The Battle of Flodden-Field. Which was fought between the English under the Earl of Surrey, (In the absence of King Henry VIII.) and the Scots under their valiant King James IV. Who was slain on the Field of Battle, in the year, 1513. An Heroic Ooem, in nine fits or parts. Collected from antient manuscripts.

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bound without the half-title, minor browning, verso of last leaf slightly soiled, pp. ii, 116, 12mo, contemporary tree calf, corners worn, rebacked. 'Literary interest in the events of September 1513 started early. The earliest printed poem appears in 1664 [Wing F1365, 'Floddan Field]. The author, Joseph Benson, a declared philomath, was an adherent of the Stanley family and is very clearly writing from an English perspective. His nineteenth-centry editor [there was an edition in 1805, printed in Lancaster] asserts he had access to an earlier source held within that family but omits any details. Benson's poems seems odd now since it misses out two elements which rapidly became part of the Flodden story: the chivalrous nature of Scotland's king, and the duplicitous nature of Lady Elizabeth Heron of Ford' (Sadler and Serdiville, The Battle of Flodden). In the present edition there are notes by the unnamed editor which, among other things, signalises the role of Sir Edward Stanley. The Stanley family lived at Lathom in Lancashire, and hence we may suppose had some hand in the local editions. Of the 1773 edition ESTC records NLS, Columbia, and Folger, and of the 1774 Preston edition, Harvard only. The London edition of 1774, also Printed and Sold by W. Stuart, is commoner. Curiously, there is another 19th-century edition, published in 'Ancient Historical Ballads', Newcastle, 1807, woodcut by Bewick (Tattersfield TB 2.19). In this edition, 'The Battle of Floddon', the text is said to be 'published from a curious manuscript in the possession of James Askew, of Palins-Burn, Northumberland', edited, with (quite different) notes, by Robert Lambe, Vicar of Norham upon Tweed, and his dedication is dated Jan. 30, 1773. The text is identical in all editions, but the present is the only one with an author's name attached - we can't find Joseph Benson's name attached to anything else. Sir Walter Scott had a copy of the 1805 edition, which would have informed 'Marmion', (ESTC N32357). Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 60039

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