil, 6th Earl of Exeter, and Elizabeth Brownlow. He was educated at St John’s College, Cambridge. He briefly represented Stamford in the House of Commons in 1722, before he succeeded his elder brother in the earldom and entered the House of Lords. Lord Exeter married Hannah Sophia Chambers, daughter of Thomas Chambers, Gent., London merchant and Governor of the Company of Copper Mines (otherwise known as the English Copper Company), in 1724. He died in November 1754, aged 53, and was succeeded in his titles by his eldest son Brownlow. Lady Exeter died in 1765.

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