"THOU HAST HERE A BUNDLE OF RODDS…"

(POETRY). Rump: or an Exact Collection Of the Choycest Poems and Songs Relating to the Late Times. By the most Eminent Wits, from Anno 1639. to Anno 1661. London: for Henry Brome and Henry Marsh, 1662 [i.e., 1874]. Two volumes. Octavo, contemporary three-quarter green morocco, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, raised bands, marbled boards and endpapers, top edges gilt, uncut. $700.

Handsomely bound facsimile edition of this collection of Royalists' satirical skewerings of the "Rump Parliament."

The "Rump Parliament" assumed full legislative authority in England after Thomas Pride, in December 1648, led a military coup purging the Parliament of accused supporters of King Charles I ("Rump" here referring to the "remnant," the members of Parliament remaining after the purge). Under the military's control, the Parliament arranged the king's execution. Oliver Cromwell expelled the Rump Parliament in 1653; a second military coup in 1659 reestablished it. Its existence, however, came to a final end the following year, paving the way for the Restoration of the monarchy under King Charles II. "Containing 209 poems of varying length (as well as one very brief prose piece), Rump Songs (as it is often called today) is a diverse and rich two-volume collection of satires, ballads, elegies, rhyming polemics and joking poems united by a single, militantly Royalist perspective on the tumultuous events of the years 1638 to 1661. Although none of the poems in the collection is ascribed, and most remain unattributable, the collection includes work by such luminaries of the Royalist poetical canon as John Cleveland, John Denham, Alexander Brome, John Berkenhead, Richard Corbet, John Mennes and James Smith" (University of Western Ontario). The present copy is an 1874 facsimile edition (publisher unidentified) of the 1662 edition.

A fine copy, handsomely bound.