12mo. [2], 211pp, [1]. With a final page of publisher's advertisements. Original publisher's blind-stamped green pebbled cloth, ruled and lettered in gilt. A trifle rubbed, crease to lower board. Recent bookplate of Robert J. Hayhurst to FEP, very occasional light spotting.

A crisp copy of the first edition in book form of two substantial critical essays by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, first published in the Atheneum in 1842 and later revised by the author for publication here. The first essay treats on the style and form of several early Greek ecclesiastical poets, including presbyter of the Church of Alexandria Clemens Alexandrinus and Apolinarius, who notably resisted the Julian edict which forbade Christians to study Grecian letters. The second essay provides an entertaining, if not hurried, précis of the development of English poetry from Chaucer to Byron.