Miscellaneous Poems. Dedicated to Joseph Jekyll, Esq. [Bound with] Views in London. By an Amateur...Dedicated to Sophia, Countess Darlington [Bound with] Miscellaneous Poems. Dedicated to Lord Colchester (Presentation Copy)

London: Not Published, 1849. First editions. Three volumes bound in one and including a presentation inscription to the verso of front endpaper: "The Marchioness of Salisbury, with Lady Colchester's Love." Additional signature to title of second volume. Full straight grain morocco presentation binding by White of Pall Mall, with gilt title to spine. Boards and turn-downs stamped in gilt. All edges brightly gilt. Yellow endpapers. Measuring 187 x 111mm, bound in reverse chronological order and collating complete with half titles: [8], 61, [1]; viii, 66; [2], vi, 104. Spine sunned and a large patch of discoloration to the rear board; joints cracked but holding firm. Occasional marginal foxing, but overall fresh with the author's occasional handwritten corrections. Each printed privately, Law's poetry titles are each scarce, with OCLC reporting 15, 10, and 8 copies respectively. Drawn together here with feminist political associations, Lady Colchester bestows the works on Mary, the second Marchioness of Salisbury (nee Sackville-West) who was an active Tory in addition to overseeing a salon that included Charles Darwin and Benjamin Disraeli among its visitors.

The author of several privately printed poetry collections, in addition to published translations, Elizabeth Susan Law Abbot, Lady Colchester was noted in her own time for deploying "anecdotal, self-deprecating, and ironic" tones that complicated her otherwise polite literary output (Comic Women's Poetry of the 19th Century). The three books combined here demonstrate that tendency. Folded within seemingly common upper-class topics are reflections on intelligent women's loneliness in a marriage economy that devalued their selfhood (in the opening poem Le Beau Ideel of her volume dedicated to Lord Colchester); on the ways a woman's appearance might cause society to overlook her "rarest gifts...a head with heart combin'd" (in the dedication of her volume to the late Sophia, Countess Darlington); and on exercises of musical lyricism and translation in the volume dedicated to Joseph Jekyll, the political raconteur best known for ensuring that his friend Ignatius Sancho's biography reached publication and spread the story of his birth during the Middle Passage and his life as a free Black intellectual.

Even Lady Colchester's recipient speaks to her political interests. Mary, the Marchioness of Salisbury, was the second wife of the Marquess; and she was noted for her public engagement with political and intellectual figures including Benjamin Disraeli and Charles Darwin. Knowing of the Marchioness' own intellect and ambition, her choice to present these three books speaks to the deeper meanings hidden within her own writing.

Jackson 193.3 and 193.6.