[WORDSWORTH, William (1770-1850) and Samuel Taylor COLERIDGE (1772-1834)]. Lyrical Ballads. London: J. and A. Arch, 1798.

[WORDSWORTH, William (1770-1850) and Samuel Taylor COLERIDGE (1772-1834)]. Lyrical Ballads. London: J. and A. Arch, 1798.

First edition, second issue, of arguably the most important work of Romantic poetry, and the work which signalled the beginning of a literary revolution. It includes, amongst Coleridge’s contributions, 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' and ‘The Nightingale’, and from Wordsworth such poems as 'Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey' and ‘We are Seven’. This copy is indirectly linked to another Romantic poet, John Keats, having been formerly in the possession of Samuel White (1765-1841), perpetual curate at Hampstead from 1807. White was evidently known to Keats, who in a letter of 1819 calls him ‘the parson at Hampstead quarrelling with all the world’. Wise, Wordsworth, 5.

Small octavo (161 x 91mm). Errata leaf and advertisement leaf at end (a few minor spots). Contemporary tree calf, spine gilt, morocco spine label (rebacked preserving most of original backstrip). Provenance: ‘Revd. Saml. White. D: D. Hampstead, Middx’ (inscription on pastedown) – Alfred Nathan (red morocco label).

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