The Castle of Indolence: An Allegorical Poem, Written in Imitation of Spenser.

London : M. M. Holloway, 1845. First edition. Cloth. Fair. 16.5" by 11". F. Joubert, E. Webb, and others. An uncommon illustrated edition of James Thomson's Castle of Indolence. Thomson (1700 – 1748) was a Scottish poet and playwright, known for his masterpiece The Seasons and the lyrics of Rule, Britannia!.The Castle of Indolence was his final work, published just before his untimely death on August 27, 1748.According to the Nuttall Encyclopedia, the Castle of Indolence is "a place in which the dwellers live amid luxurious delights, to the enervation of soul and body." The poem is written in Spenserian stanzas at a time when they were considered outdated and initiated an interest in this stanza form which would later have a strong influence upon the English Romantic poets Byron, Wordsworth, and Keats.Featuring a proliferation of engravings by F. Joubert, E. Webb, and others, after designs by William Rimer. In a full cloth binding with gilt decoration. Externally, rubbed with some wear and fraying to the extremities. Hinges have failed. Internally, generally firmly bound, front free endpaper and frontispiece are loose and neatly attached to one another with tape. Several large tidemarks to rear pages. Some handling marks and patches of foxing here and there. Otherwise clean. Fair