Eikon Basilike. The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in His Solitudes and Sufferings:
[CHARLES I, ].
Together with His Private Prayers, used in the time of his restraint, and delivered to D. Juxon, Bishop of London, immediately before his death.
Woodcut Royal Arms on the recto of the first leaf (verso blank); folding engraved plate by William Mars 1649
Wing E306; Madan, Eikon Basilike, 26 (first issue); Almack, King's Book, 42. The folding plate by Marshall is Madan's version 3. Without the portraits of Charles I and the Prince of Wales found in the other copy here (the former is "wanting in most copies" - Madan) and they were clearly never present.
The Eikon Basilike (or "Royal Image or Portrait") was one of the great publishing successes of the seventeenth century. Copies were for sale in London within days of the King's execution on 30 January 1649 and Madan's bibliography records some sixty editions published in England and abroad in 1649 alone. Almost immediately the book gave rise to fierce opposition from the Parliamentarians, most notably John Milton's Eikonoklastes, and a dispute arose, that has lasted ever since, about the real authorship of the work with accusations that it was not written by the King at all and if it was he was guilty of plagiarism. There was some truth in all these claims but it is now generally considered that the bulk of it is the King's own work, that it was edited by Dr. John Gauden, later Bishop of Worcester, and that more importantly it was a book that had a life of its own, beyond having any single "author", developing with time and attracting extra material as it met a popular demand to fill the vacuum in personal life left by the execution of the King - in Elizabeth Skerpan Wheeler's words, it "literally took the place of the king. In the absense of direct royal control or effective government censorship, this image immediately developed an autonomous life, appropriated by readers and the booktrade to create a publishing phenomenon. ... Even in 1649, Eikon Basilike had no single physical appearance. Madan's work catalogues numerous accretions of both text and illustrations, as well as cheap and de luxe printings. Thus, there is no single, unified, 'official' version of the text. From the start, the image was democratized. The king's subjects bought the image, created new illustrations and poems, and added them to the king's book. Printers added previously published materials and compilations of sayings garnered from the original narrative, and then issued new editions. To speak of self-representation in Eikon Basilike, as if it were simply a work of autobiography, is therefore misleading. In both inception and reception 'self-representation' in Eikon Basilike was a collaborative project."
In this "de-luxe" edition the text has reached its final extent and consists of 26 essays by Charles upon events leading up to and during the Civil War, such as the Earl of Strafford's execution, the attempt to arrest the five Members of Parliament, the Queen's departute from England, events at Hull, troubles in Ireland, the Scots and the Covenant, Archbishop Laud's Prayer Book, his capture by the Scots, etc. culminating in his famous letter To the Prince of Wales, his political testament ("the anchor of the climactic section of the Eikon Basilike,") offering "a positive programme for the future, assuring readers that their late king did concern himself with equity, peace and true faith, and that he attempted to instil these values in his son." - Wheeler. They are followed by a meditation upon death, five prayers, a short letter from the Prince of Wales, an account of the King's conversation with his daughter the Princess Elizabeth and youngest son the Duke of Gloucester on the day before his execution, and two further accounts by her of the same conversation and finally a verse "Epitaph" signed "J.H.".
An attractive and restrained binding of the period with remarkably effective and unusual tooling on the spine and from an unidentified workshop although the use of red morocco rather than black on this work is exceptional.
Provenance: 1: Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th. Earl of Rosebery (1847-1929), Prime Minister March 1894 to June 1895, with his yellow gilt paper label, sale, Sotheby, 27/6/1933, lot 461, £8/1/- to Bain. 2: Lawrence Strangman, with label, sale, Sotheby, 19/7/1965, lot 58, £22 to Maggs.
|
