Brown, Tom — Amusements Serious and Comical and Other Works
New York, Dodd, Mead & Company, 1927. First edition thus. Full black cloth with gilt decorations. Top edge red. xvii, 476 pp. Illus. with 16 b/w plates from contemporary engravings. 4to. Edited with notes by Arthur L. Hayward. This book, by one of the masters of English wit and satire, Tom Brown of 'facetious memory" as Addison calls him, gives a graphic picture of the everyday life in London of later Stuart times, from the wiles of St. James's courtiers to the sharp practices of the merchants at the Exchange, and to the flaunting vice of harlots of Drury Lane. Red stain from top edge has bled on to a upper edge of few leaves, but not affecting text nor illustrations; otherwise a very good copy in a good dust jacket with a sunned spine.
