Fables by John Gay With a Life of the Author, & Embellished with a Plate to Each Fable, Fully Leather Bound, in Solander Box by Eric Sweet - 1793 Two parts in One Volume as issued. First Edition Thus. Illustrated with engraved frontispiece, engraved title-page with vignette and an engraved illustration to every fable including 12 after designs by William Blake. 8vo, xvi, 256 pp. A lovely copy expertly restored, the plates and text-block all well preserved. First of the Edition by Darton ^ Harvey using the plates printed by Stockdale issued here in oval format. With a life of Gay by Dr. Samuel Johnson. Dedicated "To his Highness William, Duke of Cumberland, These New Fables, Invented for His Amusement, are humbly dedicated, by his Highness's most faithful, and most obedient servant, John Gay." One of Gay's best known works, the fables are not moral tales : "for a Fable he gives now and then a Tale or an abstracted Allegory; and from some, by whatever name they may be called, it will be difficult to extract any moral principle. They are, however, told with liveliness; the versification is smooth; and the diction, though now and then a little constrained by the measure of the rhyme, is generally happy." [Johnson].

Published: Darton & Harvey, London, 1793