I) which is thys: After that he underſtoode that some of the counſayle would not ſuffer the booke to be printed in ſuche order as we had agreed and determined, he propoſed with himſelfe to have gotten at my handes, al the tragedies that were before the duke of Buckinghams, Which he would have preſerued in one volume. And from that time backeward even to the time of William the conquerour, he determined to continue and perfect all the ſtory himſelfe, in ſuch order as Lydgate (folowing Bocchas) had already uſed. And therefore to make a meete induction into the matter, he deuiſed this poeſye:"
The woodcut border of four pieces with heads of Venus and Mars at the top had been used by John Byddell in Taverner's translation of the Bible in 1539, by James Nicholson of Southwark, in Coverdale's New Testament of 1538, and by Marsh for the edition of the Mirror in 1559. There are a few ornamental initial letters at the beginning of the book, notably one at the beginning of the Epistle, a large P, with figures of children. This belongs to a series of a children's alphabet attributed to Dürer, and first used by Cervicornus, a printer of Cologne.
Quarto. The second edition. Black letter.
Collation:
and A, four leaves each; B-N, in eights; O-U, in fours; X-Z and Aa-Bb, in eights; Cc, four leaves.