CLARKE, Mary Cowden.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Honey From the Weed. Verses. First edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title, "To the Misses Dolby, with all good wishes from Mary Cowden-Clarke, Westwood House - August 1885", with her signed carte-de-visite, dated May 1873, pasted onto the front free endpaper verso. There are contemporary corrections in ink to pages 12 and 293. The recipients were likely the sisters of the contralto and composer, Charlotte Helen Sainton-Dolby (1821-1885): Eliza, Mary, Rebecca, Jane, and Sarah Amy. Cowden Clarke (1809-1898) was acquainted with Sainton-Dolby through the musical activities of her father and sister, the music publisher Vincent Novello and the soprano Clara Novello. Although Cowden Clarke's interests lay predominantly in literature - she was the compiler of a concordance to Shakespeare, whose plays inspired this poetry collection - she too performed and sang in theatrical productions.Loosely inserted are three reproductions of portrait photographs of two men and a woman, perhaps actors, in traditional costume.

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