Britain’s Remembrancer. Containing a Narration of the Plague lately past; A Declaration of the Mischiefs present; And a Prediction of Judgments to come; (If Repentance prevent not.).

It is Dedicated (for the glory of God) to Posteritie; and, to These Times (if they please) by Geo: Wither. Imprinted for Great Britaine, and are to be sold by John Grismond in Ivie-Lane, 1628. First edition. Duodecimo (150 x 85 mm), early full calf double-ruled in gilt (boards heavily rubbed and scuffed), spine also with gilt double-rule (leather dry and worn); all edges gilt; title-leaf (with early owner’s ‘1628’ in brown ink), 287 leaves; lacking the additional engraved title and its explanatory leaf; else complete and clean throughout.

The bubonic plague was endemic in 17th-century London, as it was also in other European cities at the time. Yet there were periodical outbreaks of massive epidemics, which resulted in 30,000 deaths in 1603, 35,000 in 1625, and 10,000 in 1636. These culminated in the Great Plague of 1665-66, in which 100,000 people – almost a quarter of the city’s population – perished in 18 months.

George Wither (1588-1667) lived through the London plague of 1625, and his extraordinary verse composition Britain’s remembrancer (the running title is Brittan’s remembrancer) provides an extensive commentary on the events of that time, laced with his pious denunciation of evil acts that have recently occurred, and his pessimistic prophecies about England’s future.

STC 25899. Grolier Club, Wither to Prior, 1036; Pforzheimer, 1079.