Bon Gaultier Book of Ballads. William E. Aytoun and Sir Theodore Martin. Parody

Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood & Sons, 1877. Decorated Cloth. Very Good. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh and London, 1877. One of a number of later editions which increasingly expanded on the 1849 original. 12mo, 256 pp. Bright blue very fine grain cloth with gilt and blind stamped title and decoration; All Edges Gilt. Edge wear, some small stains at some edges; foxing at endpapers, contents otherwise remarkably bright and fine. About Very Good. See scans. A collection of parodic verse, "edited by Bon Gaultier". In fact, written by William E. Aytoun and Sir Theodore Martin, whose contributions to Fraser's magazine were made under this nom de plume, borrowed from Rabelais' Prologue to Gargantua. An expanded 256 page edition of not-so-subtle lampoons of about everyone and everything within reach at the time, with many writers being quasi-stylistically lampooned as well. Colt, Widdicomb, Wordsworth, Willis, Tennyson, MacCaulay, Bulwer-Lytton, and Montgomery, to name just a few, get their come-uppance. Despite its venerable status, this book will set you laughing. Replete with dozens of vignette wood engraving illustrations. Credited to "Doyle, Leech, and Crowquill", the illustrative styles are much too varied for a threesome, and, in any case, bear other signatures in some cases: Lee, Whymper, Phiz, and the estimable Brothers Dalziel are all here. Several of the many unsigned illustrations look like the work of John Tenniel of Alice's Adventures In Wonderland illustrative fame. Roundly merry, and a genuine Rogue's Gallery of the best of the era. L14n