A Discourse of Marriage and Wiving: and of the greatest Mystery therein contained;: How to choose a good Wife from a bad. An Argument of the dearest use...

NICCHOLES, Alex[ander]. A Discourse of Marriage and Wiving: and of the greatest Mystery therein contained; How to choose a good Wife from a bad. An Argument of the dearest use, but the deepest cunning that man may erre in: which is, to cut by a Third betweene the greatest Good or evill in the world. Pertinent to both Sexes, and Conditions, as well those already gone before, as shortly to enter this honest society. Small 4to, late 19th or early 20th century gilt-ruled full brown morocco, pp. [8], 55 (one leaf,C2, pp. 11-12 in facsimile). London: Printed by N[icholas] O[akes] for Leonard Becket, 1615.

First Edition. Black Letter. An Oliver Cromwell family association copy of a rare marriage manual, partly in verse, by a Jacobean minister about whom little is known, but who describes himself on title as "Batchelour in the Art he never yet put in practise." Ownership signature, "[Eli]zabeth Cromwell, Upwood [1]630" on verso of title, the leading edge of which has an old paper repair. The possibility of confusion abounds. The Elizabeth Cromwell signature is unlikely to relate to either Oliver Cromwell's mother, wife or daughter, all of whom were Elizabeth. It is more likely to have been his cousin Elizabeth's. She was the daughter of Oliver's uncle Henry. Elizabeth was baptized on 12th December 1616 at Upwood, so would have been about 14 when the book was inscribed. She married Oliver St. John (1598-1673), in January 1638, and was his second wife. Oliver Cromwell's letter to his cousin Elizabeth of 13th October 1638, (which is in both Carlyle and Abbott), shows that they were close. There are no deeds known to have survived which have her signature on them.

The text of this Jacobean work is widely studied in gender and sexuality circles for historical context. "Rather than relying on moral and religious authority, Niccholes adopts a satirist's role as detached observer...Niccholes 'humorous' tone reflects a distinctive stylistic trait of Renaissance attacks on women through which comical allusions diffuse apparently violent attitudes without actually contradicting them"- Lloyd Davis, Sexuality and Gender in the English Renaissance (1998), p. 212-213.Despite the assertion on title that this was written for both sexes, it seems exclusively directed at men and was designed on the principle that marriage was the gateway to full manhood. Niccholes theorized that in marriage "thou not only unites unto thyself a friend and comfort for society, but also a companion for pleasure." A preliminary two-page poem is addressed "To the Youth and Batchelary of England, hot bloods at high Revels, which fore-thought of this action, and all other, that hereafter intend this adventure." Chapter XII, pp. 36-42, is entirely in verse and is "The patterne of a bad husband, and a good wife, in two Letters instanced." The last four pages, chapter XV, "Discontents in all Ages, Sexes, States, Conditions," are also entirely in verse. Niccholes asserts that wedlock reduced men's "wilde and unbridled affections" to "humanity and civility." He specifically excluded wife-beating. Although not in Jaggard, there is at least one quote from Shakespeare: "In second husband let me be accurst,/None weds the second, but kills the first"- Hamlet, act 3, scene 2). "Contrary to other more antagonistic writers of the early 17th century, and despite a title page that implies otherwise, Alexander Niccholes discusses the need for a balanced relationship between men and women. Niccholes does not point to women as the source of marital difficulties. If anything, he places more onus on men…useful as a text to compare with other writers of the age, including Shakespeare. It includes a list entitled 'Certaine precepts to be observed either in Wiving or Marriage,' which sheds light on so many of Shakespeare's married couples."-Annmarie Kelly Harbaugh (on-line). The author dedicates his work "To the Vertuous young gentleman, and his worthily respected friend, Mr. Thomas Edgeworth, under treasurer of Windsor, Health and Content in his owne Person, and in the happy fruition of his vertuous Wife." Reprinted in 1620 and in the Harleian Miscellany (1808). We have located eight copies of the first edition at six institutions, not including the British Library, which owns the second edition of 1620. Between them STC and New STC 18514 locate seven copies (Bodleian (3); Folger Library, Harvard, Huntington Library, and Newberry Library). OCLC adds another copy at Harvard (Law Library) and one at Princeton. We have found that four copies have appeared on the market since the end of the 19th century, none in the last 50 years. One sold at auction in 1897; the Hoe copy at auction, April 24, 1911; the Heber copy sold to Foley in 1923 by Quaritch, and one catalogued by Maggs Bros. Ltd., January 1966 (English Literature prior to 1800. Part 6. N-R. Catalogue No. 901, #2647, priced at £850 (=$2370.00 then)= $22,508.39 on July 15, 2021. Those copies may well represent copies recorded by ESTC, New STC, and OCLC. Hoe Catalogue (1904), vol. 3, p. 238, #2425. Not in COPAC or BLC. The title is a little browned, and has a small hole resulting in the loss of one letter. One leaf, C2, pp. 11-12, in facsimile.