[COMBE, William]. The Second Tour of Doctor Syntax, in Searc - Lot 65

[COMBE, William]. The Second Tour of Doctor Syntax, in Search of Consolation. A Poem. Published in London by R. Ackermann in 1820. In-8, mahogany basane, smooth spine decorated with gilt fillets and fleurons, red title page. (3) ff. 277 pp. frontispiece and 23 color plates out of text. Corners rubbed, spine split at head. Title page missing. Some foxing. Mention of 3rd edition for this second volume of "Doctor Syntax's Three Tricks", a suite of comic poems adorned with a frontispiece and 23 colored etchings based on drawings by caricaturist Thomas Rowlandson. The satire of William Gilpin (1724-1804), the man of letters who created the notion of the "picturesque". The story of a schoolteacher and rural clergyman who tries to make his fortune by traveling, then writing and illustrating a book about his experiences of picturesque and unusual places. The humor and absurdity of Doctor Syntax's visits represent the saturation of picturesque culture and the cult of travel in 18th- and 19th-century Britain. The character was created by cartoonist Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827), a history and portrait painter, watercolorist, caricaturist and engraver, and set to verse by writer William Combe (1742-1823), an English adventurer who wrote mainly satirical verse. Charming and amusing plates, in the English taste of the time.